I just watched one of the best presenters in America: Joe Calloway.    His expertise is in personal branding. His upcoming book, “Becoming a Category of One” (John Wiley, August 2003), will delineate how you can differentiate yourself from others who do what you do. It will tell you how to position yourself in your marketplace and how to make your customers love you and need you.

Joe’s talk started with four questions that startled me: How good are you? How good are you compared with your competition? How good does the market think you are? How good do your customers think you are?

I want to ask you a few “questions behind the questions” so you can see how powerful this information is.

How good are you? How would you rate yourself? Choose a number between 1 and 10. You probably think you’re somewhere between 7 and 9.5 out of a possible 10. Now rate yourself individually for each of these questions: How well do you sell? How well do you speak? How well do you transfer your message? How well do you bring new ideas to the customer? How well do you close the deal? How well do you followup? How well do you differentiate yourself? How well do you create relationships? How well do you deliver value? How well do you help your customer profit from the use of your product or service? How well do you build your own self-development knowledge?

Now add all those and divide by 11 and you’ll have better idea of where you really are as opposed to where you think you are.

How good are you compared with your competition? Before you write down a number, answer this: How often do you win when you go up against them? Now rate yourself. Different rating? Your competitiors aren’t just your enemy. They’re your report card.

How good does the market think you are? What is their impression of you as a person? Do they even know you exist? What has your impact been on your market? What is the big picture of you in your industry? How are you positioned? In sales, it’s not whom you know, but who knows you. Before they can think you’re good, you have to have done something good. They have to know you. Now rate yourself.

How good do your customers think you are? Here is your true measurement. Here is your next sale. Here is your referral. Here is your reputation. Here is your success. Here is your fate. In a word, here is your “brand.” Your personal brand. Now rate yourself.

What is the reason for the gap between you and 10 on each of the four questions? Figure that out and you will soar on every level.

Hindsight: Your history will tell you exactly where you are today and why. Self-discovery is the only way. Foresight: Once you grasp the “gap,” grab your bootstraps and your hammer and start building. Oh yeah, make a plan. Even if you just scribble some notes on a flip chart (like I do), it will clarify your thoughts and solidify your actions.

Your personal brand is the most important and valuable asset you have. The reason for poor, weak or unknown brands among salespeople is “blaming” instead of “taking responsibility” for actions and outcomes.

Salespeople have a million reasons and excuses “why it went wrong,” but few answers as to how to pack the error with value and eliminate it in the future. That’s personal branding. And the answers have just been handed to you on a silver platter.

Here’s the good news: If you decide to grab the answers and go for it, you’ll be in the vast minority. The winning minority. The leading minority. The wealthy minority. Wanna know the secret? Before you can build wealth, you must first build a wealth of knowledge.

Free GitBit: Want some more of Joe Calloway’s wisdom? Just go to www.Gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time user and enter CALLOWAY in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer, gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.