5 Steps to Building a Sellable Name

A sellable name means your reputation has reached a new level. Not only do people know who you are but they also know what you are capable of. A sellable name means, your name carries influence and is marketable. When you have influence, you can persuade, which allows you to sway people’s opinions and behaviours. When you are marketable, you are an asset to your Organization; as you are in demand and your name will be the supply to meet their demand. 

Not only does a sellable name mean you have become an asset to your Organization, but you have become valuable to the open market. Individuals who have built their reputation to span large distances, have expanded to a level in their career, where their business reach can open doors for them and create opportunities that cannot be quantified. A sellable name means you are well known and therefore, people come to you with opportunities and stretch assignments.

Building a sellable name isn’t difficult but it does take time and dedication to your career. Below is a five-step process to building a sellable name that can secure an invulnerable reputation.

Step by step approach in building a sellable name:

1.     Establishing your Credibility as a Professional – Before you can develop an invulnerable reputation, you must first establish your credibility. Your credibility as a professional will be your foundation, in which you can build a skyscraper on. Your credibility as a professional is your character, personality and ability; therefore, always bring:

• Character - Integrity and accountability to everything you do. Keep you word and deliver on your promises.
• Personality - Remain humble as your successes gain momentum. And always be kind and fair to everyone you meet. Be generous and help others when you can.
• Ability - Develop your skills and increase the talent you bring to the table. Become consistent and knock the ball out of the park on every challenge and obstacle given to you.

Bringing credibility to your reputation will assist in what others say about you, because essentiallyyour reputation is built on what others say about your credibility; therefore, start early and continue to develop and learn over the course of your entire career. Never get comfortable.

2.     Deliver on your commitments – If you have said yes, and given your word, then you have agreed to finish. You made a promise, and a person of strong character (integrity and accountability) abides by their promises. This isn’t to say that you can’t make mistakes nor ask for help when you need it; it’s to say, if you have given your word to complete a task, then you stick with it to you complete it. Part of learning and gaining experience is making mistakes; this may mean, you have overcommitted, or taken on too much; if this is the case, request help. Walking away from your responsibilities, shows immaturity and can hurt your reputation. You want to build your reputation as a professional who finishes and delivers high quality results; you can’t do this if you continually break your promises and don’t back your words with the applicable actions. Credible professionals deliver on all their commitments, even when it’s extremely difficult.

3.     Produce high quality results – First step is to deliver on your commitments and complete your responsibilities and the second part, is to produce high quality results. Completing a task, is worthless, if the result is not desired nor what was wanted and expected. You must always at a minimum meet expectation but if you want to build a name that truly sells, best to exceed expectations on a regular basis. Bring consistency to your reputation, as a professional who ALWAYS delivers high quality results. If you can secure high quality results each and every time, you will create a consistency in your character and people will beginning to know what to expect from you; this builds trust in your ability.

4.     Solve difficult problems – It’s effective if you can always deliver on your commitments and produce high quality results, but this won’t have the same strength if you’re only solving basic business issues per usual. If you want to truly build a name with an invulnerable reputation, make it a habit to solve difficult problems. If you can solve difficult problems and bring a solution-based mindset with you; you will be a rare commodity and a true asset to any Organization. Individuals who can solve difficult problems, with high quality results, each and every time, are extremely rare. This will be your superpower; this will bring you job security and a sellable name that is nearly bulletproof.

5.     Ensure your high-quality results are visible – The last step in building a sellable name is primarily for protection; this will be your Kevlar vest. By ensuring your results are visible, will protect you from others taking credit for your successes. Part of developing a strong reputation with a sellable name, is having your results being visible to influential people. Not only is this a way of protecting your work but it will assist in having people connect your name with your ability to produce consistent high-quality results from difficult problems. If you execute step one through four flawlessly but fail to execute step five, your successes may not get the momentum to truly build a sellable name. Don’t be the preverbal tree in the forest… let people see your results and hear your name.

A sellable name is part of becoming a ‘safe bet’ and safe bets are easy to invest in. If you establish your credibility, you will bring something unique to every opportunity presented to you. You will bring ability, kindness, integrity, accountability, generosity and therefore, consistency. People will know what to expect when they give you a difficult problem; as you will be the solution. When you are the solution, you have become a safe bet and influential people will invest in you.

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