Crafting a personal brand in sales is just as important as learning the technical tools of your trade. Sales is competitive – when you make yourself visible and memorable, you put yourself at the front of the queue when people are thinking about products or services they need. You’re also more likely to be top of mind for opportunities that fit your skill set.
Simply put, your personal brand is your own unique story, and here’s the exciting part: you’re the author!
Set yourself up for success
Your personal brand is how you promote and present yourself to the world, both online and offline. It’s what defines who you are and what you do, through a combination of skills, personality and experience that you want others to see.
Building a strong personal brand can work in your favour in many ways in this industry, but the two that really stand out are that it can make or break the first impression you have on your prospective customers, and that it can set you up for success and growth opportunities within your company.
So remember, personal branding isn’t just to ensure that those around you perceive you as the person you want to be – it’s also about marketing yourself for the roles and promotions you aspire for in your future.
Recognising and developing your brand
Part of building a personal brand is being aware of the foundations of who you are and what motivates you. Therefore, the first step is determining what makes you ‘you’.
Be open with yourself about your passions, values and skills. What dreams and goals drive you? What sets you apart and makes you unique? Write down the answers and hold yourself accountable to your goals by sharing them with your manager or mentors. By documenting and sharing what you already hold in your skill arsenal, you’ll be able to build it up from there. It can also be helpful to seek feedback from others – colleagues, your manager, customers – to get an idea of attributes you may have overlooked.
To take it a step further, make notes of different accomplishments from every role you’ve held and show those off! It could be overall sales performance (hitting/exceeding your KPIs, where you ranked on your team, winning a company competition, territory growth), or things like creating a new email template or sequence that improved prospect open and reply rates, or mentoring newbies on your team.
Document it all. This is your story to tell.
Share it!
Your personal brand should be centred around your expertise, why your customers should work with you and why your company should value you and contribute to your growth. Once you’ve identified these, put yourself out there. Share it with the world online. LinkedIn is a great platform for this. Take the time and effort to maintain a strong profile. Creating a unique image of who you are and what you want to be known for not only develops your reputation, but also helps you to use that reputation to differentiate yourself in the market. It’s a competitive edge that may just be the key to getting that next promotion or winning that next deal!