How To Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul

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There are people who love to talk about themselves all the time, to be the center of attention, the name on everyone’s lips. We know plenty of people like that; you may be one of them yourself. If you are, you can skip to the second half of this article.

If you’re like me, or like some of my clients who seek advice on how to sell yourself without selling your soul, you probably need to read the whole thing.

Why don’t we like self-promotion?

There are a lot of reasons that some folks might feel constrained from touting their own accomplishments and qualifications. See if any of these ring a bell with you:

·         We were raised not to brag. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I definitely remember my Dad telling me that no one likes a show-off. It was part of the code that we were raised with. It just wasn’t done.

·         It could be cultural. In New Zealand and Australian culture, for example, it’s called the tall poppy syndrome, as in the tall poppy gets cut down.

·         Even in our own culture which is not known for being shy, it can feel a bit slimy, like you’re putting yourself over others, not being a team player.

·         Some people lack confidence in their own abilities. This is especially true for women—they tend to underestimate their own abilities, while men overestimate theirs.

·         There can be good practical reasons as well. It can backfire on you if you do it wrong or do it excessively.

The right approach requires the proper mindset, a clear idea of your own capabilities and strengths, and a plan to improve your positive visibility throughout the organization you’re part of. In this article, I’m going to concentrate on internal self-promotion, not external, such as what freelancers like myself have to do to publicize ourselves.

Adopt the right mindset

The first step is to adopt the right mindset. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to accept that it’s necessary.

A lot of smart and competent people I know subscribe to the better mousetrap myth—the one that says if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. It just doesn’t work that way—good ideas and good work don’t automatically bubble up for everyone to notice, especially when there are others who are actively self-promoting—and possibly not being as principled about it as you are.

It’s a YOYO world—you’re on your own. You may think you’re not a free agent because you work in a large organization, but the reality is that no one is taking a special interest in advancing your career, and If you don’t do it, no one will do it for you. At the same time, people you are competing against are very comfortable doing it, so it amounts to unilateral disarmament on your part.

Any time someone considers you for a possible promotion, their first question is not: can this person do the job? It’s “Is this the best person for the job?” In other words, they don’t look at you in isolation, but in comparison to someone else, and they have to use whatever information is available to them. Who comes to mind first? If you take two people who have the same education, experience and job performance, it’s obvious that the one who has done a better job of selling themselves is going to win the job. But the world is less fair than that. Even if you’re objectively better in one or more of those areas, you may still lose out to the person who does a better job of selling themselves.

But if you only buy into the idea of self-promotion begrudgingly, you’re not going to do it as well as if you actually embrace it as a positive thing, and not just a necessary evil. There’s a good case that self-promotion can be positive, not just for yourself but for others as well. That’s because, if you truly believe that you’re the better fit for the task, or that you can add more value, to your team or your company, then you harm them by not making them aware of it. It’s like the basketball star who insists on getting the ball in the closing seconds: maybe it’s selfish, but it’s also the right thing for the team.

How to do it

If you were promoting a product instead of yourself, how would you go about it? You would first, figure out your market share, and how you are perceived in the market. Next, you would develop a value proposition for why people should be interested in your product, and finally you would create a plan to publicize and sell it. You can apply those same techniques to promoting yourself as a product.

Figure out where you are

If you want others to think well of you, the most obvious thing is to give them a reason to do so, which means that you should be worthy of a good reputation. But I’m assuming you’ve got that covered.

Know how others see you. You have a reputation where you work. People do talk about you when you’re not around. Do you know what they say? There’s an idea in marketing called the net promoter score, which essentially is the answer to the question: ”How likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”

Obviously, we’re not going to send out a survey to figure out our personal net promoter score, but we’re not always good judges of how others see us, so we have to do a little research. We can ask a trusted colleague or two. Ask your boss, Get a coach.

Have a personal value proposition

Why should people “buy” you? Because you have unique competencies that add value. But they need to know about those. What if you got into an elevator with the CEO and he asked you what you do. Would you have an answer? A good answer, I mean. Not just, “I’m an analyst in the Finance Department.” “I make sure we keep out of tax trouble.” “I manage one of our most profitable accounts.” Or, talk about something you’re working on right now that you’re excited about and why.

Improve your visibility

·         Speak up in meetings: always be prepared.

·         Maximize executive contacts; be prepared for planned and unplanned encounters.

·         Ask your boss.

·         Network internally/strategically.

·         Don’t just mind your own business. “Doing your job is not initiative.”

·         Be a giver, not a taker. Show initiative in the white spaces between job descriptions.

·         Join high-visibility projects and task forces where you can add value.

·         Promote your team and others.

·         Give speeches internally and externally.

·         It’s ongoing; make it a habit or create a regular routine and schedule.