Are you a good salesperson?

As an avid reader and book reviewer, I'm always hunting for a new read, and I'm usually excited to see what our Kenyan and African authors at large have on offer.

I was at an authors' fair recently where upcoming authors were speaking about their books.

Each author was given 10 minutes to break down their book and what makes it a worthy read.

The pitches were as varied as the personalities of the authors and some were convincing, while others put on a poor show that made them leave with few copies sold.

I bought three books from different genres - a memoir, a self-help book, and fiction.

The interesting thing is I bought the fiction book, just because the author was a persuasive salesperson. His pitch made me interested in reading his book despite my not being a fan of the fiction variety.

On the other hand, I settled on buying the self-help book because I like the genre and it was the only one in the category at the fair, rather than because the author doing her pitch was convincing.

You may call it bias because I already have a preference for the self help genre, but after reading the book and reviewing it against the fiction one, the former emerged tops by a large margin.

It got me thinking: How many times have talented people missed out on opportunities simply because they are unable to articulate what they have to offer well?

From the job interview, where the person who can sell themselves well and may not be the most skilled person tends to get the job over the one who hasn't mastered a winning elevator pitch, to the business owner who is a skilled marketer trumping another who has equally good products but poor marketing skills.

This week, reflect on how you are pitching yourself and/or your business. Is it positioning you to seize opportunities, or is it locking you out?