Selling for Introverts: To Succeed, First Sell Yourself To Your Toughest Critic!

Yes, you read the subject line correctly.  In order to succeed in selling, or anything for that matter, you must first sell you to you.  In the context of selling, this means you must answer with an affirmative yes, with complete honesty, the following 3 questions:

• Do you see yourself selling, and that too what you're selling and to whom?
• Do you believe in yourself and your selling abilities?  If not completely, are you absolutely committed to working on yourself and doing whatever it takes to improve?
• Do you see how your selling will help you live the life you want to live?

You see, when I failed in my first sales job with the oil company that I talked about the other day, truth be told, there was nothing wrong with the organization, nor the job.  Rather the problem was me.  At the time, I just didn't see myself in selling, I lacked self-confidence, and I doubted my selling abilities.  In addition, that was my first job out of college and at the time I was a 5'5"125 lbs skinny little dude (why I share this will make sense as you read the next paragraph).  More then my size, I was just immature, plain and simple. 

And yet I was calling on bunch of rough and tough contractors who were much bigger than me, they had seen life in ways I hadn't, and in many ways they grew up in a different world than I had.  Given my immaturity and lack of self-confidence, I not only felt intimidated by them, I felt I didn't fit in.  Thus the foundation on which I was trying to do my work was weak at best.  I had gone into something, while I had the intellectual capacity, in many other ways I just wasn't ready at that time. 

This is a realization that occurred to me much later in life as I gained professional and life experience. And it took me even longer to accept and verbalize what I just shared. Thus, given my experience and lessons learned, I can say with complete certainty that if you're about to enter sales, or are having a tough time in your current sales role, I would urge you to reflect on the above questions and answer them with complete honesty.  Then from your answers you'll know what you need to do next in order to succeed.

So again, if you're going to succeed in selling, remember that you must first face and sell yourself to your toughest critic, your toughest prospect. And that is first you must sell you to you. Once you do that, and do it with absolute conviction, you will then have a strong foundation on which to build your sales career and achieve lasting success.