I recently found myself suffering from a lousy cold; all the coughing, snuffling and sneezing symptoms which send other people running for cover.

I also found myself apologising to people I'd come into contact with - "You must excuse me, I'm suffering from the cold" would be my obvious statement.

However, instead of any sympathy all I heard was - "Oh, I've got it too and my whole family's had it and it's a whole lot worse than yours!" Okay, so they didn't exactly say the last bit but that seemed to be the underlying message.

This response isn't the best for people who want to be good at "selling themselves." To be a first class salesperson or a successful manager or just a good communicator, you need to be good at selling yourself and building rapport.

So when someone says - "You must excuse me, I'm suffering from the cold," it's far better to say something like - "I'm sorry to hear that, it can be a real pain having the cold."

Similarly, when some tells you about a holiday they've just had or about to take, don't say - "Me too, I've been there, it's great."

Far better to say something like - "That sounds fantastic, I'm sure you'll have a great time!" Ask questions about the holiday and how they enjoyed it. You could then go on to tell them about how much you enjoyed it when you were there but quickly get back to talking about their experience.

Selling yourself (or anything else) isn't about talking about you or what you do; it's about listening and understanding the other person's situation. So if you want to be INTERESTING then be INTERESTED!

Alan Fairweather

Alan Fairweather is a business development expert who, for the past twenty-seven years, has been turning ?adequate? managers, sales and customer service people into consistent top performers.

After training as an engineer, Alan moved into sales and management and held senior positions in the Electronics, Industrial Supplies, Car maintenance and Drinks Industry.

He?s a qualified Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist (no, he won?t put you to sleep) and he founded his business as a Professional Speaker in 1993. He works with people and organisations to achieve business results through behavioural change.

Alan has broad experience across many industries and runs seminars and workshops for people in ? Financial Services, Telecommunications, Hospitality, Healthcare, Property Management, Legal, Accountancy, Printing, Media, Computer Hardware and Software.

Results ? That?s what Alan?s about and he?s committed to helping your business find new customers fast, lose fewer customers and win more sales from existing customers.