Probably some of the biggest deals you will ever close in sales are jobs. These important sales calls can yield enormous opportunities, to make more money and reach bigger goals. However, chances are you never even considered job hunting and landing part of your sales training.
Here is a short guide to closing the big deal–a job!
1. Ideas are More Important than Resumes (hat tip: WWD). The resume seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. It is still showing up as a standard format in online social networking sites, like LinkedIn. However, it seems to be less and less useful in conveying relevant experience and current projects.
Notice I used the term projects versus job. This is the trend I see evolving. More and more highly qualified and talented people are managing their careers on a project basis, not one serial corporate employer at a time. The economy and businesses are way to fluid to support this more industrial paradigm of work.
2. Employers Want to See Portfolios (hat tip: WWD). The fluidity of employment and the prevalence of online publishing is prompting employers to ask for portfolios. They want to see the work and the results, not your resume spin on you accomplishments.
Learning to organize and package this portfolio is critical. Do you have a nicely organized personal brand, work samples, and links to relevant social profiles? Maybe you should this is one of the first things a prospective employer will hunt for–Google must be able to efficiently find your pitch.
3. It’s a Freelance Economy. I have to say this is my pick for the mega-trend emerging from the latest global recession–everyone is a freelancer. To one degree or another the instability of employment and the sharp rise in unemployment has shaken the confidence of employees. The natural result has been for people to diversify.
Even those employees still working for corporate America are likely to be seen building the personal brand on social networks or working on a side project or two in the evenings.
4. You’d Better have a Personal Brand. If you are relying on your resume, printed on heavy stock with a nice cover letter to make you competitive for a job in this market then you are sadly mistaken. Given the choice between a resume (your word) and a candidate where I can go online vet their work and their network–the resume-only candidate is going to lose.
Start branding your expertise and the social network to validate it, before you need a job. Ideally when that employer goes out into the market to ask, “Who is the best enterprise software salesperson, designer, copywriter?” Everyone links to you.
5. Don’t Wait to Get Recruited. Finally, waiting around for the recruiter to find you for that dream job is foolish. First, it is a great big world of unemployed, under-employed, and unhappily employed people. Second, most recruiters are trying to fill jobs people are not as interested in taking (i.e., poor compensation, uninteresting work, nondescript employers, clogs in the wheel).
The best jobs/projects are the ones you go after or even better to create in an exciting company. If you have a great idea or see an exciting opportunity–pitch it to good companies. Think entrepreneurial and find someone that will pay you to execute your plan or create you dream position.
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