Job seekers: Do you know you’re really a sales consultant selling your personal brand?

Have you ever heard of solutions selling?  Consultative sales techniques?  These terms describe a sales person or consultant that conducts a professional sales campaign by asking strong probing questions that pull out the real needs and pain points from a potential client.  Then they focus in on those critical requirements to demonstrate how they will solve their potential clients’ problems.  So, what do sales people do – that are not solutions oriented or consultative in style?  They just start talking about how great their product or service is without understanding their clients’ real needs and pain.  They get into “spec wars” that are irrelevant to the clients’ needs.  You may know the type.  The ole “get me in front of them I can sell anything” mindset.  This approach does not work anymore and it didn’t really work that well when things were easy!  The salesperson or consultant that finds out what the true needs and success criteria and focuses on solving those challenges will win every time assuming they have the right tools in their bag. 

 It’s really not much different in job search.  Everyone in job search is ultimately a sales person or consultant representing their own brand. Job candidates that uncover the real hiring requirements or success criteria and focuses on them have an exponentially greater chance of landing the job offer.  So, how does one uncover the real success criteria?  By asking high quality questions.  Good open ended questions which get the hiring manager talking.  And speaking to the hiring manager is the key.  They are the decision maker and will determine who gets the offer.  This is also the person that will provide you with the real nuances that they desire in the right candidate.  The conversation with the HR person doing the initial phone screen will likely be different than with the hiring manager.  The HR screener will be vetting to see if the candidate should go to the next round.  If the job candidate meets most of the basics and communicates well, they will likely make it to the next round with the hiring manager (decision maker).  And here is where the golden opportunity lies to ask strong probing questions (and consultative style) to draw out the targeted challenges for the role. 

 Examples include:

1. What will I have done in the first six months to be considered an overachiever?
2. If you were to put together an action plan for this role, what would the highest priority action steps look like?
3. What would you consider the critical success attributes for this role?

 There are many other potential questions that may be asked during the interview process and can be found on line in the WinTheView workbook at www.wintheview.com.

 The job seeker should be listening to the answers to these questions and taking notes on the answers given by both the HR person and the hiring manager.  Armed with this key information, the job seeker can then articulate their skills and accomplishments as they relate specifically to the success criteria.  A creative way to do this is by making a slide deck that states the key hiring criteria with relevant skills and accomplishments.  Other supporting pages for the deck may include a brief action plan, personal success factors (personal brand), summary of top career accomplishments and a few well thought out questions for the hiring team.

 Bottom line:  the job seeker needs to understand their role as sales person and consultant representing their brand.  To the extent they can understand the potential clients’ (hiring company) needs and challenges and articulate how their experience will translate to benefits –  will dramatically increase their chances of landing the coveted offer!

Questions?   call me 215-815-8391    Ken Diamond

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