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Every day of your life you are selling yourself, nothing happens until you’re successful at doing that.

We’re all in the selling business whether we like it or not. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lawyer or an accountant, a manager or a politician, an engineer or a doctor.

We all spend a great deal of our time trying to persuade people to buy our product or service, accept our proposals or merely accept what we say.

Before you get better at persuading or influencing other people – you need to get better at self-motivation and selling yourself.

Here are 10 simple steps to self-motivation:

#1 – You must believe in the product

Selling yourself is pretty much like selling anything. Firstly, you need to believe in what you’re selling. That means believing in “you.” It’s about lots of positive self-talk and the right attitude.

The first thing people notice about you is your attitude. If you’re like most people then you’ll suffer from lack of confidence from time to time.

It really all comes down to how you talk to yourself. The majority of people are more likely to talk to themselves negatively than positively – this is what holds them back in life.

It isn’t just about a positive attitude; it’s about the right attitude – the quality of your thinking.

Successful people have a constructive and optimistic way of looking at themselves and their work. They have an attitude of calm, confident, positive self-expectation. They feel good about themselves and believe that everything they do will lead to their inevitable success.

If you’re in a sales job or a business owner or a manager then you need to continually work on your attitude. You need to listen to that little voice inside your head. Is it saying you’re on top, going for it and confident, or is it holding you back.

If you’re hearing – “I can’t do this or that” or “They won’t want to buy at the moment” or “We’re too expensive” then you’d better change your self-talk or change your job.

Start to believe in yourself and don’t let things that are out with your control effect your attitude.

Avoid criticising, condemning and complaining and start spreading a little happiness.

Remember the saying of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company – “If you believe you can do a thing, or if you believe you can’t, in either case you’re probably right.”

#2 – The packaging must grab attention

Like any other product we buy, the way the product is packaged and presented will influence the customer’s decision to buy.

Everything about you needs to look good and you must dress appropriately for the occasion. And don’t think that just because your customer dresses casually, that they expect you to dress the same way.

The style and colour of the clothes you wear, your spectacles, shoes, briefcase, watch, the pen you use, all make a statement about you.

#3 – Smile

No need to get carried away, you don’t need a big cheesy grin, just a pleasant open face that doesn’t frighten people away.

#4 – Use names

Use the customers name as soon as you can but don’t over do it. Business is less formal nowadays however be careful of using first names initially. Make sure your customer knows yours and remembers it. You can do the old repeat trick -”My name is Bond, James Bond” or “My name is James, James Bond”

#5 – Watch the other person

What does their body language tell you? Are they comfortable with you or are they a bit nervous? Are they listening to you or are their eyes darting around the room. If they’re not comfortable and not listening then there’s no point telling them something important about your business.

Far better to make some small talk and more importantly -get then to talk about themselves.

It’s best to go on the assumption that in the first few minutes of meeting someone new, they won’t take in much of what you say. They’re too busy analysing all the visual data they’re taking in.

#6 – Listen and look like you’re listening.

Many people, particularly men, listen but don’t show that they’re listening. The other person can only go on what they see, not what’s going on inside your head. If they see a blank expression then they’ll assume you’re “out to lunch.”

The trick is to do all the active listening things such as nodding your head, the occasional “UH-HUH” and the occasional question.

#7 – Be interested.

If you want to be INTERESTING then be INTERESTED. This really is the most important thing you can do to be successful at selling yourself.

The majority of people are very concerned about their self-image. If they sense that you value them, that you feel that they’re important and worth listening to, then you effectively raise their self-image. If you can help people to like themselves then they’ll LOVE you.

Don’t fall into the trap of flattering the other person, because most people will see right through you and they won’t fall for it. Just show some genuine interest in the customer and their business and they’ll be much more receptive to what you say.

#8 – Talk positively.

Don’t say – “Isn’t it a horrible day” or “Business is pretty tough at present” or any thing else that pulls the conversation down. Say things like (and only the truth) – “I like the design of this office” or “I’ve heard some good reports about your new product.”

#9 – Mirror the other person

This doesn’t mean mimicking the other person, it just means you speaking and behaving in a manner that is similar to the customer.

For example, if your customer speaks slowly or quietly, then you speak slowly or quietly. Remember people like people who are like themselves.

#10 – Warm and friendly

If you look or sound stressed or aggressive then don’t be surprised if the other person gets defensive and less than willing to co-operate.

If you look and sound warm and friendly, then you’re more likely to get a positive response.

This isn’t about being all nicey-nicey. It’s about a pleasant open face or a warm tone over the telephone.

Before we can get down to the process of selling our product, our service or our ideas then we need to be as sure as we can  be – that the customer has bought us and that we have their full attention.

It seems like times are always tough for small businesses, but no time is worse than during a recession. During a recession, many businesses try to cut back on as much as possible, but when does cutting back start to hurt the company? One of the places this question is most often applied is to the question of SEO. Should a small business pay for SEO when money is tight?

Unfortunately, many small businesses axe their advertising budget first. While this can be a good place to save a little bit of money, if businesses completely cut their advertising, they will not be able to attract new clients. Without new clients, there’s little they can do to make more money. While word of mouth may help somewhat, it’s not as effective as a marketing blitz.

While web marketing is cheaper than doing offline marketing, there are still costs involved. However, you may get a much higher return on your investment since you’re able to more deeply analyze how well your marketing is doing. Since websites allow users to track where their traffic comes from, it’s easier to identify and cut any online marketing that is not working. To this end, small businesses should not immediately cut their SEO budget when times get tight.

Some small businesses may not have even invested in SEO yet, and these businesses may be asking why they should spend the money. However, those small business owners may not recognize just how great a return they can get on their SEO. A huge return on investment is everything in a recession, and doing SEO is ranked as one of the top ROI solutions.

By selecting specific keywords and phrases, you’re very specifically targeting your audience. While ads in magazines may get a lot of attention, you never really know if your target audience is viewing the ad or if it is being viewed by someone who will never purchase your product. SEO, however, makes certain your website is being viewed by those who are looking for what you offer. It brings in more than just quantity; it brings in quality visitors and provides them with information about your website right away.

When it comes to dealing with SEO, small businesses have a few choices. They can either handle the SEO themselves or they can hire a professional SEO company. The first is obviously the most budget-friendly; however, if you and your employees don’t understand the basics of doing SEO, you may end up wasting your time. Fortunately, you can learn the basics of SEO fairly quickly.

Paying a company to do SEO, especially if the company is thorough and completely redesigns your website from the ground up to be fully optimized, may be out of your price range. Many small businesses simply can’t afford this. However, having an expert in SEO look at your pages can be helpful. Outsourcing only part of the SEO process can be helpful. For example, you may want to hire a professional SEO writer to create content for your website after you determine the keywords yourself.

Recently, by the China Human Resources Development Research Association, China Association of SMEs, the Ministry of Industry and Talent Exchange Center of China jointly organized by institutions such as business management capacity building project management capacity of the formal launch of enterprise self-built system.

China Human Resources Development Research Association, Liu Fuyuan said: “The self-study is to enhance the management capacity of the most effective way to introduce self-learning system is in this business.”

It is understood that an attempt to build self-learning system for remote live classroom has been on air, the organizers plan to use three years, the National 100 000 enterprises to establish enterprises build self-learning system.

According to Liu Fuyuan introduction, by learning to enhance the management capacity of enterprises is China’s current business will follow this path. At present, the learning ability of enterprises to improve management of three main ways: Corporate Training , In the post study, personal self.

According to Human Resource Development Council survey found that 40% of enterprise management capabilities leaning work would be enhanced by training 20% raise, while another 40% achieved by individual self.

Relatively different groups of enterprises, improve management capabilities are also very different way. Executives of the management capacity of the general by-the-job learning and training to improve, and most middle managers and general managers to improve only through self-study.

According to industry analysis, training system and the Chinese enterprises in the post are more complete learning system, which relies on self-realization of personal behavior, lack of effective self-learning system enterprise. At present, the management capacity of enterprises in general is not high, largely with business by learning the ways and means to enhance the management capacity, emphasis on-the-job learning, training, lack of effective, self-fragmentation.

China Human Resources Development Council Secretary-General Li Zhen said: “The self-learning system must meet the learning needs of enterprises, which is self-learning system enterprise building enterprise features.”

The launch of the construction business enterprises, including self-learning system, the number of sub-systems: the first is a live video system for 48 days each year to provide enterprises with the common management of live programs, systems management knowledge and skills to teach. The second is a professional learning system, will provide companies with different positions, different levels of professional management of video programs to enhance the professional management and business management. The third is the corporate knowledge resource system, and provide management shelves, trainers resource library, learning courses database, knowledge management systems series of content.

“Enterprise and individual self-learning system is different”, said Li Zhen, all self-object for the enterprise management, self-management of the content is common knowledge to the professional management based on knowledge deepens; self-learning platform is to establish a unified enterprise learning platform; self-study approach is unified by the business organization and planning; self-learning content, including real-time communication system carriers, advanced management training courses, but also including the construction enterprises to provide learning resources for library.

“It was a revolutionary form of corporate learning is to help those who are ready to establish corporate business school and the learning organization to establish the foundation of the enterprise.” Liu Fuyuan, president of the view that only training and self-learning system Education System, structural upgrades and effective supplement, not replace traditional training can not replace the post to learn more.

“At present, many companies are establishing their own Business School, a learning organization, if not for self-learning system as the core contents of the support, Business School is an empty shell and build a learning organization that is empty talk.” Li Zhen General explained that companies need to have enterprise business school learning resource library, a learning organization needs to have a climate, require high-level, mid-level, general managers match between the knowledge, ability mutual recognition, thought the same, now most Chinese enterprises do not have this condition.

Li Zhen concluded: “SMEs can effectively build enterprise self-learning system enterprise learning and training objectives, create a good learning atmosphere, to minimize the cost of enterprise learning and training, extensive and efficient integration of various learning resources , to provide staff with a high-value benefits system is the embodiment of corporate welfare. ”

You can unleash your entrepreneurship potential if you so wish and start a business that you take to super success, but before you can do that, you need to think about certain things. You don’t want to end up like most people who start businesses and then don’t succeed because of various things, mostly because they hadn’t planned out things properly earlier. So that you don’t end up that way too, here are some things that you might want to think about.

Do You Have the Passion and the Knowledge?

One of the most important ingredients for business success is that you should be passionate about what you are intending to do. You might have thought about entering a particular business niche, but then it is important that you feel about it deeply. It is only when you are interested will you be able to carry on with it for the long term.

The best business ideas are those which have some kind of innovation in them. There has to be something special, something in it that other businesses aren’t providing. Now, that can only come with knowledge. Do you know enough about the entrepreneurial venture you are planning to come up with something new? Remember that the biggest business ideas in the world have been the ones that have innovated something or the other.

Are You a Dynamic Individual?

If you need a lot of pushing to do something, you will probably not do well with your business opportunity at all. An entrepreneur needs to be dynamic and self-moving. You have to take initiatives. You have to make decisions. You have to not just plan something out, but you also have to see to it that you can carry it out till the end. If you don’t have this personality trait in you, you will probably not be able to do very well as a businessperson.

Will You Be Ready to Work More?

People who are venturing into businesses should be prepared to work a little more than the average job-seeker. There won’t be fixed hours; you will be expected to put in a lot of extra work, most of which won’t pay out right away. However, if you have an entrepreneurial flair, you will understand that your efforts will soon pay out soon.

Can You Experiment?

You will also have to try out things a lot. Your strategies may or may not work, but the important point is that you have to plan them and implement them. You will have to stick your neck out sometimes and see if things work or not. You may have to invest in places that mightn’t pay out too; be prepared for that.

Do You Have the Capital?

You cannot start an entrepreneurship venture without a sufficient amount of capital to pay for your needs. You will either have to have the required amount of capital with you or you will need to have the eligibility to apply for financial help.