Self promotion

Many years ago, I was told...

"Toot your own horn. Make yourself known for any good work you do like helping a customer with their escalation, or quickly getting back to the PM or customer on their enquiry etc.

The main driver of most businesses is sales. Businesses that run a strong sales force naturally celebrate sales wins, either via meeting monthly or quarterly targets or simply ringing a bell at the corner of the office. So what tends to happen here is, the company celebrates having those sales people in the team and NON-sales people see them as the be-all of the company.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I personally admire the work and effort that goes into sales.
Going from a sales opportunity, to sales pipeline, to sales contract conversion can take weeks, months and even sometimes years.

However, the customer generally does not get their product immediately.

There are other people involved in the process.
- Fulfilment teams who build/deliver the product
- Support teams that provide the much important post-sales support that keeps the customer happy and likely leads to them re-signing/buying in the future.

And lets not forget about;
- Pre-sales who help design the solution
- Engineers who validate what can/can't be done.

Selling to customers is a skill that sales people learn and develop.

Similarly, learning to sell one’s own contribution and achievements within the team, or intra-office is just as important throughout the year.

Because come the end of year, remuneration and bonus discussions take place, you don’t want to be stuck in a position where you are trying to play your highlights and no-one wants to pay attention.

Self promotion is a skill….very similar to selling.

Learn it.

Pay attention to it.

Practice it.

It will take time but it is so worth it.


And remember….

TOOT TOOT!!

#selfpromotion