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

You might also like these:

1. How to Avoid the Job Search Struggle
2. Are You About to Lose Your Job?
3. How to Be the Best, Fastest or Smartest Employee in Your Team

Here’s the common long way to do your job search: (afterward, I’ll show you the fast way)

1. start sighing, and begin your job search (sighing every so often to spur you on)

2. find and read tarted-up job spec ads designed to promise you a wonderful career doing wonderful things with wonderful people (ensure you don’t think about your long future ahead at all – instead picture yourself working in that role for just one day in the near future, nod your head, and follow their application instructions)

3. jump through the hoops they lay out for you, with your tongue out and panting if you like, make sure your hope is turned up to maximum

4. tart your own CV/resume up to match the big promises they made on the exciting job ad.  Create a new ‘you’ that makes the real you feel slightly inadequate and uneasy – ask your mate who works in a different field to check it, for some reason.  Spelling or something.  Get ready for him to say “yeah it’s fine”.  Thank him for his role in your bright future

5. realise you don’t understand cover letters properly.  Google to find a lame article that states the obvious and doesn’t really help you any further.  Make sure the article is off one of those vague ‘how to’ sites, because that’s where everyone else goes

6. wait to be accepted for interview.  Know full well that you really should keep job hunting, but instead decide to relax a little in case you get the offer on what you’re waiting for.  You don’t want to waste your efforts after all

7. fail to get the offer.  Get a bit annoyed at them for judging you like they have.  They probably didn’t even read your resume properly, idiots.  Tell your mates that the competition is high for this sort of thing.  Ensure you don’t even consider the limitations to how you come across once your colourful personality has been drained of it’s colour and you’ve been squashed into black ink on white paper, like everyone else

8. repeat steps 1 to 7 quite a few times

9. get an interview offer from one company and start getting nervous because you’ll have to pretend in person that you’re the star you wrote about in your resume. Check your resume again to remind yourself how you must act when you meet them

10. attend interview and act your way through it.  Whatever happens, don’t think about the 4 grey walls you’re working hard to secure a position between for the foreseeable future.  Ensure you do wonder what the people who work there are like, but don’t ask to meet any of them in case you look nosey

11. fail this interview, and a few others, go back to step 1 and repeat until you get accepted by one eventually

12.  discover to your astonishment months down the line that this isn’t what you thought life was all about.  Wonder why your life has come to this.  Come up with some reasons why your colleagues are annoying.  Tell your friends all about it

13.  get caught crying, but pretend it’s something in your eye so that your work friends don’t laugh at you

Or, you could go about your ‘job search’ this way:

1.  starting with a clean slate, identify your perfect career. Know exactly what it is – you can find your perfect career using my e-course

2.  identify who you most want to work for, and what you could do for them, whether they’re employing people or not right now. Research them thoroughly using contacts, the media and relevant websites.  Find out what’s ahead for them, what challenges they may be up against, what their competitors are up to,  and where you could probably add value. Note this

3.  know that because you’re aligned perfectly to do this sort of work and provide this sort of value to this sort of company (because you’ve planned thoroughly and arrived at this conclusion) then securing employment with them is going to be much easier than it would be applying for any other position anywhere else, and certainly much easier than the conventional job search process.  You’re a round peg in a round hole

4.  use Linkedin or similar social networking sites to locate a decision maker who’s as close as possible to your desired role and who might connect you to this company.  Learn about them as best you can.  Then start working for them right now, from home if you can.  Huh?  Come up with some plans, ideas, or improvements to something related to this person or the organisation, if you can.  Provide them with some relevant value somehow.  Demonstrate what you could do for them, just as a taster.  You love doing this anyway, so enjoy yourself.  Now’s also a good time to gather any comments or testimonials from other people who you’ve done similar work for.  Anything to back up your case

5.  contact them and share what you’ve been working on with them, and your testimonials if you have any.  Offer to work for them for free for 1 or 2 weeks.  This is less time than you’ll likely spend on your conventional job search, and it’s more enjoyable and productive too.  Tell them it’s your perfect career, and tell them why you’ve singled them out as being the best company to work for (and why you chose them over their competitors).  Tell them (or show them) that you’re practically born to work for them, and ask to work either for them directly or for one of their direct reports, for free, for 1-2 weeks

6.  Polish yourself up, make a plan to knock their socks off, get plenty of feedback and over-deliver to them for 2 weeks (loving every minute of it because it’s your ideal career).  Give yourself some good reasons to feel proud.  Ask to meet the decision maker for lunch at least once a week.  Ask questions, and seek problems that your boss and colleagues suffer from that you could solve.  Make as much impact as you can and as many contacts as you can whilst working there. Be very nice to everyone.  You’ll do this almost automatically because you’re so passionate about what you do.  Passion like that can’t help but shine through.  Don’t forget to tell them that you’re really keen to work for them full time and ask how you might go about getting full time employment there

7.  Get the good work you’ve done noticed by the decision maker somehow.  Try to work out a plan or job role that you could take on moving ahead with this company.  Have the conversation with the decision maker to work out next steps, and ask for more contacts

From that strong position, you’ll most likely find that you land a job in your perfect company in your perfect career in much much less time than you would have spent doing a conventional job search.

If not, you’ll have the experience to build upon by repeating the process with another company.  If the decision maker turns you down for now, they’ll almost certainly write you a glowing appraisal and give you further contacts to help you along your way.  But only if you ask for this.

Almost everything about this process makes more sense than doing the conventional job search which is tiring, and hit and miss.  You’re playing a different game this way – a game that you can win.  You’ll increase your chances, get in a stronger position, and you’ll get your ladder up against the right wall.  All you then have to do is climb it.

The Great Career Escape will help you find and get in to your ideal career and provide you with plenty more ideas like this to help you create a highly rewarding living.

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. Employees: Earn More for Less Effort
3. Are You About to Lose Your Job?

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

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

It would be tricky to aim to be the best, fastest and smartest in your team.  But certainly fun trying.  However you can and should be one of them, or at least the ‘something-est’ in your team.  Tip: don’t be the lazi-est.  Go for something positive!

I learned this idea from Mike Michalowicz who wrote the excellent and unique business book ‘The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur’. He calls it the ‘EST’ model.  He says in business, to stand out and be the one that people will go to when a particular job needs doing, you must be the ‘something-est’ business in your niche.  You could be the fastest to deliver.  You could be the smartest to work with. Or the nicest to work with perhaps, if that’s what your customers value and pay for.  I guess if you’re a comedian, you want to strive to be the funniest perhaps, for your niche.  Or you could just aim to be the ‘b-est‘.  Whatever will appeal most to your niche and put you in the forefront of their mind when they desire that particular ‘EST’ in the solution they’re paying for.  So, as with many of the business ideas I blog about, this too can be applied by you on an individual level in your work.  Decide what your ‘EST” is.  And consider amplifying it further.  Consider the impact of growing your ‘EST’ in it’s natural direction.  If it’s what your niche (or ideal) employers want, then you should find your employment value increase.  So make sure it’s something they value and pay a premium for perhaps.
The B-est Way For You to Earn a Living

I’ve just launched my new service to help people find and get in to their ideal career (and escape the wrong job).  It’s called ‘The Great Career Escape‘.  The process I walk people through to land themselves in the strongest most rewarding position possible in their career is not the cheapest.  It’s not the fastest (it’s no magic pill) either.  And short term, it’s not the easiest because you’re required to put some thought and effort in (although it makes the rest of your life much much easier).  But I’m confident it’s the smartest approach.  I’m confident that it’s the longest lasting in terms of keeping you on track for the rest of your life, if you hang on to the process.  And if you follow the process in full, I’m confident that it’s the highest quality solution out there.  As it improves continuously, and has already proven to work, I’m confident that my chosen market will consider it the best solution available.  If you’re keen to reinvent yourself in a new career but don’t know where to start – click here to create a free account.

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. Employees: Earn More for Less Effort
3. Aiming Higher Is Easier

One of the biggest reasons why it’s so hard to get in to certain employment or career positions is that there’s too much competition.  These days it’s worse than ever.  Far too much noise.

Yet people insist on competing at this level against the thousands.  The person who gets to the top at this level of competition clearly has to be outstanding.  If you’re not (or if your marketing efforts are not) then don’t compete at this level.  Aim higher, where there’s far less competition.

What, you think you’re not good enough to compete a level up?  How do you know?  Pause to actually answer that.  What if you’re wrong?

If you’re aligned to your ideal career, then you might as well aim higher than you’re originally prepared to.  Your passion, skill and energy to make things work will see you through whatever you need to learn and do to prove yourself.  You can surprise yourself, but only if you aim high and only if you’re aligned to your ideal work.  Otherwise, there’s no surprises.

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. Better Learning, Business and a Much Better Career
3. How to Communicate for an Easier Life

I sent this post out as a newsletter back in 2008. For those who missed it, it’s worth a look:

My advice this month was given to me 10 years ago by a colleague who I deeply respected.  It still holds true and I often think about it.  He explained to me that to increase your value and earn more money, and increase the chances of continuous employment you should purposefully become indispensable to your employer or your customers.

He explained that often there is money to be made in the jobs that most people don’t want to do or can’t easily do.  He explained that in every organisation there are certain important areas in which few people, if any, are expert.  And that if you make it your mission to become the expert in any of these areas, then you’ve just made yourself instantly valuable.  Especially if you can create value and impact in your work that no one else can.  That’s when they need you.

When you reach that level, people keep coming to you.  Word of mouth soon travels when you can do something truly useful (and relevant) that no one else around can do.  You (and the value you provide) get free advertising.

With that of course comes bargaining power.  You should become more in demand, so long as you choose the right area to become expert in.  And with that, your (employment) price can go up.

But you must not get complacent!  Times are changing so fast these days that it’s healthy to assume that whatever niche area you are expert in will become obsolete in the next 5 years.  So you must keep learning of course, and keep an eye on which areas to dominate as THE expert.

Give this some thought.  It could change your career and your lifestyle forever.  And of course, if you want to become indispensable fast, then you should learn how to learn fast and self manage effectively so that you can put what you learn into practice in the right way at the right times.

Finally, it’s much easier to become indispensable when you’re in your ideal career. Are you?  If you’d like to find your ideal career because you’re not happy in your current one, drop me a note. I might have a surprise for you.

Help Yourself and Your Organisation

Since 2003 I’ve helped businesses and corporates in the UK and Australia grow high value engaged employees who:

• learn fast and adapt quickly
• become highly productive
• think like a business

Here’s what they’ve said.

If you think I might help you or your organisation, then either get in touch, or put them in touch with me.

You might also like these:

1. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out
2. Better Learning, Business and a Much Better Career
3. Should You Sack Your Employer?

These books have all made a great impact on my work over the last 8 years or so.  Highly recommend them all.

http://www.epi-learning.com/books.html

Any to share with us that have made a great impact on your work?  Post them below in the comments.

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1. How to Make Decisions for Better Returns
2. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out
3. Free Mind Mapping Software

You’re either attracting or repelling.

At any given moment in your life or career, through your thinking and
actions you’re attracting some things and repelling others. It’s cause
and effect.

You’re attracting or repelling:

• problems
• clients
• employers
• relationships
• more work
• respect
• attention
• moods
• better odds
• happier moments

Are you attracting and repelling the right things?

Pause to answer these questions honestly:

Are you attracting your ideal customers and employers? And repelling
the ones you don’t want and are not best placed to serve?

Are your thought and actions attracting the right people? People who
you care about, who you can help or who can help you? Or are you
repelling those you care about and can help? Are you attracting the
wrong people? What’s the impact on your time, money, energy and results?

Are you attracting problems that you can solve and get paid to solve?
And repelling those you can’t?

In interviews and sales meetings are your look, delivery, responses
and questions moving you closer to the sale or further away? It’s one
or the other.

What about during the casual conversation you had earlier today?  Did you attract or repel?

Are you making it easier or harder for people to respect you?

Are you attracting useful attention to your work, or repelling it?

Are you attracting positive comments about you and your work from
others behind your back? Or are you repelling positive word of mouth?

Are you earning and attracting people’s trust, or repelling it?

What or who have you repelled recently that you should perhaps think
about attracting (before it’s too late)?

Feeling guilty about anything?  Maybe you’ve done something to attract or repel the wrong person or thing?

What are you going to do about it?

You might also like these:

1. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out
2. How to Get What You’re Lacking
3. How to Make Decisions for Better Returns

Depends what job you’re going for.

Yes it should be a functional cv in that it must effectively do what you intend it to do.  If it’s to show your ‘technical’ competency for the role, then this is your priority over aesthetics. Although never neglect to attempt to keep something easy on the eye.

If however you’re applying for a graphic design or visual arty type role, you’d probably be missing an opportunity to demonstrate your talents if you produced a dull CV/resume full of text.

In web marketing, there’s plenty of debate over whether simple, functional, plain websites are a better choice than colourful, shiny, glossy sites.

Many marketers insist they are.  They take minimum effort and deliver what the customer really wants.

But what about the forever growing number of people who like the flashy stuff?  To many, there’s an emotional appeal to ‘eye candy’.  Some people like colourful, creative designs.

Again, I’d suggest it depends on the website customers and what they want.  Function would usually come first, with aesthetics in place to grease the wheels.

When it comes to your CV/resume, check the role, ask yourself which of your thought processes and talents the employer would like to see via your resume (better still, ask them or another recruiter in that field so you don’t have to guess) and deliver to that.

What’s your opinion on this website?  Would you prefer it to look more colourful and flashy, look more minimalist, or is it about right?  I’d really appreciate your thoughts in the comments below or via email.

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