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If you’re in business—any kind of business—you’re in the sales business.
Oh, you may not sell widgets or gizmos or lollipops. But you’re in the sales business, nevertheless. For better or worse, you’re promoting a brand.
Legendary author and management consultant Tom Peters puts it into perspective: “All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”
Dr. Cindy McGovern certainly agrees with that thesis. As a communications strategist, she helps organizations, entrepreneurs, and individuals create dynamic and robust sales processes.
She’s author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Every Job is a Sales Job. Her latest book is Sell Yourself: How to Create, Live, and Sell a Powerful Personal Brand.
Dr. Cindy (yes, that title is part of her brand) has much to say about promoting “the brand called You.”
Rodger Dean Duncan: From your perspective, what exactly is a personal brand?
Cindy McGovern: A personal brand is the way you present yourself to the world. It’s a guide for what you say and how you behave, react, interact with people and even dress yourself. It’s a plan for what you need to do to reach your goals. Done right, it’s your trademark, your signature, the thing others think or say about you when they refer to you in conversations. A personal brand creates a first impression and a lasting impression. It lets others know exactly who you are—in a way that will leave the exact impression you intend to make.
Duncan: Personal branding seems to be more relevant today than ever. What’s driving that emphasis?
McGovern: So many people decided to leave their jobs during pandemic lockdown, many because they were unfulfilled or dissatisfied with the way they were spending their days. That led to the Great Resignation, of course. It also led to the Great Regret, a time when many learned it wasn’t so easy to land their dream jobs, especially if the new position was unrelated to the old one.
The solution is the Great Rebranding. When it’s time to start something new, an old brand might no longer be the right fit. Few managers are willing to hire even an experienced new employee if the experience isn’t in the same field.
Creating a new personal brand can help someone who wants to change jobs, careers, lifestyles or other routines by revealing which qualities and skills are missing but needed to make the switch. The new brand can showcase the training the person was willing to get and any experience from a prior position that might be relevant to the new role.
Duncan: What do you see as the critical components of a successful personal brand?
Dr. Cindy McGovern
McGovern: Building a powerful personal brand is a three-step process: create, live, sell. It does little good to come up with a few buzz words to describe your brand. A successful personal brand is thoughtful, authentic and aimed at reaching specific goals.
The first step is “create.” Creating a personal brand begins with a plan. That plan begins with identifying your goals. Want to you want? Your personal brand should help you achieve that. Once you know what you want to achieve, you can observe how others who already have that got there. How do they present themselves? What are their brands? Which of those qualities do you have? Which can you learn/practice/develop?
The second step is “live.” Creating a brand won’t help you reach your goals unless you live that brand every day. An authentic brand is easy to live. But to achieve your goals, you might have to create some new habits and sacrifice some old ones. That takes commitment and practice. Living your brand means showing up the same every time. Going off-brand, even occasionally, can affect your progress toward your goal—and can even ruin the reputation you are trying to create with your thoughtful personal brand.
The final step is “sell.” If you live your personal brand consistently, it will be easy to sell it. In other words, your brand will help you sell yourself. A personal brand is the most effective sales tool when it comes to selling yourself.
Duncan: How can people who are not in the traditional “sales” business use sales strategies to promote their personal brands?
McGovern: As long as we’re all selling ourselves all the time—during job interviews, performance evaluations and for new opportunities—we might as well learn how to sell effectively. It makes sense that if we use the skills and strategies of successful sales professionals to sell ourselves, we will become better at making that sale.
The most effective salespeople use a consultative approach to selling. That means they don’t sell only what they have to sell or want to sell, but what the customer wants or needs to buy. Personally, I won’t sell anyone anything—including my books or my services as a business and sales consultant—unless what I have to offer “fits” what the other person needs or wants.
This kind of win-win sale is the way to go when you’re selling yourself. It involves five steps:
Step 1 — Plan. Like most things in life, a sale goes smoother if you plan for it. As part of their plan, sales professionals learn everything there is to know about their products. They know which kinds of customers are most likely to need and want them.
When you sell yourself, the product is you. You already know all there is to know about you. To determine the best way to sell that product—to sell yourself—is to plan and create a personal brand.
Step 2 — Look for opportunities. Sales pros are ready with their pitches when opportunities to sell present themselves. Be ready to showcase your personal brand when you meet someone who can help you achieve your goals. Keep your ears open for offers of help from influential friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Listen when others express a need for help or ideas that you can offer—and that will show off the core elements of your personal brand, like “team player,” “creative” or “helpful.”
Step 3 — Establish trust. People like to buy from people they know, like and trust. Does your personal brand convince people to know, like and trust you?
One of the best ways to get people to trust you is to show them that you’re trustworthy. Listen when they talk. Observe their moods, reactions and hesitations. This will help you determine what they need and want. Then you’ll know if you—and your personal brand—are a good fit.
Step 4 — Ask for what you want. This is the hardest step, even for seasoned sales professionals. There’s always the fear that the answer will be “no.”
I hear “no” as “no for now.” I’ll ask again later or when I have something more suitable to sell.
Still, much of the time, people say “yes.” That’s why it’s so important to ask for what you want. If you don’t ask, that’s an automatic “no.” If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Step 5 — Follow up with gratitude. When I hear “yes,” I say, “Thank you.” When I hear “no,” I say, “Thank you.” I’m grateful when anyone considers helping or hiring me. I’m hopeful that someone who doesn’t need my services now will at some point and will remember me.
Following up also means keeping your promises. If you sell yourself as reliable and someone gives you a job or a project as a result, show your gratitude by being reliable.
Duncan: With so much change going on in business and society at large, how can people know when it’s time to rebrand themselves?
McGovern: Rebranding is generally in order when someone changes jobs or careers; makes a big life change, like going away to college, moving to a new city, retiring or changing marital status. The brand that worked for you up to that point might not be quite right for your new situation. If that’s the case, it’s time to rebrand.
People also might rebrand or at least tweak their brands if a new manager takes over at work; if they are stuck with the stigma of a past mistake; or if their old brands just aren’t getting them where they want to go.
One example: A bright, young graduate who landed her dream job after college was disappointed six months later when she was passed over for an even better job. It turns out nobody had ever considered her for a promotion because her brand was so perfect for the role she already had. She hadn’t thought to update her brand to show she was ready for the next level.
Duncan: In today’s economy, a lot of people are pursuing side hustles to pursue new opportunities or simply to help make ends meet. This can result in what you call a “split personality” brand. What’s your advice for managing that?
McGovern: First, I would say that someone who is trying to juggle two completely different brands must be aware that it’s impossible to hide either of them. The people you want to impress with Brand A will know about Brand B as soon as you start posting about it on social media, which you have to do if you want to find customers.
Second, I would advise anyone who wants to pursue two different kinds of activities to devise a single brand that reflects qualities and characteristics that appeal to everyone, not just one group or another. Those are core values, like friendliness, helpfulness, honesty, authenticity, nice personality and reliability.
No matter what you do for work, a personal brand should be designed to sell you at your best. Who wouldn’t want to buy that?
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Duncan: What can people do to promote their personal brands when their job titles don’t reflect the value they want to project or the roles to which they aspire?
McGovern: A powerful personal brand always helps you present yourself as ready for what’s next. Not ready? Create a brand that you can grow into, and then do what you need to do to fill your new shoes.
One example: An assistant who was passed over for a promotion wound up teaching his new boss how to do the job. Instead of complaining or moping, he showed up every day ready to do excellent work. The newcomer was grateful, the department ran smoothly and the assistant got a glowing recommendation when he applied for a new position with a competitor. His brand: “team player”; “focused on the work”; “excellent employee”; “knows his stuff.”
Duncan: With your PhD degree, earlier in your career you were a college professor. How did you get in the personal brand business?
McGovern: I learned the value of personal branding long before I started writing my book about it. I was ready to defend my dissertation when a kind professor alerted me that some people who were in a position to approve or deny my Ph.D. had assumed that some stereotypes about female students applied to me. At that moment, I realized that without a personal brand, others were going to decide for themselves what I was made of. From then on, I lived and sold a personal brand that makes it clear that I am professional, competent, smart and deserving. I started making the impression that I wanted to make—and others bought it because it was accurate and authentic, and I could live my brand consistently.
Duncan: Some people regard “sales” as a dirty word, and they certainly don’t like to be “sold.” How do you respond to that view?
McGovern: Selling doesn’t have to be—and should never be—manipulative, dishonest, cheesy, or pushy. Sales should benefit both sellers—who get what they want (the sale, the promotion, the job)—and buyers—who also get what they want (a product, service, a new employee or whatever).
Consultative sales—what I call “win-win sales”—takes the “ick” factor out of selling. It creates a transaction that makes everyone happy.
Plus, let me note that everyone already sells. Every time you ask for a raise, you’re trying to sell your boss on giving it to you. Whenever you invite someone to dinner, you’re selling that person on believing it would be nice to spend an evening together. If you persuade your toddler to take a few bites of something green, you’ve made a huge sale.
Every job is a sales job. Every request for a favor is a sales attempt. Every negotiation is an exercise in selling.
You already sell. You already know how. Turn that knowledge inward and use it to sell yourself.
Sell yourself like a pro would.
