What’s the biggest job search secret you’re missing out on?
All the parts and pieces of your search are important—your resume, interview answers, 30-60-90-day plan, and even your thank you note.
But there’s one thing I teach right off the bat to every one of my coaching clients looking for a new job. When you learn this, it changes the way you think about your job search. When you apply this to your resume, your interviews, and even your thank you notes, you become exponentially more effective and you get hired.
What is it? Here’s the big concept:
No matter what kind of work you do, the job search is a sales process.
Whether you’re a brand new graduate or a CEO, the job search is a sales process.
You will do better and accomplish more in your job search and career path when you realize that the job search is a sales process.
In the Job Search…
YOU are the product. The job search is the process of ‘selling’ that product (you). So, you need to market yourself with your resume and sell yourself in the interview.
The hiring manager (your potential new boss) is the customer, or the buyer.
Your salary package is the purchase price of your product
This framework is a simple change to how you present yourself to employers that makes a huge difference in how they see you, how they value you, whether or not they hire you, and how much they pay you.
How to apply a sales process to your job search
Your resume is like a brochure for you. It should show the quantified benefits of your product (you and your work). You need to highlight that you made money, saved money, saved time, and/or created value. Anyone can do this. If the company didn’t see some financial value from what you do, they couldn’t afford to keep you. The only way to show this is to quantify your accomplishments by describing them in terms of numbers, dollars, or percentages.
(See more about this in another article, Write a Resume That POPS!)
Your social media presence is advertising that attracts attention from potential customers (hiring managers.) Utilize LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to boost your presence so they see you and realize your value.
Get interviews by putting yourself in the direct sight line of your customers (potential new bosses). Contact them directly and send them your resume—the more the better. The more people you contact, the more interviews you’ll get. (Our Hidden Jobs Finder shows you how.)
The interview is your sales call where you show the buyer (the hiring manager) the benefits of your product (you and your skills). Besides delivering solid interview answers, you do this by bringing a brag book and a 30-60-90-day plan. These tools help you ‘sell’ yourself because they provide evidence beyond what you say.
Finally, you need to close for the job in the interview. Closing is a sales technique that simply means asking for the business—or in this case, the job. When used in an interview, closing becomes a question like, ‘Based on our conversation, can you see me being successful in this job?’ When you ask this, you’ll find out if there’s anything that would keep them from hiring you. If you can find that out, you may be able to turn that around in your favor.
All of this works together in a powerful way to sell you as the right person for the job.
If you’d like more information on how to do this, I recommend that you attend one of my free training webinars, How to Get a Job in 6 Weeks. In this free training, I give you practical and powerful advice on how to get interviews and how to get hired.
Best of luck!