My Experience in Selling Myself
And why it is tougher than it sounds
My dad used to read a lot of books on marketing, prospecting and selling. As he was in the insurance sector, he used to read those books so that he could train his team much better. He used to say that the reason he reads was, in his words, “to make sure my sales team doesn’t need me”. I was a young chap with barely any idea on how the world works, so naturally I took what he said to heart and believed it to be true.
Now, though, I can see the truth in his words. He still learns from these books, and he still works on new methods to improve his new sales team. And the results he achieves speaks for itself.
However, I was curious as to how he was able to achieve consistent results, even with fluctuating market conditions. But I never asked too much about it, as I was sure I wouldn’t be able to truly understand unless I myself was in a similar situation. And, I was secretly hoping that I wouldn’t need to do so.
But, life had other ideas.
To say a long story short, I was preparing for my job interview in my business school, and although I was reading through my conceptual knowledge on marketing, I realised that it was going to take more than just bookish knowledge to convince my interviewers to recruit me. I say ‘interviewers’ because I was mentally preparing myself for rejections and multiple interviews, which is usually a sensible mindset.
Of course, I had a little help in form of a unique experience, about which I’ve written here. Please do check it out! :)
However, they wanted to hire people, which implies that they are looking for the right attitude as well.
I was a little afraid, to be honest. I have always had issues with self-esteem, so those nagging doubts started creeping up. Would I make a mistake? Would I make them think I’m being desperate? Would my nervousness be obvious?
However, I had a talk with my close friend and he told me just one thing,
“Just show them how much you’re interested, and why.”
Honestly, I thought that wasn’t very helpful. Then, an idea struck me.
I thought to myself, “Why can’t I just show them my interest? Why should I hold back?”. I had an idea on how passion worked, and the funny thing about passion is that it didn’t care about the past or the future. It only relied on the present.
At that point, I decided to stop preparing. Because, I wanted my answers to be honest and my passion to be genuine. That’s when I stumbled upon a new thought,
Preparation can sometimes hinder honesty.
It does work for technical knowledge, but even the best experts learn more from mistakes and experience than from concepts. Similarly, I realised this was more applicable for creativity and genuine responses.
The next day, I sat for my interview, and I had to fight back my urge to shiver. I was still nervous, and considering I didn’t prepare as much as I would’ve, I started having serious doubts on how I would perform.
In the end, however, I took a glass of water and I swallowed my doubts. I was going to be genuine, honest and passionate. And, as the questions rolled, I felt myself becoming more confident and bold in my speech and behaviour. Ultimately, it worked out in the end, and I was selected for the internship, in an amazing role that I’m still excited to work for.
After this incident, I realised that selling oneself meant more than being able to handle whatever life throws at you. In fact, that doesn’t even matter.
Selling oneself meant how much you knew about yourself, how much you believe in yourself, and how willing you are to learn enough to improve yourself. And, if you can figure out how to sell yourself, you shouldn’t have a problem selling anything else, be it a product or a service.
After this short experience, my father’s consistent performance wasn’t much of a mystery. It became clear to me that he believed in himself, his skills and his products. The rest, I’m sure he figured it out along the way, just like I did.
As I’m writing this, I’m continuing to pursue electives in marketing of different fields. It is quite an interesting journey so far, and I look forward to sharing more about my journey on Medium.
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