YOU are the product

What’s more important, perception or reality?

It depends on what you’re doing.

If you are flying a plane, it doesn’t matter how great your personal brand is, if you can’t land the thing safely in the place you intended to go.

But, if you carry a Chanel bag or drive a Bentley, people will think you're someone important.?

Studies show that we defer to expensively dressed people and assume they are in charge, even if we don't know who they are.

Success begets success.

Luxury brands are experts at positioning themselves as covetable status symbols, and drive awareness with gargantuan marketing budgets.

The tech industry has learned from them, and Apple is the best example.

Most people think of Steve Jobs as a product genius, which he was.?

But, without the “Think Different” marketing campaigns and his theatrical unveilings of his products, Apple wouldn’t be the success it is today.?

In Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson you can see how seriously Jobs took positioning and advertising his products.

Today, when tech start-ups raise financing rounds from venture capitalists, they must include their projections for marketing spend.?

Typically, consumer companies spend about 40% of the money they raise on Facebook and Google advertising. In enterprise software, the top sales pro often makes more than the start-up's CEO.?

Venture capitalists know that for a start-up to be a success, investing in product development isn’t enough. You also have to invest in telling people about it.

So why do we not apply the same logic to our careers??

Most of us are head down, focussed on the task at hand and fighting an ever-growing to do list. We are all too busy.

But, if we don’t invest in marketing ourselves as a product, we put ourselves in a dangerous position.

Imagine if a start-up only had one corporate customer.

How powerful would the start-up founder be in the contract negotiation with them? Not at all.

Now imagine that same start-up, with a waiting list of customers.?

What would contract negotiations look like in scenario two? Which scenario would you rather be in?

Whether you run a business, or work in one, you are the product.?

You’ve probably invested a lot in making the product of you excellent.

Perhaps you’ve gone to business school, or law school, taken the time to learn about your industry and become great at your job.

Now it’s time to add product marketing to your repertoire: get the right people to know about your skillset, and make opportunities come to you.

The first step on your product marketing journey is simply acknowledging that it needs to happen.?

Just like in a business, it will require you to invest your resources for it to work (time, energy and possibly money).

After this mindset shift, you can move on to taking action.?

What can you do today to position yourself in the marketplace so opportunities come to you??

To help you answer that question, and not waste your time in pointless activities, I’m teaching a free class?called Stand Out! Make opportunities come to YOU next Wednesday.

Learn more and register here .

If you think this is a fluffy skill, remember that Steve Jobs would have disagreed with you.?

Speak soon,

Sophia