Several weeks ago I wrote a post entitled “Why its Okay to Suck Sometimes.” It was mostly about how learning is more important than doing something perfectly, especially when first starting a new venture.

I am a new blogger to the community but as of recently I have been consumed by the blogosphere. Everyone that I have been meeting and conversing with has been great. There is so much fresh content out there that I enjoy. I also like being able to gain insight from people around the world.

Nate Whitehill and I just completed our fist video-cast and I can say that the process was more difficult than I originally thought it would be. Surprisingly, I thought it was more difficult to speak into a camera than it is to give live presentations to a class of 50 people.

Why we did it

Nate and I have been discussing doing pod-casting for a while and had just not gotten around to it due to our time being concentrated on other things. When Mark from 45n5.com shot his video-cast not too long ago, it inspired us to take the risk and go for it.

Video-casts have some pros and cons. Mostly I wanted to do it as a way for my readers and potential readers to get to know me even better. It will hopefully communicate my intentions and also get the attention of some readers that I previously have not connected with. The con is that the video-cast is not as well executed, as the ones in the future will be. With much practice will come much improvement (I hope).

Topics We Covered

I have not personally participated in any form of guest blogging or guest posting. Nate, however has. We both see the value in it but as I say in the video I think there is a time and place for it. Mark from 45n5.com had a good point when he said that he doesn’t like to read other people’s blogs when he isn’t able to read work by the author. Most of the time I want to read blog posts written by the author of the blog. However, I believe that having a new post on your blog written by someone else every once in a while, is not a bad thing. Especially when you (the author) otherwise would not have posted that day. Also, if you are a more experienced blogger, you can give new bloggers a chance to get there name in front of an audience they haven’t connected with previously.

Risk taking is something that both Nate and I have written about in the past and believe strongly in it. We cover this topic on the video-cast and you can read more about risk taking in my previous post titled, “Calculated Risk Taking, What the Ultra Successful do that Most Don’t.”

Our Request

We hope that by posting a first time video cast, it will inspire others to try it out. It is not a perfect product yet by any means but we plan on doing one at least once a week from now on. Hopefully we will see a dramatic improvement. So please, take this chance to differentiate yourself and respond to our cast.

Our Offer

If you fulfill our request of either writing about our video-cast or posting your own video, we will post a link to you in our blogs. Nate’s blog has a Google page rank of 5 and is adequately established. My blog, once Google releases the latest page rank will hopefully be a PR of 4. We believe this is a great opportunity to get to know others on the Internet and gain needed exposure as well.

-I hope to see all of you do your own video-cast soon!

What do you sell? Whether you sell a product or just your ideas, you are selling. Most of us have had a bad experience with a salesperson consequently, we don’t want to associate ourselves with the word “sales.” All of us are constantly selling ourselves, and as business owners, we should have some concept of how to sell correctly. While I, by no means consider myself an expert, I would like dialogue about what I have learned.

My Experience

I have been a salesperson for the past 4 years, and I consider the experience very valuable. Not only have a learned how to sell a product, but in the meantime, I have learned a great deal about the people who I sell to. I have worked at Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Circuit City, Sprint, and now JP Morgan Chase.

Those of us who have been involved in sales for any extended period of time have witnessed many different types of personalities, and methods used by our fellow sales associates. I have seen individuals who I assumed would not be able to sell anything make great numbers. I also have seen those whom I thought would be great fail miserably.

What Do Sales People Do Wrong?

Most often that not, those who don’t sell well also give salespersons, in general, a bad reputation. These type of salespersons think that selling is simply telling. They are horribly wrong. One of the most crucial characteristics of an effective salesperson is her/her ability to listen carefully to their customers.

Most people do not enjoy being told what to do, especially when making a purchasing decision. If the sales person was asking questions about what the customer wanted instead of telling them what to buy, the associate would have been more likely to make the sale and the customer would have walked away satisfied. Listening is one of the most overlooked steps in the sales process.

What You Can Do

My advice to anyone trying to sell anything is put yourself in the customers shoes. We are all customers at some point. Do we want to be told what to buy? No. We want the salesperson to listen to us, care about our wants and needs, then make a recommendation based on their knowledge and what we said. This would be a more pleasurable experience for both people.

I believe that every business transaction should be a win-win situation. Meaning, that every party involved should benefit from the interaction. This is the basis of my sales philosophy.

This is the first of many posts on the topic of sales. I would you to share the experience you have had with salespersons, both good and bad, for the benefit of my readers, as well as to further develop my own understanding of consumers in relation to sales. Tell me what you think!

Have you thought about how others perceive you? Do they think you are trustworthy, lazy, maybe sarcastic? Do you really know? This is an extremely important concept when dealing with people, especially in a business sense.

Whether you realize it or not, people are judging your character by your appearance, body language, personality, communication ability, and those you associate with. Strive to live up to the standards to those you see as most successful.

This may seem like common knowledge; however, few fully grasp it. Take a look at Donald Trump - he acts, dresses, and speaks in ways that attracts new business partners and reassures current ones. Can you imagine seeing The Donald in a torn up t-shirt, using Ebonics? That would never happen. He has thousands of people a day depending on him to maintain his image. While Donald Trump may be an extreme example, you must realize that others’ perception of you is something you should take seriously.

The first step is to simply be conscious of the fact that others may perceive you differently than you perceive yourself. You should also be aware of the fact that you never know when an opportunity to network will come up. You could be at the mall, working out, at work, or filling up with gas. Always be prepared for this situation. Always be ready to sell yourself.

5 Tips To Better Sell Yourself

1. Maintain excellent hygiene.
2. Always act in a way that your potential business partners would approve of.
3. Be polite, courteous and understanding.
4. Keep in mind what you may be communicating through your attire, no matter what the occasion is.
5. Look those whom you’re speaking to in the eye, and most importantly, be confident!