What It Means To Sell Yourself

I was reading an article this morning in Australia’s Human Resources Leader magazine. The article headline was “How to sell yourself in an adverse job market”, and yet as I continued to read the article, quite frankly there was little about ‘selling’ in it at all.

The article suggested that “Selling yourself in today’s market is about ensuring the hiring manager reviewing your CV can identify relevant experience to the role straight away.”

Surely there is more to ‘selling yourself’ to get a job than just matching experience to the role!

This got me thinking about what it really does mean to ‘sell yourself’ regardless of whether you’re selling yourself to win a new job role, or maybe it’s selling yourself and you’re in sales and selling a product or service, or whether you’re selling your ideas to a Board or to your peers or even a spouse.

Does my definition of ‘selling’ apply to all of these situations?

Let’s test it out…at least for when someone is selling themself to win a new job role…..

Selling is a process, of building trust relationships, with the aim to create reciprocal value, on a continual basis.

The first part of the definition is that Selling is a process. It is not a project. The process of ‘selling’ continues so long as value is being delivered and received. In ‘selling myself’ for a job role this certainly applies. The selling doesn’t stop once I’ve secured or won the job role as the successful candidate. The selling of myself continues into the first day on the role and then on a continual basis after that…..if I don’t deliver value in my role, and my manager and peers and internal or external customers don’t believe value is being received, then in not continuing to sell myself, I may lose my job role.

So far the definition of selling holds.

Selling is a process of building trust relationships. When applying for a new job role and in ‘selling myself’ for that job role, surely it is about building trust relationships with all whom I come into contact. That can mean the recruitment consultant where applicable, the company manager or personnel who interview me, and then when the job role is won, it’s about continuing to build trust relationships with my peers, colleagues, internal and external customers.

Again the definition of selling holds.

Selling is a process of building trust relationships, with the aim to create reciprocal value. The universal principle of reciprocity suggests that what we give out we get back. That is the reciprocal nature of value. When I give value out, value will be returned. If I stop giving value, value stops being returned. When I am applying for a new job role, the trust building strategy of delivering value early certainly can apply. When applying for any new role, part of ‘selling myself’ is to be able to ask, answer and act on the question ‘what can I deliver of value to the recruitment consultant, to the company manager or personnel who interview me, that sends loud and clear intention about who I am, what I stand for and the value I can deliver in this new role?’

Again the definition of selling holds.

The final piece of the definition also holds. Selling is a process of building trust relationships, with the aim to create reciprocal value on a continual basis. The idea of just ‘selling yourself’ once and stopping is ludicrous. Selling ourselves is a continual task of stepping up and into our value.

So our definition of selling seems to hold well for when we are ‘selling ourselves’ to win a new job role, and I am confident that the definition of selling holds true, regardless of what we are selling, and especially when we are selling ourselves.

What also holds true is the process of selling. In my BASICS of selling process, if we apply it to someone ‘selling themselves’ for a new job role, surely the process of Building rapport, Asking questions, Showing value, Identifying obstacles, and Confirming the sale are still valid. And once the new job role is won, then the final step in the process becomes equally important….Stay in touch with all of the relationships you have developed along the way to secure the role.

It’s interesting when we hear common language like “you’ve got to sell yourself”, and I wonder how many people really know what it means, why you need to, and how to really go about doing it?