You Are the Product

“Understand that you need to sell YOU in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income.”

-Jay Abraham (American business executive, conference speaker, and author)

In sales, it’s not how well you sell your product. It’s how you sell YOU. Product knowledge is not the main part of a sale, though it is an important one. The main part is you. Why? Clients are people. People relate to people. Clients buy you first. Your product is simply a benefit of knowing you. Your primary focus should be on how well you relate to people, and not on your product nor your income commissions.

A potential client will not buy anything from a salesperson if they do not feel comfortable with a salesperson, even if the product is free. To project a genuine, likeable version of yourself  is key. In sales, because a customer must buy into you before they purchase a policy, you are the actual product.

As a National Top Producer, I have watched clients buy my product over other less expensive products with equal value time and time again. Why? Because clients enjoyed their time with me. My sales presentation is a fun ride for the customer that’s listening to it. I exude warmth and add some cheer to their day. We chit-chat first and find common ground. I ask about their vocation, retirement, community involvement, or church. We discuss what they feel their needs are, and how they want to protect their family with a solid insurance plan. I explain benefits they qualify for in layperson’s terms, while making a connection between their lifestyle and budget and my product. We decide on the best day to start their plan with a first premium payment and so forth. To the customer, my professional care feels like tremendous value added to their family. Employing this people-helping approach to create interest in my product, I was able to sign 669 clients in my first year of sales alone.

Every person is made up of 90 percent strength and 10 percent insecurities. The 90 percent strength is the real you. Successful sales people use their strength(s) to create interest in their product, and they forget that they have insecurities while making a sales pitch.

Perhaps you have kept your focus in life on the 10 percent insecurities for so long, that they have been magnified out of proportion. Perhaps a customer can’t get interested enough in your product, because you have left out the most important part of a killer sales presentation—YOU.

Perhaps you are good with spoken words. Perhaps you are good at listening. Perhaps you are good at making a first impression. Perhaps you are good at humor. Perhaps you are good with matching needs to suppliers. Perhaps you are good at problem solving. Perhaps you are good at making something complex simple. Perhaps you dispense a delightfully refreshing personality. Perhaps you are graced with a natural talent. Perhaps you write well, or sing well, or smile well. USE IT. Use that strength to create interest in what you represent, and produce success with it. This is the real you!!!

Remember, people who seem to break out into super success are people who changed their own view of themselves. This is how it is done. Choose to focus on the 90 percent of you that is your gift, talent, or strong point. Depend on your strengths to carry you through your situation, your daily grind, and your sales presentation delivery. Become your strengths. Those who stay defeated by any failure are people who are not willing to see themselves differently than the person they have always been. Most well-meaning, good-hearted people deserving of success are simply fixated on the wrong aspect of themselves.

You can only see others as you see yourself. Through your personal success, the world opens up into a new wonderland of growth and opportunity. When you can sell yourself in the business world to clients, your product is purchased more often than not. Always remember, YOU are the actual product!