You know the expression, “a face only a mother could love”? This little piggy is beautiful in her mother’s eyes. The good news is, we’re all beautiful to someone. “Selling ugly” means selling something that, on the surface… doesn’t seem great.
Selling sexy is easy; selling results is hard. If you spend more time understanding what the ‘customer’ (potential employer, someone who’s buying what you’re selling, etc.) needs… it will be more reasonable to assess your strengths versus that end.
In life, we all have those moments of doubt… when you and I need to convince someone (including ourselves!) that we’re wayyyyy more attractive than we might appear at first glance. In this case, we need to sell on the results we can deliver – not on our outward appearance. Maybe our experience isn’t a perfect fit for the job that’s open. Maybe we think we have too much or not enough education. Maybe we think we’re not pretty, thin or rich enough… whatever.
The truth is you are a perfect fit for someone, someplace. The question is, do you understand what you can DELIVER? Can you be more fun, more creative, more interesting? Can you design it, deliver it? Can you hit sales targets, hire better, add integrity? What goal do you have and does that goal match the person/organization you are trying to sell?
Even if we’re not quite as difficult a sell as the hairy pig… focusing on results will nearly always get us closer to the prize.
** thanks to Chris Brogan
Carl Hoffman
August 19, 2013I read your provocative post when it first posted, then again tonight. This time it brought up a memory back when I was selling my services. On more than one occasion I would tell them how much money they could raise in a capital campaign and a competitor would say they could raise much more. After I lost the business they would have the campaign led by someone else only to raise the amount I said was feasible. Many times when they needed to raise the money they did not raise the first time they would call me back and give me the business because, as one teem member said, “We didn’t listen to him before when he told us the truth and it cost us, why don’t we wise up and listen to him now. I got the business by always being honest about the result they could expect. And sometimes that was selling ugly. Regarding the statement “Only a face a mother could love” my dad would add “on payday.”
Deborah
August 22, 2013Hey Carl,
You tell a great story… things in sales really haven’t changed much except customers are getting smarter and smarter and that’s a good thing. Integrity wins the day in the long run and it’s a lot easier to sleep at night!