Using my Personal Brand Statement

In the last few weeks, I’ve been refining my . I’ve received from a few people, who I had asked, words that would professionally describe me. I feel I’ve put together a pretty good personal brand statement. Versions of it could be used as 30- or 45-second elevator speech. I’ve even used it on the summary of my resume. I feel it could also be used to answer that tricky interview question. You know the one: “Tell me about yourself?”

After all that work, during the last few interviews, I never really had the opportunity to say my complete branding statement during an interview.

Instead during the interviews, I’ve been trying to get into the conversation key words from my branding statement to emphasize what I’m all about.

Yesterday, I went into a company for an interview and they had me fill an application. In the area of the application for special skills, I couldn’t think of any skills that I have had formal training on that would pertain to the job. I really didn’t want to leave that area blank. Since, skills like perseverance, disciplined, consultative, relationship building, and self-starter are all skills that sales professionals should have and, those skills are in my personal brand statement, I wrote my personal brand:

“Disciplined and goal orientated self-starter who perseveres to educate the customer about the value of products and services in a consultative manor. I do this by asking questions and listening to the customer to find any gaps, quickly find methods to fill the gaps and then consult and educate the customer on the value of the products or services that fill those gaps. I am interested in a small to medium sized company looking to expand their bottom line through relationship building and providing value to customers.“

After he read that section he said softly, “I like that. That’s what we are looking for.”

I have learned that having a personal brand statement is very important for those who are searching for the next position or next project. I learned about creating and using my personal brand from taking classes at the Bloomington-Minnesota Workforce center. The classes I took were presented by Anne Pryor or Kathleen Crandall (www.MeaningfulConnections.net)