Experience

Everyone sells differently.?Since I came into financial services/banking, I have made no confusion of the fact that I know my job is sales.?I have goals, and I have clients that have a choice if they want to take my product or not.?It is sales.

?As a younger professional, I knew I had to differentiate myself.?Experience is something that sounded great, but I just didn’t have it.?After trial and error, I figured out what my niche was and what people liked about me.?I was a professional, I took my role seriously, I was accountable and I had an opportunity to work with my clients for a long time (aka, I was young).

That hasn’t really changed for me at 35 years old now, but the concept of experience is something that I am self-conscious about. ??Do more years mean someone is better at their jobs??I’d disagree.?There are plenty of people with lots years at a job but limited talent or effort.?That’s where differentiation is important as I made sure I was more educated (getting my MBA and reading everything I could to be the most current) and always worked with a level of accountability that made me feel confident that I was better than most of my peers in the ways that I could control.?Years in the field was not one of them.

?My most highly read article that I wrote had the title of ‘I Like Working With Professionals’ and it generated a lot of emotion from people.?I characterize being a professional as someone with accountability and the right know how.?That is somewhat in the form of experience, but experience can be supplemented by education and, honestly, pure talent and effort. In a couple years, I could probably start touting my experience in the form of years in the field to differentiate myself, but I hope what truly differentiates myself is my ability to articulate, be highly educated in my field and work with a genuine accountability.

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Jason Hornberger is a 30-something year old commercial lender at Orrstown Bank in Berks County.?He would likely be considered a dinosaur by his Millennial peers, but he tries to regularly put together engaging content to show his brand and thought process.?Social media is an online billboard and his goal is to establish himself as an ethical thought leader and someone that other people want to engage with (hopefully in business and in the community).