Selling Yourself Selling #Corbyn Selling #AndyBurnham Selling #YvetteCooper Selling #LizKendall

Our world thrives on selling.

A surprising source of lessons in selling perhaps
 but read on !

 Selling’s ingress is experienced in so  much of human activity whether directly or indirectly. 

The author Robert Louis Stevenson observed 

“Everyone lives by selling something, whatever be his right to it".

 However if you were to explain the word 'Selling', how would you define it? 

 1. "Old skool "

Why not right now right down on a piece of paper you definition, 
or
  2.  if you are on the new (school) Windows 10,

 Why not try out  your Scribble notes with your new Edge browser. I understand you can write notes with a digital pen, or scribble directly on a touchscreen  (and it kind of works with a touchpad )  I confess I am sticking with pen and paper at present !

 So write down your definition on the blank space here or on a sheet of paper. I suggest two versions. 

 Maybe first write a funny or cynical one first and get that out of your system! 

 Then set to work on a serious definition Keep it short. A tweet’s length of 140 characters max would be a good target. 


 The very first sale you need to make is to yourself. You are unlikely to be successful in selling if you don’t believe in yourself. 

A surprising source on matters "Selling" 
the Morning Star !

The next stage is then to sell ‘yourself’ to someone else. Currently we are seeing how four people are campaigning against each other for leadership election of the labour party. Each of the candidates are pitching to their Party.

 They are doing that challenging sale – Selling Yourself. 

 Their various attributes, skills and knowledge are being put to the test of opinion polls, political pundits, local party members and the general public. 

 

You can only sell a difference

In a letter to the left wing newspaper The Morning Star Andrew Northall of Kettering writing about the current Labour party leadership campaign looking a historic lessons of their rivals the Conservative Party. The letter argued that a drive for centrism had lost polls for Edward Heath, and how the radical Margaret Thatcher won out. The letter writer Mr Northall observed

“ .. The recipe for electoral success in the modern world seems to include setting out a clear and compelling idea of the society in which people want to live and a set of policies which both address their immediate needs and concerns but also represent clear steps towards delivering that vision”

 

Front page pitch from The Morning Star.
("Rubbishing" the competition is fair game
 in selling newspapers, it seems)

Notice how the words which I have underlined the selling-words that resonate the objectives and action of selling.

Vision – setting objectives, research, planning and preparation

Needs- implies listening, questioning, engagement,  Networking and pressing the flesh, relating to people with charm, presenting your case to them 

Concerns –  handling and dealing with objections, resistance and complaints

Delivery-  gaining agreement, closing, ongoing development


The Labour leader election result is  some way off yet - (September 10th).  

So far as predicting how it will turn out perhaps if we return to Robert Louis Stevenson once more. Some of his book titles may presage how it might go:-

Will the result lead to a 'Treasure Island' ?, will policies get 'Kidnapped' ?, or will the next few weeks resemble 'Travels with a donkey' ? will party members tick 'The Wrong Box'?  will  what we learn from now on about the contestants resemble 'The strange case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde?