“You have to do a thousand things one percent better, not just do one thing a thousand percent better. It’s doing the little things well, being on time for meetings, returning phone calls, saying thank you to people. It sounds like a cliche, but that is the reason one organization or one person is successful over someone else. Everyone knows what they ought to be doing, but the ones who practice daily excellence are the real difference makers.” – Buck Rodgers
You’re excited about your product, right? You’re proud of your performing ability right? Therefore, your best strategy, when talking to those interested in hiring, is to tell the story of how you got to where you are, and talk about your performing ability and experience with excitement and enthusiasm, right? Wrong!! Those hiring don’t care about how you got to where you are. They don’t care about your past successes. And they certainly don’t care about your personal life or feelings about your product, you.
What those hiring care about is… themselves. The failure to realize this simple fact about human nature can keep you stuck where you are as you continue to miss your mark with your marketing messages.
What skills and tools do you need to be comfortable and successful at selling yourself? Sure it’s important to have a well done, succinct, easily to read resume, bio, PR Photo and perhaps some reviews or recommendations in the packet you hand over that represents you, the product. Often one doesn’t live up to the hype in the packet or it can go the other way around, you don’t have a PR Packet that truly represents you the product. Either way, you lose. So… What to do?
When selling yourself, you need to show in every way that you have what those hiring want; how what you have will benefit their vision, and company. You need to help them understand how you are going to help their company make money by putting butts in seats because of your unique and authentic product which comes with your fan base which you have developed.
To be salable, it’s a lot more than about singing beautifully. You have to be able to take the audience on a real journey each and every time you perform. You have to remember this is business, not personal or emotional. You have to do your “job”. That means being a great professional colleague that helps make rehearsals better because you are easy to get along with and always come knowing your music, and character stone cold. Let those hiring know you love helping to promote their company by being available for any PR opportunities for their company and particularly for the show you are in. Always keep it professional and stay out of the politics. You can have fun, but that should be kept for time spent outside the theater with colleagues, etc. And it’s always about presenting yourself in a professional light, even when you are outside theater business hours.
Remember that what you are selling requires you to provide for those that are hiring, the benefits needed to help them reach their goals. That is how you need to position yourself. You never want to leave them wondering, “what does all of this mean to me and my opera company?” You need to be the catalyst that can do the job in a way no one else can. So make your message about what you can bring to their company honest, real and to their benefit.
Avanti until next time. Carol
