Selling Yourself Is Among The Most Important Aspects Of Finding Employment

By Virginia Hall and Joyce Wessel

(Excerpt from the February 18, 1990 edition of The Atlantic Journal/ Constitution)

As a job seeker, you are an entrepreneur, you are business yourself. Your business is getting a job. You sell only one product: you. The two major success factors in your business, as in any other, are the product’s quality and the marketing’s ingenuity. You, like other entrepreneurs, have absolute control over both.

Quality Control

There is no substitute for quality. Before you launch your job search, conduct a quality control inspection of your product. Honestly examine your work background, your skills, interests, values, reward needs, attitudes, energy, integrity, and focus.

If any facet of your product fails to measure up to market standards of excellence, fix it. If you need computer skills, learn them. If you need to exorcise some lingering bitterness form your last job experience, talk it out, work it out or think it out, but don’t let it tarnish your products luster.

Quality is necessary but not sufficient in the job search. You have to ignite a “need to buy” impulse in your customers. The success or failure of your job search hinges on your marketing’s effectiveness.

Planning

Marketing for the job seeker includes everything you do, say and think to promote your product. It begins with an intelligent, well-thought-out plan.

A good marketing plan implies market research. Before you write your action plan, ask yourself the following questions:

§         What business am I really in? Describe in seven to ten words the function of your job focus. For instance, you may be in the business of teaching and coaching employees to work in teams. If you can state your purpose this succinctly, you can sell it.

§         What are the most important features of my product?

§         Who is the customer most likely to need my product?

§         What sets me apart from my competition in my ability to serve these customers?

§         How can I make my product most visible to the largest number of potential customers?

§         How can I best communicate my product features as benefits to employers?

Packaging

Once you understand the features, quality and purpose of your product, you can move to perfecting the packaging. People seldom trust the quality of diamonds wrapped in paper bags. Employers seldom trust the quality of candidates cloaked in unshined shoes, unkempt hair and disheveled suits.

Your image is your marketing package. Scrutinize its appeal as mercilessly as you examine your product. Begin with posture, voice quality and meticulous grooming. Watch yourself on videotape. Pay special attention to your body language, gestures and mannerisms. Resolve mixed messages between your words and your body movements. Note your eye movements, facial expressions and hand gestures.

Your personal image is part of your packaging. The other is external to you: business cards, stationery, applications, resumes, correspondences and any other material that represents you when you are not present. Be sure the image you send is the one your want your customers to see. Misspelled words, poor grammar, cheap paper and lifeless writing portray you as careless, disinterested and/or incompetent. If English is not your bailiwick, enlist support from your network.

Attitude Control

You must bring enthusiasm and verve to the project or no one will believe in either your or your product. Find some way to energize your search: see it as an opportunity, and adventure or a competition.

As a job search entrepreneur, you are responsible for your attitudes as you are for your image. If you need help to work through your emotions before and during your job campaign, seek it. It is an investment that pays off.

Executing strategies

Marketing step number 5 is executing specific strategies. Some people actually advertise as part of their marketing plan. Resourceful job seekers have landed jobs from placing ads in the “job wanted” section of a newspaper or trade journal. If this seems a professional approach for you, try it. If it is neither comfortable nor appropriate, forget it.

“Word of mouth” campaigning is, however, a marketing strategy you cannot ignore. It must come from two sources – you and your network. You are responsible for developing telephone and cold call techniques that make your potential customers want to listen to the benefits of your products.

Unfortunately, these two strategies strike terror in the hearts of the fearless. There is only one logical answer – do it despite fear. Plan your attack by striping out exactly what you want to say. Practice by repeating your script into a telephone, a tape recorder or by role playing with a friend. Persevere by picking up the phone or by walking into a strange office as many times as your plan demands. Twenty telephone calls a day is marketing. Fewer equals a stab at marketing.

The other effective word-of-mouth approach is the one your network does for you. In order to help them help you, be sure to keep them informed of your progress. Remember to let them know you appreciate their support.

Closing in on the sale

The interview, of course, is the ultimate test of your combined marketing skills. It is your opportunity to close the sale. Enough good material has been written about the interview to provide any marketer who cares enough with all the information you need to succeed.

In summary, good marketing job search requires the intelligence to plan, the energy to execute, the initiative to seize every opportunity, the courage to commit and the wisdom to develop the patience and perseverance you need to reach your goal.