How to sell that brand that is "you"

What do these leaders have in common: Lee Iacocca, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell? According to a recent survey of sales professionals, these are the greatest salespeople of our time. Their very selection reinforces the concept that each of us must sell to survive. Whether you’re selling a promise to the federal government, faith to the American people, or a computer to quality-conscious consumers; whether you’re selling the importance of learning to schoolchildren, or the need for soul-salvation to parishioners, or the need for better teamwork to your co-workers, you’re employing sales behaviors. You must continuously learn how to sharpen your persuasive skills, how to do what the best salespeople do—whether they’re automotive engineers, politicians, software or hardware entrepreneurs.

Of course, if your title relates to sales as a profession, you’ll always be on the lookout for new selling techniques, ways to improve situations in which a buyer and seller are exchanging words. You’ll continue to use the tried-and-true—the Ben Franklin closing, for example. But you’ll also want to find untried, cutting-edge methods. (“A foolish consistency,” as Emerson warned, “is the hobgoblin of little minds.” I'm endorsing big-minded thinking here.)

The Need for Change
You’ll no doubt feel comfortable when you encounter the old-standbys, like the concept of translating features into benefits. But this post is designed to challenge, not to comfort. After all, if you always do what you’re already doing, you’ll always have what you’ve already got. Explore. Experiment. Examine your current practices and revise as necessary. Adopt the motto of Sparky Anderson, former manager of the Detroit Tigers: “I’ve got my faults, but living in the past isn’t one of them. There’s no future in it.”

The death of Willy Loman has given birth to a whole new salesman. In fact, the traveling salesman still travels but today, “he” is just as likely to be a “she.” And, he or she is as likely to be speeding down an electronic highway as down the road to the next appointment.

The world of sales has been transformed. And, if you’re not continuously improving, you’re running the risk described by Louis Ross, CTO of Ford Motor Company: "In your career, knowledge is like milk. It has a shelf life stamped right on the carton. The shelf life of a degree in engineering is about three years. If you're not replacing everything you know by then, your career is going to turn sour fast." As some experts assert, if you’ve always done something in a particular way in the past, it’s probably the wrong way for the present and the worst way for the future.

You may not have to re-invent yourself but you probably will have to re-fashion some of your basic approaches.