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How to Sell Yourself

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Imagine for a moment that you've just taken a job as an encyclopedia salesperson and you've made up your mind to become the top salesperson in the company. What would you do?

For starters, you'd probably acquaint yourself with the chief selling features of your particular brand of encyclopedia-what makes them better than the competition. You'd work on a sales approach that would present these features in as persuasive a way as possible, which means getting your would-be customers to see how this encyclopedia would benefit them. That's basic salesmanship. No matter how good the product is, you still have to appeal to the customer's need. You have to give the customer a compelling reason to buy.

You're on your way. Well, almost. Before you can launch into your sales pitch, you need to get past the front door. You have to spruce up your appearance. And you need an opening line to overcome the resistance you can normally expect with every doorbell you ring.



You will also have to learn-and this is something only experience can teach you-how to orchestrate your sales approach: when to talk and when to listen, when to ask questions and when to answer questions, when to talk about the product and when to talk about the customer (or the weather), when to move in and when to ease off. With experience, you'll get better and better at it.

You see what I'm driving at, don't you? You're right. Looking for a job isn't all that much different from selling encyclopedias (or, for that matter, selling anything), the chief difference being that the product in this case is you. Otherwise, the general approach is pretty much the same. You have to figure out what makes you "saleable," special. You have to develop the most persuasive way of communicating what makes you special, appealing to the needs of the would-be employer. You need a strategy designed to get you by the front door- past the office of personnel and into the office with the ultimate hiring authority. Finally, you need to become skilled in the personal give and take of job interviews.

We'll look carefully at the first aspect of this process: getting to know yourself.

What Do You Have to Offer?

There's an old joke about a man who brings a talking dog into the office of a booking agent. The booking agent is one of these gruff, jaded souls who has had his fill of talking dog acts and doesn't want to be bothered. But the dog trainer begs for an audition. "Look at this," he says to the agent. "Fido? What's on top of a house?"

"Roof, roof," the dog yaps.

The agent shakes his head in frustration and once again asks the man to leave the office.

"Wait a minute," the trainer says. "Fido, name a candy bar. Baby . . ."

"Roof, roof," the dog yaps again.

Now the agent is really losing his cool. He stands up and orders the trainer to collect his dog and leave at once.

"But wait until you see this," the trainer begs. "Fido? Who was the greatest home-run hitter who ever lived Babe . . .?"

"Roof, roof," the dog replied.

The agent blows his stack. He sweeps around his desk, snatches the trainer by the shoulders, opens the door to the hall, and hurls the trainer out. Then he comes back and kicks the dog out after him.

Now the trainer and the dog are in the hall with the door slammed shut. The dog looks at his owner, shakes his head, and says in a clear voice: "I guess I should have said Hank Aaron, eh, boss?"

The moral to this little story is simple enough, yet it is one aspect of job hunting that most candidates don't appreciate nearly enough. If you are the trainer of a talking dog, it's up to you to get that point across to the people you need to impress as quickly and as emphatically as possible. You don't keep your assets a secret. It's not up to the company you approach to "discover" the facets about you that make you the best person for a job. You have to communicate these qualities. Not always directly, mind you. Sometimes you have to be subtle. But you must know that the qualities are there and how to direct your presentation of those qualities to the person who may hire you.

Developing the ability to sell yourself effectively has a dual dimension. First, you analyze all those aspects of yourself that contribute to your attractiveness as a job candidate. Then you relate these assets to the needs of the marketplace. You must have a clear idea of where your strengths lie-and where your weaknesses lie. You need respect for certain features about yourself that you may not consider great assets. Too many candidates downplay the importance of simple virtues, like being honest and trustworthy and dependable, or having a pleasant smile. Too many job candidates have never thought to count as a solid asset the fact that they are personable, likeable, and easy to be with. Yet our surveys show that personnel executives and top management executives place great importance on these traits. Being honest or trustworthy or dependable or likable may not, on their own get you hired, but you can be quickly eliminated from consideration if you appear weak in any of these categories. And you can sometime get the nod over somebody else if you come up particularly strong in any of these areas. I myself, when faced with a decision between two or three people who all seemed equally qualified, have frequently gone with one person for no other reason but that he or she struck me as being the more dependable. In retrospect, it dawns on me that I made this decision on the basis of how the candidate presented himself or herself to me. I remember one executive in particular who came right out and said: "I don't know whether you've made up your mind or not about me, but I'll tell you one thing. If I get this job, I'm going to be here every day giving it 110 percent. I won't let you down." The man was a good salesman. I bought the "product" and he didn't let me down.
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