Today I was searching through his blog and found an incredibly eye-opening and useful series of articles. If you’re in sales, you’ll want to read these. They are the Kurlan 10 Sales Competencies: what you need to be doing and why.

Check them out here. You’ll be glad you did!

Later this month I’ll be doing a phone interview with Dave about consultative selling. I’m really excited about this, and grateful that he’s donating his time (after all, he could be off making hundreds or thousands of dollars for that billable hour)! I’ll be sharing that interview with you, so stay tuned!

He pointed out that Sales is probably the only profession in which most of the work you do is going to end in ‘failure.’

Woah! Now I’m no pie-in-the-sky idealist, far from it, but I’ve never thought about Sales that way before! There’s some truth in the statement: accountants, engineers, software programmers, grocery store baggers, lawn mower guys…everyone else I can think of can say that the work they do will achieve a successful result almost all the time. Things will get created, fixed, tended to. Only in Sales does it seem to be that the odds of success are very low: say 20-30% for pretty good face-to-face selling, 1-2% for direct mail, and so on.

Here’s the real flabbergaster, for me anyway: are most salespeople thinking like this? Thinking about this? That their efforts are pretty much going to result in failure all the time? Jeez. Going around thinking that everything you do is a waste of time.

I’ve never thought this way, and I’m not going to start. Success, to me, is getting feedback. Yes or No, but not I’ll Think It Over. This thing works, this other thing does not. Failure is not doing the activities.

How do you think about Sales?

Of course, that’s hard to do. I don’t get miffed at the drop of a hat. I want to work things out. However, I can remember a couple of occasions where a client did something terribly wrong–and I simply didn’t want to help them anymore. It may not be politically correct to say, but “talent” almost always remains aware that it has the power to choose whether to do the work or not! We have that power. We can keep our dignity in uncomfortable situations.

Do you remember a time when a customer did something that really upset you, and you responded by saying, “Fine, I’m taking my talent away from you”?

Keep this division of sellers, talent versus vendors, in mind when you use the services of other people. If the talent likes you, their effort on your behalf is going to be much greater.

• how employers are searching for resumes online today
• how you can take advantage of that
• how to use google to automate your searching across different job boards
• how to anticipate that a company is going to be hiring, and network your way in to create the job description
• how to develop yourself as a subject authority online without needing your own blog, and create full or part time work that way.

The big deal here is not only are you finding and creating roles that others aren’t applying in huge crowds for, but you’re also not tying up hours and hours every day in your job search. By learning a little about google, and automating your search, you can have it do the work and send only the ‘best fit’ opportunities to your email inbox every day. I like that!!

I learned lots of new-to-me things, especially on the google side, and would like to share them with you. Jim has more to offer in other videos, so check them out. Remember, finding work is a full time job in of itself! If you’re simply looking in the newspaper for jobs, you’re competing with too many other people, and missing out on the vast majority of opportunities out there. You must step out of your comfort zone to succeed! Yes, this is a half-hour video, but if you’re not interested in spending the time to educate yourself to be more effective, do you really deserve to get handed that great job?

Seeking killer job hunting tips for a really low investment? Check out my ebook, “Get Hired FAST!”

Let’s take an example. My last job search in Vancouver was pretty quick: in a few weeks I had two offers:

Production Manager at a large steel fabrication plant, where they cut custom profiles for new construction. These are things that help hold the building up. Previously I’d managed the cutting of plate up to 1” thick at a smaller facility; here, it would be up to a foot thick. Very, very high salary.

Business Development Manager for a full-service boutique IT firm. Managed services, custom database projects, network security hardware. These are the nuts and bolts of computer operations. I had no experience in the IT field. Salary: half of the other offer, plus 10% of sales.

It would be easy—and many of you would have, I’m sure—to leap for the big, certain dollars and pick the first role. Let’s consider my choice a little more deeply:

First role—stay in production/operations management, a field I’m trained in but do not love, deepen my experience with plate cutting, scheduling, inventory management and people management. Tough boss with a chip on his shoulder. Work in an industry that hasn’t done anything new in a long time.

Second role—expand my range of knowledge and fields to work in, learn new technical information in a growing industry that changes all the time. Nice boss, good ‘culture’ fit. Work in sales & marketing, a field I do love, and improve my skills in that area.

My decision was easy because I did not settle for more money today at a job I wouldn’t be happy at. Nor would the first role have taken my career in a direction I wanted to go. It would not have made me more appealing to future employers in the business development field.

Let’s look at a more recent case. I did not have any existing offers, and got a call from a recruiter in a city a couple of hours away. They were interested in me for a client’s software sales role that paid on target $60 – $90K. Moving for the right position would not be a problem. After the phone interview, the recruiter was going to set up another call, this time with the hiring manager at the business. Overnight, I thought it over, and in the morning I cancelled.

Why did I do that? During my questioning of the recruiter, I discovered that the role was in a culture of what in the DISC profile is High I’s, meaning the talkative, spinny, creative types, and would be 8 hours a day of cold calling. I don’t mind prospecting, but I do not believe it is possible to effectively and capably call all day long. After three days of it I would be miserable. The role didn’t have enough range of duties to match my interests, nor would it have helped my career. Also, I’m a C, a completely different behavioral type. It wasn’t a fit. So rather than waste my time, the employer’s time and the recruiter’s time, I chose not to settle.

I hope these examples give you the idea of how to start going about thinking when it comes to job offers. Don’t take a thing just because it’s offered to you: human nature makes us want to, whether it’s a handshake or a hand grenade. Be careful about what you select to get involved with, because it shapes your experience, and the perception of employers down the road. Make sure you’ll be happy with the work you do. Don’t settle.

Seeking killer job hunting tips for a really low investment? Check out my ebook, “Get Hired FAST!”

I remember driving from the shop to a jobsite with the owner of a metal fabrication shop that I did a lot of work for in the middle of the last decade. We were stressed about meeting our obligations, and getting projects completed on time and to the quality level we and our customers expected. Suddenly, we passed a group of mentally and physically disabled people being taken out for a walk, in their wheelchairs and gurneys, by their aides. The owner turned to me and with a 180-degree change of attitude said, “We don’t have any problems.”

It’s stuck with me over the years. We have the power to choose. We have the ability to try something different tomorrow to get what we want. We can keep fighting. You can, too.

You will draw employers to you with the attitude of “I’m financially independent, and don’t need the job.”

Also, by being clear about what you want and how you provide value, you will be sure of yourself.

Grasping, begging, trying to fit into the mold of what you think this employer wants…these are things that will ‘turn off’ interviewers. They will be polite, tell you nice things, and never call you again. By being centered, patient and certain, you will cause employers to move towards you. After all, when something is scarce, we want it! When you give off signals that say to interviewers “I don’t need this particular gig—I’m going to find one I’m happy at eventually,” they say to themselves, “Uh oh, I’d better get this person on board with me before they go to my competition. There’s something about them that I like.”

Now what about the case where there aren’t any jobs in your town like the one you want? Well, now you have a choice to make. First of all, either it’s true that there are few, or it’s not. Investigate. Ask everyone you know if they know of roles similar to what you want. Keep asking. I’m pretty sure you haven’t looked under every stone.

Second, check for positions which have tasks like those you want to do, and also some others—can you be happy doing what you want 70% of the time, and other things the rest, in order to make a living and advance your career?

Third, you may have to look at moving.

Fourth, how about offering the skill set you want to use in a contractor role?

Fighting fear and panic during your job search can be the most difficult phase. However, if you’re clear about what you want and have to offer, and project the attitude that you don’t need the job (while still loving to do the tasks), you can remain calm and centered. Remember, you only need to defeat fear and be brave one day at a time…perhaps even only a few minutes at a time.

Coming up next, Leg Three: Don’t Settle.

Seeking killer job hunting tips for a really low investment?  Check out my ebook, “Get Hired FAST!”

Now let me advise you that, on the resume side, my system works best for people applying to small and medium sized businesses. If you’re applying to an institution or large firm like GE, then you’ll have to do something different: load your resume with key words their HR optical scanners are looking for. In my approach, we are trying to get the attention of hiring employers who are actually picking up and looking at hardcopies of resumes.

A word about the difference between hiring managers and human resources: hiring managers are hoping to be wowed; human resources/recruiters are hoping to safely match up experience and skills with job description bullet points. As you’ve probably figured out, I like the former and dislike the latter. In the interview stage, however, what I have to say applies in both situations.

So how exactly do we stand out? First, we must be clear with ourselves about what the role is that we want. Linked to the second leg of the stool, we must stand by that—not give up when things look tough and fall back on something else. I’ve been there, when it looks like you’re never going to find a good match in your field, and you just want to give up and go back to something else. Say you’re just not finding a technical sales role that meets your needs, and so in your fear you’re thinking Why not go back to a factory production role? No! In my experience, if you stick it out just a little longer, the thing you want will come along.

Some tips to Stand Out:

• In the top third of the first page of your resume, you must clearly and concisely explain to potential employers what you want to do and how you provide value. You can do this in point form, or paragraph form. If you want to ‘hit the highlights,’ use point form. If you want to ‘set the mood’ of what you can do, use paragraph form.
• Each and every claim you make on your resume must be backed up by numbers or other facts. If you accomplished something but don’t have a record or copy of it, be prepared to get a reference for it. Sometimes, I realize, this just isn’t possible; however, know that they will ask you about the thing you have the weakest support for (it’s Murphy’s Law), and you had better have a plan for dealing with that question.
• Your resume’s job is to paint a mental picture of what you have and can accomplish for employers, so that they will get excited enough to want to meet you.
• Do not merely reiterate job descriptions. Show results.

Up next: Leg Two of the metaphorical stool representing my job search model—Fight Fear!

Seeking killer job hunting tips for a really low investment? Check out my ebook, “Get Hired FAST!”