by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
We often hear people say, “I’ve got nothing to say” or “nobody is interested in what I have to say” and that certainly isn’t the case.
The Basics
So let’s think about your personal brand from the basics. Your LinkedIn profile is your shop window, so regardless of if you are an introvert or an extrovert this is your ability to get your “why” across. There is no excuse not to have a personal brand and regardless of you being an introvert or an extrovert you can sit at home, in the office or use your mobile on the way into work and update your profile.
Regardless if you are in sales and marketing (an introvert or extrovert) people will check you out online. You cannot stop this, it’s part of modern life. You may not like it, but as night follows day, you cannot change it, so embrace it.
A good friend of mine is an introvert, he describes it in a very English way, which is that he’s “shy”. He has built a business on social media. How? Because Social does not discriminate, in fact, I would say it helps introverts. Why? Because you have time to respond to somebody, you have time to think of a response. Where as you are in a conversation, you have to respond. Now you can put your mobile down and think about your response and go back an hour or 24 hours later. This favours the introvert.
In the B2B Enterprise space the sales process has changed, where as the buyer had to talk to a salesperson. Now they can go online and search for your product and service and actually avoid sales people. We are aware of companies that have purchased high value products purely off the back of the content they have found online.
I’ve just read a very sexist article written by a “sales guru” where he says “separate the sales from the man”. This sort of stuff should be called out as it creates an image that sales is for men, it’s not diverse, it’s not inclusive and it’s not for introverts. Selling has never been about having the “gift of the gab”. Sales is about asking questions and listening (not hearing) the answers not talking. The same with social selling, you can be nice to people on-line, build relationships and ask for calls and meetings without needing to be extrovert.
And while there will be people that disagree with that, anybody that stands against inclusion and diversity today, has no place in modern business.
Social offer introverts and extroverts the ability to change the world. Stop the excuses and make those changes!
People who read this article also read these:
https://dlaignite.com/the-three-stages-of-enlightenment-with-social-selling/
https://dlaignite.com/side-by-side-social-vs-spam/
https://dlaignite.com/can-you-tick-the-social-media-box-and-say-thats-done/
