I was speaking to a friend and client of mine late last month about sales and business and business models and such. As we spoke we came up with the usual such as advertising, design, branding, and more but we finally came up with the thought that what is the more important need? What is the more responsible method of reaching your clients and customers?
All businesses big and small have a projection and what do they project? I think today our projection should be a focus on both projecting what we, being business people, are so that our connection is more solid with our customers. Our clients need to become personal to us and need to become part of our livelihoods. With this being said our business in the end is more of an “I” than anything else. Either you are selling a service that one hundred other companies can perform for at or below your bottom line or you are selling a small part of yourself being your character and your attitude toward service and work.
Here are the thoughts I came up with in my spare moments that I feel are key:
– Sell yourself
- Sell your knowledge
- Better yet sell your idea of what you know.
-Ask the questions of who am I trying to reach? Who is my focus?
– If I have more than one focus, can I reach all of them properly?
– If my objective is not selling a product but moreover selling myself, how can “I” sell this product?
– My knowledge is how I plan to sell myself and in turn sell more of my product or services, but where do “I” find I am oversold? Where do “I” find my knowledge is oversold?
– By selling myself, do I sell my feelings and my opinions? Would this increase my profits? Do I connect with my focus group personally?
– When I have my focus groups, how does my knowledge move them to make a decision as a buyer?
– I have decided to sell myself and in turn this will sell more of my product or service, but what do I know that will help me sell? Moreover my knowledge is my strength, but what do I use as my “knowledge”?
– Now that my knowledge is outlined and defined, how do I use this as a marketing strategy? Where can I go with my knowledge? Where should I stop?
– As I outline my focus group or groups and I define my knowledge to sell myself, how do I keep my strategy on marketing myself? Where can I place my knowledge as marketing myself? Do unfocused advertising or unfocused marketing strategies actually help me in my goal to sell myself?
