SPREAD YOURSELF ABOUT!

At the recent industry conference I was interested to note how businesses have a multitude of options for increasing sales.  They include (although not limited to) launching new events, spin offs, geo-cloning, partnering, digital as well as mergers, acquisitions and non-core services like sponsorship, conferencing and consultancy. It was also interesting to note how many marketing activities were interrelated; for example writing a blog will boost your on line ranking due to the ‘magic’ of technology. The power of Google and other search engines means that in this age of impatience, potential customers will not scroll through pages and pages of entries until they find you – if you do not ‘own’ the first page of a search, it is likely someone else will get the enquiry. So businesses are encouraged to write blogs, include video, images, press releases and a whole gamut of tricks to dominate a search and accordingly boost their worth.

 

I couldn’t help wonder therefore whether individual sales people are maximising their own value. It is clear that some are more high profile than others and the skill sets required of the modern salesperson are no longer limited to the telephone or the occasional face to face encounter. I have written before about the merits of effective networking and how opportunities are often derived from such superficially innocuous events.  How about we cast the net a little wider and adopt some of the lessons we see in business?

 

How do you use social networks? Are they purely social so you can stay in touch with friends and family or do you widen the appeal? How about LinkedIn and the raft of similar social media sites – do you have a presence on those and are you maximising each opportunity? Do RSS feeds and Twitter leave you cold or do you utilise them for more noble purposes than cursing that you have missed your last train home and ranting about some very clever but rather pointless hobby horse? Do you set up or join groups that have something to do with your areas of expertise and interest or would you say, like most of us that you ‘lurk’? Do you read the updates with interest and thirst or do you feel that they are a new form of spam?

 

Then there is the whole area of self-development and learning. When is the last time you attended a function or course to learn something new or attempt to gain new skills or grow your brain? It’s all too lame to be too busy and set another breakable New Year resolution or wait until the company conference or next team away day. If your car is essential to your business or livelihood then the chances are that you service it regularly, top up the air pressures and ensure oil and water, coolant and ‘squirter’ fluids are all taken care of. You will check your lights and manage the occasional wash and spruce up.  Well on that premise, your skills and your motivation I would argue are even more central to your future livelihood and income. When is the last time you challenged yourself or adopted a new set of habits or re-visited the old ones to hone them, eradicate the bad ones and added some new ones? Sobering thought perhaps or call to action?