Companies acquire talent the same way as they acquire any other service, and job seekers benefit by taking an active sales-oriented approach and using sales techniques in their job search. Using a sales approach will empower you to be more assertive, directed, and organized in your search. The more you use these skills, the more interviews you will be invited to. And the more interviews you have, the more interview practice you will get[md]and the more skilled you will become.
The benefits of using a sales approach include the following
* You will have a well-defined service you are selling to the job marketplace and a strong set of marketing and sales documents.
* You will be more focused on establishing a good sales process and less focused on the outcome of landing a job. Focusing on the process rather than the outcome will improve your chances of landing a job.
* Companies know how to purchase services, and if you use a sales approach, it will be easier for them to purchase your services.
* Many candidates have a hard time “bragging” about themselves in an interview. Selling is not bragging, and it will empower you to present your most commanding reasons for why you should be selected for the position.
* You will have a better answer to questions regarding your strengths and weaknesses.
You have all the selling skills you need to do well in interviews, you just need to learn how to apply the skills!
When customers purchase services (including yours), they typically ask six basic questions. These are the questions you will be answering as well in your interviews. The actual questions asked may differ in format or content; however, the underlying information remains the same.
* Who is [company]? Customers are asking about industries or markets served, geographic presence, a layman’s expression of the value created, time in business, and the size of the company.
* What do you do for customers? Customers are asking about the value the company delivers and the top two or three ways customers benefit from it.
* Who are your top customers, and what do you do for them specifically? Customers are asking for more specific proof or evidence that substantiates the company’s claims of the value they deliver
* How are you different from other companies who do similar things? The customer wants to learn the differences between the products or services the company provides and those offered by competitors. It is an attempt to clarify why selecting the company is the best choice.
* Others have made convincing promises about these things and then not delivered. How can we be sure that you will do what you say? Customers have experience purchasing services that did not deliver the value promised, and they are concerned about being subjected to or persuaded by a clever sales pitch. They have been burned, and they are wary.
* How can we be sure that we would get the best value if we selected you? Customers have multiple companies from which to choose. Asking this question forces a company to make comparisons with competitors and helps clarify the selection decision.
As you prepare for your interview, develop answers to these six customer questions. Then, in your interview, listen for these questions and use your prepared answers. In addition, develop examples and stories to support your answers. In Chapter 10 of the book Active Interviewing: Branding, Selling and Presenting Yourself to Win Your Next Interview, you will learn learn how to develop powerful stories to support your claims of value.
Most job seekers can easily classify their professional identity and what their services generally include- for example, they may be an IT project manager, a banquet chef, a state representative legislative aide, a stockbroker selling energy stocks, a brand manager for consumer packaged goods, or an accountant. However, most job seekers do not sufficiently define the full range of services they provide, including intangibles that make them successful at the job. In addition to high-quality services, in a competitive marketplace intangible success factors differentiate you from your competition.
Services, Features, and Benefits
In defining your services, think like a business. What is the full range of features and benefits you offer? One business might differentiate itself by promising outstanding customer service, or it might offer a highly specialized component of the service that other companies do not have. One business might offer the base service but have ancillary services that add value and tip the buying decision in its favor. For example, a veterinarian might provide excellent pet care but may also have a mobile van for house calls.
What is the full range of base and add-on services you provide? For example, one of my clients was applying for a position as a manufacturing-plant manager. The position to which he was applying did not include reading blueprints or managing construction in the job description; however, during his interview he spoke about how he learned to read blueprints and manage construction contractors after having been involved in building a plant. The interviewer told him, “That’s great! We’re not currently building, but we anticipate that within 18 months, we will be expanding our current plant or building a new plant.” My client was hired
As another example, a client was applying for a staff accounting position. During his interview, he spoke about having been involved in evaluating, selecting, and implementing an accounting system. The posted job requirements did not include selection and implementation of accounting systems; however, coincidently, the company was beginning to consider purchasing an accounting system. My client was hired.
When I’m helping clients with resumes and preparing them for interviews, I often get into a debate about using the word “expert.” Clients are concerned about overstating their skill and experience, coming off as immodest or arrogant, and turning off the hiring manager. But there is a difference between being the expert and being an expert. I contend that anyone with three or more years of experience in a profession is probably an expert.
Dictionary.com defines an expert as “a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority.” This is differentiated from a novice, who is “new to any science or field of study or activity or social cause and is undergoing training to meet normal requirements of being regarded a mature and equal participant.”
Marie-Line Germain, assistant professor of human resources and leadership at Western Carolina University, developed a measure of perception of employee expertise called the Generalized Expertise Measure (GEM). Ask yourself whether you meet the following criteria for being an expert. Borrowing a line from a well-known comedian, you might be an expert if:
* You have knowledge specific to a field of work.
* You have the education necessary to be an expert in the field.
* You have the qualifications (certifications, licensure) required to be an expert in the field.
* You have been trained in the area of expertise.
* You are ambitious about your work.
* You can assess whether a work-related situation is important.
* You are capable of improving yourself.
* You can deduce things easily from work-related situations.
* You are intuitive in the job.
* You have the drive to become what you are capable of becoming in your field.
* You are self-assured.
* You are self-confident about your profession.
Using these criteria, the term “expert” can be applied to any job. A janitor can be an expert at janitorial services, just as a lawyer can be an expert at criminal law. If you qualify as an expert in your field, include that in your self-image and your brand and communicate your expert status to the world and your interviewer.
Go to www.activeinterviewing.com to learn how to sell in your interview
Our stories define who we are. Our sense of identity is forged by the stories we tell ourselves and share with others. The success stories of our careers tell about the defining moments when we were at our best, using our strengths, and contributing in meaningful ways. Our stories build and communicate our brand.
Most of us have multiple examples of career successes. The key is to understand that a career or job success is not defined by its size or financial value, but rather by how we feel about it and its contribution to the organization. One person’s success story might be about turning around a corporation, saving millions of dollars, and getting his profile in Forbes magazine. Another person’s success story might be about helping a troubled student feel more confident in school and having him progress to the next grade. Interestingly, both these success stories probably depend on many of the same personal success factors, including creativity, persistence, courage, hope, persuasion, and leadership.
When my clients write success stories, they come alive. They remember the times they felt productive and were fulfilling their purpose in their careers. They become energized and get in touch with the skills and strengths they enjoy using in their jobs. Some realize that they are doing what they love, while others are reminded of things they need to return to. Regardless, the stories are important statements of the contributions they have made in the past and indications of contributions they can make in the future[md]if they have done it once, they can do it again.
When telling your success stories, you have energy, enthusiasm, and confidence, and you feel a sense of pride. You are persuasive, engaging, and interesting- all the qualities you want to bring to your interviews! Telling success stories in your interviews will help you differentiate yourself, will impress the interviewer, and will make you memorable.
Go to www.activeinterviewing.com to learn how to develop interview stories
“There isn’t a pat answer anymore to this world, so the best we can do for students is to have them ask the right questions.” Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Syracuse University
One of the primary reasons why people fail on jobs is that they take a job with an improper understanding of what the job entails. They don’t realize that the job requires as much travel as it does or that it requires very long hours during certain times of the year. They don’t know what skills are actually required or that they will have limited supervision or training. Maybe they are thinking account management, and the job is actually sales or project management. You can fix this missing information and these misconceptions by asking good questions, paying close attention to the answers, and asking follow-up questions. Asking good questions often clarifies the position in the hiring manager’s mind as well, which supports your candidacy for the position.Leaving the interview with unanswered objections will doom your chances for winning the interview and getting the job. Asking the best interview question of all time can save your interview by reducing the hiring manager’s fear uncertainty and doubt and clearing the way for you to be the candidate of choice. Asking good questions has the following benefits:
* It demonstrates a high level of interview preparation and motivation.
* It demonstrates a critical job-success skill- asking good questions.
* It helps expose concerns about hiring you and allows you to correct misconceptions.
* It creates additional opportunities for quality conversations.
* It demonstrates your knowledge of the industry, company, and job- increasing your credibility.
* It addresses one of interviewers’ primary criticisms of candidates- lack of questions.
Go to www.activeinterviewing.com to learn how to ask good questions
Interviewers frequently ask, “Why did you leave (or why are you leaving) that employer?” This is a difficult question for many candidates to handle well. If a candidate was let go for cause, answering is an embarrassment. Even in a bad economy, where the reason is a layoff, a candidate may get defensive and tend to ramble with his answer. To effectively answer this question, prepare an exit statement for each employer for whom you worked. The statements should be brief, factual, and not defensive. Some examples include:
* Candidates who’ve been laid off
“Due to declining market conditions, Konix underwent a major reorganization. This resulted in the elimination of more positions from the national sales force, including mine.”
“Due to market conditions, Mileage Automotive has reduced the size of their workforce by 350 positions. I was able to retain my job through two rounds of layoffs; however, my position was eliminated in the third round.”
* Candidates who are working and looking for another job
“Although I’m performing very well as a senior business analyst with Capital Tech, I have learned that there are no opportunities there at the level appropriate for me, especially across the disciplines in which I work best. Therefore, I’m exploring senior-level management positions that will leverage my understanding of technology, marketing, communications, and sales.”
* Candidates who’ve been fired
“The culture at my last company was not a good fit for me. My style is to bridge differences to find common ground. I believe that’s the most effective way to move forward when two sides disagree. That style was instrumental in the successful resolution of several serious negotiations at Zenox Company, but at Stricker, I found the situation to be quite different. In fact, when I tried to intervene to resolve a problem that had brought our new product group to a standstill, my manager pulled me out of the group and told me he thought the creative differences would result in a better product. This trend continued for the 18 months I was there, so I wasn’t really surprised when I was asked to leave.”
A few rules about exit statements:
* Never be negative about the employer. Even if the layoffs were due to terrible planning or you were let go because of a bad boss, do not be negative. Notice that in the first exit examples, layoffs were due to “market conditions,” not bad corporate planning. If you were fired, don’t blame your boss; talk about strategic differences or differences in work philosophies.
* Keep it simple. The briefer the better. Only give pertinent information, and do not go into detail. Long explanations make you sound as if you’re being defensive and covering up something. If the interviewer wants more detail, he will ask for it.
* Communicate magnitude. If you were part of a large layoff, include numbers. Being one of 15 or one of 2,000 (depending on the company’s size) makes it clear you weren’t singled out.
* Mention multiple rounds of layoffs. Often, companies lay off workers in multiple rounds. The common perception is that the first round of layoffs consists of marginal workers the company wanted to get rid of anyway. The subsequent rounds begin to include good employees. If you were in a second or third round of layoffs, mention that in your exit statement.
Go to www.activeinterviewing.com to learn more interview winning strategies
In a competitive and crowded marketplace, every product and service must differentiate itself. It is not enough to be simply as good as all the rest, because there are too many “all the rests” in the market. In addition, with easy access to cheap (or even free) Internet advertising, there is a great deal of advertising that makes differentiating services and determining buying decisions difficult- just think of all the pop-up ads you see online. In the employment marketplace, this is exemplified by the tens of thousands of job sites and hundreds of resumes submitted over the Internet in response to advertised jobs. To rise above the flood of advertising, successful companies establish powerful branding and distinct value-adds. You can adopt the same strategy to rise above the flood of your competition in the employment marketplace.
A value-add refers to an extra feature of a service that goes beyond the standard expectations and provides a more compelling reason to purchase. A value-add makes the service more desirable and positively influences the buying decision. However, a value-add has no value if it is not in addition to good service. Always having on-time delivery does not make a difference if the pizza tastes terrible.
The worst position for a service is to be a commodity. A service is a commodity when it is equivalent no matter who provides it. A provider of a commodity service is easily exchanged for another provider of the same service who offers a lower price. For example, many dry cleaners provide a commodity service. Customers will change to another dry cleaner if they can find one that costs less. In the employment marketplace, many employees[md]even mid- and senior-level employees[md]are commodities in that they provide a service that can be replaced easily. In bad economies, companies replace more expensive “commodity” employees with cheaper employees. Are you a commodity in the employment marketplace?
If you are a commodity, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself in interviews. However, most of us are not commodities we just have not deteremined out value-adds. To determine your value-adds:
Know Yourself
Take a complete inventory of your skills. Do not limit the inventory to skills applicable to the job for which you are interviewing; do a full inventory. This inventory should include skills connected to your job, interests, hobbies, and leisure activities. When you have a full inventory, you can choose which skills serve as value-adds for the job for which you’re applying.
Know Your Profession
Every profession has a number of areas of concentration and a large skill base. For example, within human resources, you might be applying to be a compensation manager. However, the human resources field has a number of other specialty areas and required skills, such as diversity management, employee retention, job-task analysis, and international employment. You might have experience in international employment, and even though you’re applying to be a compensation manager, having international employment experience could be a differentiating value-add for a multinational company or a company that is expanding internationally.
Once you have determined you value-ads, use an interview presentation to clearly communicate them in your interview. To learn more about value-ads in interviews go to Active Interviewing.
Read Active Interviewing to Learn More About Value-Ads
“Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones.” Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister
Stories persuade and land jobs
Every day, you are faced with a barrage of efforts to persuade you to buy a product or service. The vast majority of these efforts are forgettable and totally unpersuasive. Occasionally, however, one of these communications breaks through the noise, catches your imagination, and speaks to you personally. What is happening? Many times, it’s not the service or the brand that gets through, but how the information is communicated.
In every interview, interviewers listen to candidates answering questions to try to persuade them that they are the best candidate for the job. Most questions in an interview can be, and should be, answered by saying “Let me give you an example. However, the vast majority of these examples are forgettable, mundane, and totally unpersuasive- in short, they’re boring. You can avoid boring if you have a good delivery.
Good delivery consists of three factors:
* Sincerity and wholeheartedness. Any success story you tell has to be honest and real. Don’t make up a story to respond to a question. A fabricated story will lack sincerity; your heart won’t be in it, and the interviewer will know!
* Enthusiasm. These are stories about you at your best, about achievements you are proud of, so being enthusiastic should be easy. Being enthusiastic doesn’t mean you have to be artificially animated or jump up and down on a couch; just let your pride in your success shine through. However, don’t get too enthusiastic and get carried away[md]remember, no story should take longer than two minutes.
* Animation. A great deal of your story is communicated nonverbally, so show some emotion in your gestures, voice, and facial expressions. Smile, move your hands, change the pitch of your voice, and maintain eye contact. A great success story told with a deadpan expression and in a monotone is boring.
Learn to tell good stories and your interviewers will be more engaged and more persuaded that you are the candidate of choice.
Give a presentation to tell a good story
This book has the strategies you need to win interviews
With our economy it is difficult to just get a job interview and with so many applicants interviewing for the same spots, it is important to find a way to edge out the competition and win the job.
Luckily, there is a new and inexpensive resource for job seekers to use when preparing and presenting themselves at their next interview; the iBest Presentation.
The iBest Presentation, featured on InterviewBest.com, is an interview tool that assists job candidates to communicate their job specific qualifications and personal attributes during the job interview. Not only does it quickly and clearly show the interviewer how they fit each requirement, but also leaves a powerful impression of professionalism and enthusiasm for the job.
“It’s really designed to create a conversation,” said Eric Kramer career expert and creator of InterviewBest and the iBest Presentation. “The best interview you can have is a conversation rather than the typical interrogation.”
Kramer said that the design of the presentation is based on his belief that every interview is, essentially, a sales call. Therefore, Kramer said candidates should enter each interview with a sales style presentation that clearly answers the three main questions of all job interviews—can the candidate do the job well, are they motivated, and will they fit the company’s work environment.
The iBest Presentation
The iBest Presentation is a brief eight to ten pages in length, beginning with the requirements of the position and the candidate’s qualifications that directly match those requirements. The interviewer can read through the booklet to find the candidate’s personal strengths, career accomplishments, and a 30 and 60 day strategic action plan detailing the candidate’s initial goals. It finishes with a list of reasons the candidate should be hired and questions the candidate has for the interviewer.
How do I prepare?
When candidates walk into an interview, Kramer said only about 25 percent are fully prepared. He said that many do not do the necessary company research or prepare for difficult questioning. By creating the iBest presentation, Kramer said applicants walk in with a clearer assessment of the job, the company, and how they specifically fulfill the requirements of the position.
Janice Bilotti, who successfully used the iBest Presentation while interviewing for a Customer Service Supervisor position at Jones Apparel Group, said that the presentation enabled her to be prepared for the interview in addition to keeping her thoughts organized during the interview.
“iBest helps to make sure you cover the most important things that you want to discuss,”
she said, “because now it’s right there in writing and it organizes you during the interview as well as beforehand.”
Bilotti introduced her presentation in the interview when the interviewer asked her to describe herself. Pulling out iBest, Bilotti said that she and the interviewer read through it, touching on the important points she felt the company needed to know about her qualifications.
“It keeps you focused,” she said. “It makes you talk about what you want to focus on when you’re having your interview with the company.”
Bilotti said that her presentation impressed both of the individuals who interviewed her, adding that she didn’t think they had seen anything like it before.
It's a win and a job
Bilotti got a call later that same day with a job offer.
In addition to the iBest Presentation, InterviewBest.com has information for anyone involved in the interview process including candidates and hiring managers. Information includes links and tips for things to do before, during, and after the interview. The site also includes information about how to conduct an interview and ways to improve the selection process.
To create an iBest Presentation, job-seekers can go to www.InterviewBest.com and find an easy-to-use program that automatically generates a presentation as they add text. Included are expert libraries with phrases or words suggested for use in presentations. These libraries make developing an iBest quick and efficient. Once the presentation is made, users can either print it at home or take it to a local office supply store for professional binding.
Bilotti said that she would use the iBest Presentation in any future interview due to the positive impact it had on her last one.
“…It sets you apart,” she said. “Very few people would even go to that point of having a presentation much less having one of this quality.”
Go to InterviewBest for a Free Trial of iBest
Buy the book that will help you win your interview
Posted by Eric Kramer 
What Are You 
