What’s the final deal clincher that persuades the decision maker to employ you over someone else? Give this thought before working on your application process.

I’m going to share some popular business/sales and marketing advice with you that I think is conjecture, or just plain wrong, and then ask you to apply it to your own job application process:

If I hear this terribly over-used example in business books one more time, I’m going to scream:

“When you buy a drill, you’re not really buying a drill…you’re actually buying a hole”.

I’ve heard this so many times over the last 10 years, I feel I’m going loopy. And it’s not just because people mindlessly repeat it (because at first sight it seems an excitingly fresh perspective on sales and marketing, and what benefits really are.)  But it’s because it’s actually not true.

I like it for the fact that it shifts your thinking a little beyond the actual features of your product, service, or personal brand, but the reason it’s not true, is I’ve seen the fellas down my local hardware store buying drills!  Believe me, they’re NOT buying ‘holes’. They’re not even thinking about the holes.  Once in the shop, when their money is ready and it’s near to decision time, they’re thinking about the shiny new power drill they’re looking at.  They’re thinking about how it might perform, how it looks, and how it feels.  And they’re experiencing how it makes themselves feel.  And how it makes them feel like they’ve got a gun, and that they are, for one brief moment in their life, a little bit like James Bond, perhaps. They probably have the urge to point it at another customer and say, ‘bang!’ but they control themselves. They’re also enjoying the atmosphere of the hardware store too, where they feel instant calm pass over them, no screaming kids, just themselves and some sort of connection in the air between themselves and other shoppers. Like they’re all on a similar mission, living their role. It’s an experience. But when they’re in front of the drills, they’re not thinking about holes.

There’s an important lesson here on how to get ahead of others during the job application/interview process! The drill/hole example kind of tells people to stop thinking about the features, and look at the benefits. The people who read too much without thinking chant ‘people buy benefits not features!’  But actually, a lot of people out there buy features too, and don’t even consider or care about some of the benefits these features provide. Some people just want features. Yes, there’s the functional aspect to what they’re buying, but a lot of people like the flashy wow-factor of what they’re buying too. They like the thing that makes the product or service unique, beyond it’s primary functions.  The thing that you can’t always put into words. The feeling that the style creates within them. Some people aren’t buying a hole, they’re buying a drill. And they want a flashy shiny powerful looking one too that makes them feel big, strong and clever.

If you really want to take the ‘hole’ example further, you could argue that some people are buying ‘peace and quiet’ from their partners who keep nagging them to put some shelves up. But when they have a choice between the different drills in the shop, their mind shifts from ‘buying peace and quiet’ to ‘buying the drill that feels right for me’. Emotions take over, and the final decision is made.

So in your own work or career, demonstrate the ‘hole’ that you create through your work by proving that you can do the job, but get the edge over your competitors at decision time too by making yourself like that cool, shiny, exciting drill. The one that feels right to the buyer. When two applicants side by side can both do the job, it’s the one who makes the better impression through their appearance, personality, intelligence and questions and answers who clinches the deal.

Posted via email from Mark’s posterous

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It’s coming your way! Change is everywhere in your life and work right now, sometimes it will hit you head on and bowl you over, and other times opportunities for you to change things will keep popping up, tempting you.

But will you change? Will you embrace the change, or even proactively encourage and force the change?

Or will you resist the change and try to maintain a feeling of safety trying to keep things as they are?

Of course it depends on the change in question.  Right now I’m talking about the biggest most current change in your life that you’re going through, or at least thinking about going through. The one that’s perhaps long overdue. The one that keeps sneaking up on you, tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you that something’s not quite right, and that change is on the horizon.

So what are you going to do?

Since change is going to occur anyway sooner or later (whether you like it or not)…

“Nothing is permanent but change” – Heraclitus

The main reason most people don’t want to change (when they feel they perhaps should) is fear. They feel comfortable in what they know. They know the deal. But they fear what they don’t yet know or understand.

So what’s the remedy? Learn about it. Learn about the thing you don’t understand so that you get a better idea of it. The more you learn about it, and study it, and ask questions and talk to people who know about it, the more you understand it and the less you have to be fearful of. It begins to click. And so the more likely you are to embrace that change or even drive it forwards on your own terms.

Despite reading this, many people will continue to fear the change they feel they should make, because they won’t make the effort to learn about new possibilities. I don’t know, maybe they’re too busy or something. Too busy reacting to things because of a decision or two they made way back. These people will stay put, until they are forced to change, and forced down a particular path.

So there it is, decide if you’re going to change, or whether you’ll leave yourself open to being changed, and if fear is your main hurdle, learn all about how things would or could be after the change. Learn about it until you’re clear. You’ll probably reach that tipping point where you’re ready.

If it’s a career change you’re thinking of, this may be just what you need.

Here are 3 more quotes about why you should embrace both learning and change:

“In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists” – Eric Hoffer

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – Clarence Darrow

“In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy” – J. Paul Getty

My advice, learn how to learn fast (helps address fear and change) and proactively change under your own terms, in the direction you want. You do know which way you want to go don’t you? If not, try this.

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I’ve also met and worked with lots of people over the years who consider teaching for one reason above all else: because it’s great for the holidays.  What?  What about the longer working part?  And the effect it has on your personal life?

Of course, you’re sending your kids along (or at least you probably will be) to spend much of their time with people who either don’t want to be there, or who only want to be there because they can’t wait until school’s out.  (This might ring alarm bells in your own work too).  That’s an awful lot of people who don’t really want to be there teaching your kids.  I don’t know about you, but it scares me.  I don’t want someone helping to grow, develop and teach my children, when their heart isn’t in it.  Because when their heart isn’t in it, then their performance, energy and results aren’t in it either.  The impact on your child’s learning, results and life, is huge.

For the record, I’ve also met a handful of teachers over the years who are in their ideal career, working not for the holidays, but for their passion and enjoyment for teaching and helping integrate children into the real world.  These people are the bridge to accelerating learning.  These people are driven to make it work.  They really care about their pupils and seem to put the needs of their pupils before their own.  And they tend to be remembered by their pupils. You may remember some of yours and you may even have the urge to get hold of them if you could, to thank them.  They made impact and they made learning enjoyable and powerful too.  A couple of my teachers stood out like that.  A couple, out of about 50.

Please note, I don’t blame teachers at all and I’m not having a go at teachers.  Because what’s going on here is going on in your field too.  My advice to teachers though who don’t really love their work is to get out and find and get into something that really makes you bounce out of bed in the morning and give it everything.  Something you’re driven to get better and better at and something that puts you in the best position to really help others doing what you do best.  My advice to everyone else (especially if you have kids) is to help teachers you know who are considering a career change to see it through.  They might be very pleased to hear of www.thegreatcareerescape.com.  Getting in to their ideal career will make them happier more productive people, and it will make way for teachers who were born to teach well.  They are out there, possibly working in the wrong job.  Think of the number of children’s lives this will positively influence over time.

And while you’re at it, consider how and where this is going on in your own industry too.  Perhaps some strategic repositioning will positively change your life and the lives of your customers?

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Are you playing a game you can win? Are you currently playing in a league you can win? If not, choose a game, or league, or career that you can win. Choose your competition so that you can win in certain areas (and get rewarded appropriately).

Of course at the same time you want to push yourself in new desirable areas to see if you can win there too. But at all costs, if it’s evident you’re in a position where you’ll never win, or you aren’t really bothered about winning, then you’re eventually going to lose somehow. So get out and play in a new game that you can win. Then get better at it and move up to the next league. Employers and customers look after the winners first. They’re less inclined to pay those who don’t win, even if they like them. The better rewards are attached to winning a league no matter how big or small.

You might also like these:

1. Pick a Game (Or Career) You Can Win
2. Better Learning, Business and a Much Better Career
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Are you playing a game you can win? Are you currently playing in a league you can win? If not, choose a game, or league, or career that you can win. Choose your competition so that you can win in certain areas (and get rewarded appropriately).

Of course at the same time you want to push yourself in new desirable areas to see if you can win there too. But at all costs, if it’s evident you’re in a position where you’ll never win, or you aren’t really bothered about winning, then you’re eventually going to lose somehow. So get out and play in a new game that you can win. Then get better at it and move up to the next league. Employers and customers look after the winners first. They’re less inclined to pay those who don’t win, even if they like them. The better rewards are attached to winning a league no matter how big or small.

You might also like these:

1. Pick a Game (Or Career) You Can Win
2. Better Learning, Business and a Much Better Career
3. Become Indispensable