“Treating the hiring process like a sales process and demonstrating your unique abilities throughout is going to set you apart and help you win that role you really want.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 351
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. I’ve heard from quite a few people who are looking to make a change and find a new sales job this year. The number one piece of advice I always share after encouraging them to focus on figuring out the right type of opportunity for them is to treat the job-seeking process like a sales process because it is. What you’re selling is yourself. So start with a list and develop your territory. Who are the companies that you’d like to work for? The better you qualify and prioritize that list on the front-end the more effective you’re going to be through the rest of the process. This shouldn’t be spray and pray, it should be very focused, and that’s where the prospecting really starts. This is really no different than any other type of prospecting, but I find that networking often works best. You might even start reaching out to other sellers on the team you’re looking to join to understand the inner workings, and ideally get a referral to the hiring manager. As much as you can avoid being one of the hundreds who are just submitting their resumes through their careers page. This is like responding to a blind RFP. Your odds of winning are super low and you’re probably just wasting your time. As you get further into the sales job sales process and you start getting meetings and interviews, not only should you be running a strong process, but you should also be using it to demonstrate your skills at every turn. Prepare for each conversation. Run great discovery conversations to help you present yourself well. Then crush the follow-up. Handwritten notes may feel old fashioned, but you’ll stand out. You’ll be in the minority who actually do it, and that’s a good thing, but don’t stop there. Again, find creative ways to demonstrate your capabilities and really show that you want the job. Don’t wait around. Manage the next steps proactively. Work through each of the steps to understand their hiring process and own as much of it as you can. Take control every step of the way. You should be running the interviews. You should be the one to schedule the next steps. Maintain momentum and ask for the offer. Where things get a little bit different is towards the end of the process. If you do it well, you should have multiple offers on the table to consider. In future tips, I’ll talk more about how you need to really do your due diligence and find the right opportunity. It’s about way more than which one has the biggest base and offers the best comp plan, but I digress. What’s different here is you can only close one of these deals. I assume you’re only going to take one job. Once you’ve decided which one you really want you can do some final negotiating, establish your start date and get to work.
The feeling your future employer should have is something along the lines of: Wow, hiring this person is a no-brainer. They’re a true professional who sold to us the way we want our sellers to sell for us and represent us in the marketplace. As with anything, there is a lot more nuance here, but following that general framework. Treating the hiring process like a sales process and demonstrating your unique abilities throughout is going to set you apart and help you win that role you really want.
Thanks for listening, and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!