What’s your strategy for professional sustainability? Hint: your strategy includes business development and that dreaded “S” work: selling.
Creating your professional sustainability strategy encompasses considering all the activities you engage in pre- and post- “sale. “
Sale of What? The selling of Yourself as a Professional Person of Worth.
You don’t consider your business transition, startup growth or professional development in that manner, do you?
Selling, business transition, startup growth, and professional development are all-hands-on-deck processes. They encompass all the steps you take, your education and training processes and practices, your business and career models, your relationships and your networking efforts.
You don’t engage in these activities alone. They involve support people you rely on to move you, your venture, your company, your career, to the next level of development and revenue generation.
That’s what’s involved in creating your professional sustainability.
In today’s globally competitive marketplace, business development is part of everyone’s job responsibility, even if it’s not clearly stated in your job description. Business and professional development involve Selling yourself as a Person of Worth in order to move forward.
You want tenure, you sell. You want to get a grant funded, you publish. Your department’s successes drive increased enrollment in your institutions – you drive revenue. A customer calls with a problem; you listen and pass along detailed information to the folks in your company with a solution.
You want to get promoted, you market your accomplishments. You want funding, you pitch to investors. You want customers who are sold on the value of YOU, you sell.
Your goal is creating professional sustainability in the marketplace. The process involves selling, that dreaded “S” word.
You are not a Traditional selling type, of course. You do, however, have the capability to become a Collaborative one.
Simply doing your job in a vacuum, hoping to gain recognition for your own efforts, is not a viable strategy for professional sustainability. It never was.
I’m sure you consider your efforts far more than a line item in someone else’s departmental budget or investment portfolio. Your efforts contribute to your professional reputation, your career development and your image in the marketplace.
Your efforts also contribute to the professional sustainability of everyone you collaborate with, as well. Together, you all get to the finish line.
The sum total of your efforts to create a viable and sustainable career within a viable and sustainable organization involves developing, collaborating with, selling yourself to others. Your goal is more than your paycheck. It’s your professional sustainability.
- This week, quantify how many individuals within your workspace sell their capabilities to you each day.
- How many of them collaborate on your behalf to assist you in creating your professional sustainability.
- How might you collaborate on their behalf, as well?
Makes you think about your professional context differently, doesn’t it?
Babette N. Ten Haken, Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers, LLC, catalyzes revenue-producing business transition, startup growth and professional development. She works with technical and non-traditional sellers in your organization, which may be your CEO. Together, everyone gets to the finish line together and becomes capable of driving revenue.
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