The power of being who you need to be before you need it

“A sale is made when your conviction about something is stronger than the potential buyer’s.”

This is something I recently read in a book on selling.

A large part of the art of selling anything — products, services, ourselves — is about our ability to communicate belief.

If we can show that we believe in what we’re selling, buyers will buy.

Obviously having a good product that produces results is vital for authentically believing in it, and wanting to get out there and sell things.

This was an issue I found with many of the creative freelancers I coached.

Many would create beautiful art, but failed to be motivated to sell, because they lacked conviction in themselves, and their own work.

They couldn’t see why it held value for other people.

What’s interesting is that you can have the greatest product, but if you yourself are not convinced of its value — even if it isn’t perfect (and of course it won’t be), you will have trouble promoting and selling it.

What caught my eye when reading this book was how this idea applies not only to products and services, but also to our own self-belief.

Products and services are never going to be perfect, but if you can be convinced of their value for the customer, and demonstrate that conviction, the product will sell, more so even than other products that aren’t as good.

So think about this in the sense of your own conviction about yourself.

None of us are perfect. Far from it.

But we can be convinced of our value and the impact we can have, and we can act like it.

When we do, we sell others, and we sell ourselves in a self-feeding loop.

This is not faking it till you make it.

I’m talking about being the embodiment of the person you want to become, and marrying that with who you are right now, blemishes and all.

Most of us embody the person we used to be. The person we are ashamed of.