Make Your Weaknesses become Your Strengths!

In marketing consultations, I want to understand and get to know you. I want to live and breathe your business. It sounds funny, but I am genuinely so passionate at times I act like it’s my business. Well...I am a passionate Italian after all!

If you know me, you will have heard my favourite piece of advice - “convert your weaknesses into strengths”.

As part of an initial consultation, I sometimes like to include a brief SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). This helps to give a clear understanding of who you are and helps me learn more about your industry.

Your SWOT analysis is an element that helps to create a successful marketing campaign. It's important to study your market and understand the most effective way to show you in the best light.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Discover your Most Powerful Selling Point!

Some already know and for others, sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. As a marketing professional, I can tell you that it is useful to know your strengths and weaknesses.

I can enhance your strengths and can help convert your weaknesses so you can sell them as strengths. Believe it or not, what you think is your weakness today can be your strength tomorrow. I’ll give you my own experience as an example…

An Italian in London!

When I started working many years ago, I was frequently told being a woman and a foreigner were my biggest barriers. Unfortunately, I spent years believing this misconception until 2006.

I attended a “Best of Croydon” networking event, where there were hundreds of different people showcasing their various businesses. Before the event, I carefully prepared my offering, practised my pitch and thoroughly planned my strategy.

I was relatively new to networking and did not want to be caught off guard. I remember thinking to myself ‘I need to have a really good sales pitch to be remembered’.

My business had just started and I wanted to make a memorable impression. Being a newbie I didn't know all the dos and don'ts of networking events so I did what came naturally to me which was just being myself. 

My personality is quite friendly and approachable. I also absolutely love hearing about other people's business’ journeys and talking and sharing ideas with others - so, as you can imagine - I was in my element!

Leaving that event, I went home excited by all the people I met. Will they remember me? I asked myself. The next day I put all the business cards together of those people who had made an impression on me and started calling them. It was easy to speak with the people I liked and thought I could do business with.

And that’s when I realised one of my strengths!

Within two calls I realised I had two major strengths unique to me in that room of 100’s of business people.

1. My name Antonella, there was no one else with that name. It's fun to try to say and almost makes you feel like you are in the Mediterranean, so that alone made me unique.
2. My accent, that slight Italian accent and the way I mispronounced some words. A reason I was uncomfortable with, while employed, but as a business owner, was almost my brand.

You might not remember Antonella or might not know how to spell it, but you definitely remember meeting a friendly Italian girl.

After these first calls, I started turning my "weakness" into a strength than I started my telephone calls saying: "Hi I'm Antonella - that Italian marketing girl you met at the event last night"

People were instantly warm to me and said: "oh yeah I remember you, funny there were so many people there but you stood out from the rest”.

The Basis of a Brand

I'm a proud Italian businesswoman who has lived in the UK for over 20 years. You can call me the "Italian marketing girl". The UK is my home and where my heart is and Italy is where my roots are. The combination of the two makes me remarkably unforgettable.

Your Personal Brand is Your Powerful-Strength!

When marketing, your authentic self is what makes potential customers want to engage with you. It’s how they will relate to you.

Core values are strong drivers in how we connect with each other. Clients want to interact with brands that make them feel comfortable.

People want to be around other people they feel safe with and identify with and who will understand what is important to them. It makes sense because similar people will have each other's best interests at heart. It’s also easier to work with like-minded people, isn’t it?

Like Attracts Like

Your personal brand is woven through all of your marketing material so you need to be clear when preparing your marketing assets.

When attending an event or through any marketing activity for that matter, you need to know and embrace who you are and what you stand for because that is the basis of your brand. And this will continue to help keep you connected with your audience.

Bonus Tip: Be Prepared!

As much as I am a passionate, vivacious Italian, when I attended that event many years ago, I still needed to be prepared with my pitch. With a clear strategy, my clear and focused pitch helped me gain clients on those brief follow up calls.

Why Should you know your Strengths and Weaknesses?

In short, knowing your strengths and weaknesses supports you in establishing how you can compete in the marketplace.

What does knowing them to do for your business and how does it relate to Marketing? Well, I love bullet points so here is my bullet-point summary below: -

STRENGTHS

- Helps you get a competitive edge

- Know your worth

- Focus on keeping those areas up to date so they stay a strength

- Helps you with goal setting

- Allows you to become an industry leader

WEAKNESSES

We all have weaknesses or areas where we can improve. We’re human.

- You know what barriers you need to overcome

- Outsource your weaknesses so that your vulnerable areas are covered

   (it’s what successful people do all the time)

- Helps you with goal setting

- Knowing the factors that might cause a loss of revenue

- Knowing what area of the business might need investing in.

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Share with us your major strengths & weaknesses! 

Conclusion - Here is your Takeaway

Your strengths are your skills and qualities that come easy to you. You excel in them because they fit your passion and interests. Weaknesses are those skills that do not come naturally to you but that doesn’t mean you can’t overcome them.

For me, I don’t like maths and to help me, I use excel where I can and outsource the rest to my accountant. I’ve turned a weakness into a strength by tackling what tools I can use and outsourcing the bits that don’t come naturally to me.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses puts you in a powerful position. Use your strengths to your advantage!

Have you identified your SWOT? Let’s get you started!

Call us today quoting #MNBlog09. We will send an initial questionnaire to help you. Return it to us and you are in for the chance of a FREE One Hour Consultation.

Use your weaknesses turn them into strengths and
make sure you get noticed when you walk into a room,
whether virtually or hopefully soon physically