Written by 9:43 am Execution, Omnichannel, Personal Branding, Social Selling

5 reasons why your personal brand trumps your resume

Your personal brand is your biggest asset.  It’s the true measure of who you are. I predict …
your personal brand trumps

Your personal brand is your biggest asset.  It’s the true measure of who you are.  You can’t hide from how people perceive you especially when you don’t have a social media and marketing team working around the clock to create your online and offline persona.

I predict that resumes will be obsolete for sales jobs and possibly other types of jobs.

Think about it, the biggest asset salespeople have are their relationships or book of business. In IT sales, it’s not guaranteed that you can work on accounts you have deep relationships with unless of course you’re hired to develop or manage them.

Generally speaking, hunters are more desired than farmers because they can develop and bring new relationships to the company.

If I’m hiring new salespeople, personal branding is more telling than a candidates’ resume and here are 5 reasons why:

  1. LinkedIn relationships – You can get a good sense of who a person is connected to and the types of relationships they have.  Are they connected to clients they have relationships with?  This is key for their true Linkedin social selling strategy.
  2. LinkedIn profile – This relates to how a person presents him or herself to the public.  What does their profile picture and banner picture look like?  Does it match up to their LinkedIn intro?  Do you have original content or videos in your profile?  This is very important because this can be the first impression to your prospects/clients.
  3. Social Media Presence – Do you have a Twitter or any other social media account?  Does they integrate with your online presence?
  4. Amplification Strategy – Amplification means what content you’re posting on LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social media channels.  But are you amplifying to an empty room?  Posting an article on LinkedIn doesn’t mean you’re a social selling expert.  There has to be real thought to this.
  5. Offline Presence – How are they presenting themselves offline?  Calls and VITO/BASHO letters.  Is this integrated with your online presence?  For example, are your sales plays initiatives in line with your daily amplifications and are you connected with the people you’re targeting because people that are connected to you can only see your amplifications.

Their resume is the last thing I’d review because if their personal brand is strong, it can validate all the accomplishments on their resume.

Let’s face it, resumes are only created and build to showcase your accomplishments and people have learned how to make themselves look better than they actually are.

I realize everyone isn’t a Marketing MBA or have blogging experience, but they need to have the willingness to learn as it’s crucial to a short and long term omnichannel sales strategy.

Your personal brand will give a true sense of yourself and your offline and online efforts.  Resumes don’t do that – you could have great accomplishments but be a complete tool which wouldn’t serve well in developing relationships internally and externally.

 

 

Anthony Lobosco

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