It's well known that without process there is no result. The results of sales work are simple: performance and payment collection, or more precisely, profit contribution. But what about the process—the common sales execution tasks such as distribution, display, customer relations, and promotion activities? These are done daily, consuming significant manpower and resources, yet actual effectiveness remains mediocre. Bosses complain about employees loafing, while employees complain the work is too hard.

Everything has a reason. Here, we shift to a fundamental perspective: salespeople work around selling products every day, executing various sales actions. However, before selling the product, there is a prerequisite: selling yourself.

So-called "selling yourself" means the salesperson sells themselves to the customer. In plain terms, it means the customer can accept, recognize, like, and trust you. Ideally, you should differentiate yourself from salespeople of other companies.

Why is selling yourself a prerequisite? Mainly for two reasons:

  1. Changes in market background In most industries, oversupply is an indisputable fact. In a market economy, there are many products with severe homogeneity. Everyone's products are similar, and total market demand is limited. So everyone uses similar tactics to compete. Chinese people have limited innovative thinking but strong imitation ability. No matter how novel a market promotion is, competitors quickly copy it and even intensify it.

Therefore, when you don't have sufficiently differentiated and highly marketable products, or you haven't reached the point of spending on market without blinking, salespeople can only act submissively in front of customers; acting like a boss is just a dream.

  1. The core of sales behavior Business is essentially about human interaction. For interpersonal relationships to last and lead to quality cooperation, the premise is mutual recognition and the feeling of interaction. People must first recognize each other before discussing business. That's what we mean by selling yourself. If you can't sell yourself, forget about selling the product.

In summary, under the current market background, the total supply of various products is large, and product homogeneity is severe, giving customers more and more choices. They can pick and choose at will. The effects of routine sales tasks (display, promotions, customer relations, etc.) cancel each other out. So no matter how well salespeople perform these tasks, the actual benefits are limited.

Therefore, two points must be clear:

  1. Sell yourself first, then sell the product. If you can't sell yourself, you certainly can't sell the product.
  2. Compared with competitors, competing on quality, brand size, price, promotions, or investment has little practical significance. It may even turn into a war of attrition—killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of your own. Instead, compete on people—on how well your salespeople are recognized by customers.

Bosses, stop complaining that business is hard or blaming employees for not working hard. Instead, go back to the most basic point: Can our salespeople sell themselves to customers? Or, to put it more simply, as a boss, when you look at your salespeople, do you find them pleasing? Do you like them? Do you trust them? If the boss doesn't like them, will customers like them?

So how can a person be sold?

Selling a product requires good presentation, and so does selling yourself. The following points constitute the basic conditions for selling yourself:

  1. Appearance, grooming, hairstyle
  2. Attire, personal items
  3. Behavior and manners
  4. Speech, including communication skills, ability to read people, and responsiveness
  5. Degree of understanding of the customer
  6. Professional competence related to work
  7. Temperament and character displayed outwardly
  8. Specific work style

To achieve the above, you cannot rely solely on employees' self-awareness or improvement consciousness. If employees had that awareness, they would have done it themselves. Instead, the boss must take the lead. Related tasks include:

  1. Clarify the value and necessity of "selling yourself"
  2. Clarify competitors' current level of "selling yourself"
  3. Set phased goals for "selling yourself"
  4. Set specific budget for related expenses
  5. Set the order of technical training
  6. Implement and consolidate
  7. Supervise during actual application
  8. For employees who truly cannot "sell themselves," corresponding elimination measures

Some tasks must be done in advance, such as appearance. Changing it later is too costly; it can only be selected during recruitment. Employees with outstanding appearance or good personal qualities will cost more to recruit, but the effect of "selling yourself" is better. Of course, not only recruitment costs are higher, but also various training costs later. High output requires high input. However, most competitors are unwilling to spend this money, so they cannot guarantee the effect of selling yourself.

Salespeople must first solve the problem of selling themselves to gain customer recognition. This also brings a new problem: employee self-inflation. Therefore, "selling yourself" cannot be purely based on the individual employee; it must be "selling yourself" supported by the company system. The employee can "sell themselves" because the company system plays a continuous role behind the scenes, such as training systems, related technical solutions, supporting equipment, information support, internal supporting services, etc. Once an employee leaves, they naturally lose system support and can no longer achieve the effect of "selling yourself."

Finally, three points:

  1. On the surface, competition seems fierce, but it's actually homogeneous competition. Everyone is entangled in conventional modes like price, brand, and investment without breaking out. Of course, these competitive investments are also a bottomless pit that can never be filled. Essentially, it's just a long-term war of attrition. Therefore, competition should be about people—the competition of comprehensive quality and ability of employees in each company, which is the competition of bosses' management ability.

  2. To solve problems, don't go directly to the surface of the problem, but follow a certain structure and order. If the problem of selling yourself is not solved, many subsequent problems cannot be solved unless you throw money at them.

  3. Employee problems ultimately come down to the boss. The "selling yourself" mentioned in this article mainly relies on the boss's leadership to solve. If the boss lacks awareness, is unwilling to invest, lacks corresponding management ability, or even insists on finding fault with employees, then it's inevitable that business will be difficult.

Pan Wenfu: Born into a private business owner family, he operated a family-owned distribution company for over ten years. He also held positions as sales manager, marketing manager, and trainer in several well-known manufacturing companies, giving him dual perspectives as a distributor owner and a manufacturer's distribution manager. His research focuses on internal management optimization of distribution companies, corporatization, innovative business strategies, operating cost savings, and optimization of manufacturer-distributor relationships. He has the largest database of distributor topics in the country, maintaining long-term collection of materials and solution research on over 400 topics related to distribution companies.

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