If you are successful in sales, you’ve either had training or you’ve learned what works through trial and error . For the rest of us (90%!), we don’t really have any idea how to sell. Sure,we may have personal communication strengths that make us more or less persuasive, but without training, we’re flying blind.
As job hunters, we can learn a lot of from the steps to effective selling; especially if we think of finding the job we want as a similar process: prospecting, qualifying, negotiating and maintaining the relationship and we think of closing a prospect at each step along the way.
When sales people are required to make ‘cold calls’ — that is, talk with someone without an introduction… they use a process that can be helpful to job seekers. Check out …Cold Calling: How to Ask for an Interview.
Excellent sales people learn:
— not everyone is a fit for what they are selling
— not to take disinterest or rejection personally
— to focus on value and building relationships for the long haul
— to stick to the process and follow through
What separates a good sales person from a great one is how they:
— understand their target (research and listening)
— focus on the value of their offering to that particular customer
— are politely persistent in their follow through
No matter where you are in your job search process… I guarantee you will learn something valuable by learning more about sales. Take a great sales person to coffee or lunch and pick their brain about staying even, goal setting, follow through, etc. It’ll be money well spent.
Photo credit 1: borissey working women3
Image credit sales process graph: Peaksalesconsulting
The post Is Job Hunting Really Just Sales? appeared first on .