01/08/2013

Your Unique Value

By Tom Reilly, author of Value-Added Selling

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. (Robert Frost)

Each of us is endowed by our Creator with a uniqueness that we solely possess. It was never intended that we would all be alike. This uniqueness is encoded in our DNA and witnessed in our day-to-day behavior. Yet, we spend so much of our lives trying to fit—going to the right schools, joining the right clubs, marrying the right person, getting the right job and moving into the right neighborhood. All of this fitting in overshadows our God-given right to stand out—to be outstanding in our own way.

For those of us in sales, fitting in or blending with the crowd means that we fail to celebrate what makes us different. Too many years of fitting in makes standing out a more difficult proposition. Every one of us has value. Every one of us has unique value. No other person in this world contributes value as we do individually. They have their value; we have our value. Every salesperson I have met in the past thirty years is special in his or her own way. That is a given. The difficulty is in communicating that value to others, in word or deed.

This is a good time of the year to take inventory. How do you uniquely create value for your customer and your company? What makes your personal value proposition special? Answering with as much humility as you can muster, how is this world blessed because you are here?

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” (Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford Graduation Speech)

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