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Wired West: Volume 11, no. 4

7 Steps to Selling Yourself & Your Ideas

Tesse Santoro presenter, notes by Patricia Cia, Langara College

Bright and early at 7 am on Monday morning I was introducing Tesse Santoro for the session Selling Yourself & Your Skills. Tesse is a dynamic speaker and kept the packed room involved and interested.

Santoro covered things to consider in “selling yourself” in career development situations as well as in work situations. She speaks from her expertise as a recruitment specialist as well as from her experience as an information professional.

Selling is providing a service someone needs at a fair price

7 Steps to Selling - a Checklist

1. Preparation
2. Introduction
3. Questions
4. Presentation
5. Overcoming Objections & Negotiating
   • Librarians are very good at preparation (the first step), but need to work harder on the follow-up such as overcoming objections and negotiating).
   • Try again, take a different strategy
   • Work with the other person to compromise
   • If you feel strongly about a service for your company, don't give up
   • If you don't get feedback, stand up and ask!
   • In overcoming objections, understand where the hesitation is coming from, use your active listening skills. If you can understand the points of view and what is needed, you will be better able to address the issues.
   • Take objections constructively -- many have problems doing this. You don't want to be aggressive, but delve into the reasons behind the objections.
6. Close an Agreement
7. Follow-up & Fulfillment
   • It is worth following up on an agreement.

How do we improve?

• If you have a sales person you like, watch how they relate to you. Think about the kind of consumer you are
• Look at tapes or books on selling
• Work for fundraising, charities (and associations) to get out of your comfort zone
• Empathy is a big factor. It is important to understand where you are as a buyer and a seller.

Career Development

Even though I had heard some of her tips in other sessions over the years, I always like the reminder. So, in case you need reminding:

• Career resilience -Own your own career, you have to look after it yourself
• Corporate librarians need to be involved with other departments, especially IT/Systems
• Push yourself out of the box - You never know what your strengths are until you try it. Take outside projects beyond your assigned duties (project design/management, taxonomy, selling information services)
• Have a sense of shaping information. Don’t depend on software (a primary difference and advantage of librarians working with taxonomies as opposed to IT people)
• Change the emphasis from technology running the content to a person (you) understanding the content; run the content
• The Elevator Speech - a 30-second story line (whether for your current boss or introducing yourself to a prospective employer)
• Think about who you are, where you want to go
• Think about how you can get to where you want to go
• Have the speech pre-planned and ready
• You need an agenda and a story, a five minute discussion about what you do and love. If you don’t have a story, write one out and practice it.
• Pick out the key points for when you just have 30 seconds
• When you get someone's attention, use active listening techniques
• Engage with the person who is speaking, don't do all the talking
• Be prepared to speak with impact
• A good conversation starter (in almost any setting, not just in interviews) is to ask the question "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
• Turn negativity into the positive. In this case don't "burn bridges" by taking negatively about colleagues, employers or your job. The world is surprisingly small.
• Happiness factor is usually not about money; people leave their jobs because of boredom, new opportunities (or lack of opportunities in their current situation), new personal growth and more.

When looking for a job, you are saying "I'm this terrific and you need to hire me because..."

• Think about documents (Resume, cover letter etc.) as a passport to your future
  • What does your resume say about you?  If should be an outline of your career
  • Keep it up to date, even if you aren’t leaving your job. Look up current formats and wording (use action keywords that will be grabbed by computer searches.
  • Do one resume that lists all your accomplishments and then pull specific ones out based on the job
• Make your own opportunities & network even when you are not "looking"
• Make friends among vendors, information professionals from other "streams" especially if you are interested in something

How do we improve?

• Keep a file of accomplishments, training sessions, complements or kudos from others
• Ask for a review
• Set goals for yourself - monthly and yearly
• Volunteer for company-wide projects
• Learn to take constructive criticism, to handle your problems
• Show initiative, offer solutions
• Don't whine, take charge to succeed; if you take control, you are in control
• Find out what you want to get out of your job
• Learn to say no to things that will stop you from improving things
• Most companies don't teach employees about your library; make it your project to contact new employees and engage current employees with what your library offers; become involved with HR and employee orientation
• Remotivate yourself, give yourself some time to think things through
• It sometimes helps to work with someone else who is going through the same things
• Identify what makes you unique, it is your Brand
  • Your brand is your unique selling point ; ignore job titles and talk about yourself and your skill sets
• Know yourself and what your limits are

Patricia Cia is the Coordinator of Technical Services & Library Systems at Langara College. She is past president of the Western Canada Chapter and an SLA Fellow.

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