The Hardest Thing to Sell…

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to sell?

Was it a product? A service? An idea you had for your team or organization?

I’ll place a virtual bet on your answer. I’ll bet the hardest thing you’ve ever had to sell is…

Yourself!

And there could be all kinds of reasons for this, like:

• Your confidence in certain situations (like job interviews) is low
• Your general self-esteem could be better (ie. you don’t feel worthy of certain things)
• The culture you grew up in discouraged you from focusing on yourself
• You value humility and don’t want to center yourself in conversation
• You’ve been around people who always talk about themselves. They seem arrogant and you don’t want to be like them

And these are all valid concerns. Each and every one.

Selling yourself (like selling anything else) doesn’t have to feel so difficult or even icky. Here are two things that have made selling feel easier  and better for me: 

1. See selling as an act of service
2. Focus on who you’re selling to, not yourself

Let’s unpack each of these.

Selling is an act of service

Many people get uncomfortable about selling because it can feel like you’re trying to “take” something from the person you’re engaging with.

It’s almost like what you’re offering has no real value.

Here’s the thing: you do have value!

You’re the person who can help them get what they want faster. And in the context of sales job searching, you could be bringing things like:

• The ability to produce more revenue (duh!)
• Experience in the field and knowledge of the market the organization is selling into
• An attitude of growth, which is positively contagious and makes an organization more resilient and flexible

I’ll let you keep thinking about what you bring to the table that helps an employer get what they want. 

If you see selling as helping people get what they want, your mindset will get stronger and you’ll fell less icky about selling.

But another thing you can do is just as critical.

Focus on who you’re selling to

Perhaps the best way to not worry about yourself is to worry about something else.

In sales, concern for your buyer (or potential employer, when you’re a job seeker) can both take your focus off you and your insecurities and allow you to better serve the person across from you.

As a general rule in selling, buyers (and employers) usually don’t care so much about you or what your product or service does.

What they really care about is how your product, service, or you as a potential employee can solve problems and cure pain they are experiencing and generate a desired outcome.

For example, let’s say you’re in need of a quadruple bypass.

You have access to a cardiac surgeon who’s renowned for their ability to do bypass operations.

Their RateMyMD reviews are absolutely awful. Patients say their bedside manner is stinkin’ atrocious!

But do you still elect to have them do your surgery?

My guess is, yes – you’d have them do the surgery. 

Because without the quadruple bypass, you’ll probably die fairly soon. And assuming you’re someone who wants to live as long as possible, dying soon would be pretty painful, right?

Ultimately, you want to live longer (desired outcome), and the quadruple bypass will enable that. You know this surgeon can get you a high-quality quadruple bypass and keep you chuggin’ along.

So, you ignore their $hitty reviews and get them to operate on you. It’s not about them – it’s about what they can do for you.

Focusing on the employer as a job seeker

My last example might seem a little extreme and unrelated to landing a tech sales role, so let’s put this in a job search context.

Employers hire people to solve problems.

Put another way:

If an employer didn’t have an issue that a human could best fix, they wouldn’t hire anyone ever.

So if an employer is hiring a human, it means there are problems that you as the job seeker can go solve.

These problems could be things like:

• There isn’t enough pipeline coverage, so the sales team hires people who can generate new leads (Sales Development Reps)
• The company has a revenue target but is both way off in its pacing and the sales force is at full meeting capacity (so they hire more Account Executives)
• Client retention is suddenly a huge issue and partners want to get out of their contracts early (so the company hires more or better Account Managers)

As a potential hire, your job is to understand the problems they are trying to solve for, the impact these problems could have on the business and why the status quo (how they are doing things now or did things in the past) isn’t acceptable.

We can unpack these concepts more in future newsletters so you can execute on them in a hiring cycle, but hopefully you’re seeing today’s big point…

Selling anything is not about you. It’s about them.

The best way to sell yourself is by understanding who you’re talking to and helping them get what they want.

Agree or disagree?