I hear from a lot of B2B sales professionals, and love working with them as clients because they usually understand that many transactions in US society are based on selling -- including the job search.
Some people would find that statement revolting, because they think selling is too “transactional” (“I do something for you if you do something for me”).
If you’re someone who thinks this way, it’s time to get updated.
A quality sales professional knows that they are really educating and solving problems. Those are the salespeople – whether selling to the VP of IT or the person in a store who’s buying skin cream – who succeed.
Having been in business-to-business (B2B) sales myself, and now having worked with probably hundreds of B2B sales pros, those out to solve problems are almost always the most successful. In short, they do each sale as a project.
You can do the same in your job search, whether you’re in sales, finance, analytics, operations, you name it: Do do your search as a sales project. Here are the steps:
1. Do the research of the prospect (potential employer)
2. Learn what their pain points are (usually: saving/making money, saving/making time, solving problems)
3. Match the right solution (YOU!) to that pain
4. Show them how you’ve gotten those results before in taking away that pain (use your success stories - this is not bragging, instead it’s informing them),
5. Close – ask for the job: "I see that we have a good match here...what is the next step?"
6. Follow up – stay engaged to resolve future problems (meaning: continue solving problems as part of your job)
Doing it this way gets you to see the employer’s issues, which gets EMPLOYERS to see you as part of their team!
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