Let's say for example that you are a salesperson, or any business for that matter, and you offer a product or service in the marketplace. For your marketing strategy you have decided on two methods to get your product sold. 1. You will send out a flier to potential customers. 2. You will put your name in the yellow pages. I do not believe you need to be in the sales profession to know that this is a recipe for failure, and this is precisely why many job searches drag on or fail.
If you are not convinced yet to start having the mentality that you are a self-employed business person, and that you are offering a product and service in the marketplace, then it needs to be said again. You are offering something to someone in exchange for money and that is a salesperson, and that is you. Dead, is the mentality that you are entitled or have earned the right to anything, including a job, just because you are a living being. Also gone is the mentality that because you finished school, took some courses, or anything else along those lines, that a job will just appear on your doorstep. A job is waiting for you, but you need to find it and go take it.
The most valuable professionals skills you should learn, whether just starting out or in the twilight of your working life, is that of a sales and marketing professional. People that have developed sales and marketing skills, and the product/customer mentality that goes along with it, will find a job much more quickly than those who do not. In fact, in the course of an entire working life, those who learn how to sell will get ahead and be promoted much more quickly and often than those who do not. If you are a great sales and marketing person, and you are a chemist, laborer, engineer, or whatever, you are most likely not going to be unemployed for very long.
As is the case with a failing salesperson whose efforts involve nothing more than piecing together a mediocre flyer (resume) and sending out a few each day, or placing a name in the yellow pages (resume posting), so is the case with a job seeker who is not getting results. Products and services do not sell themselves. They required a salesperson, often an aggressive salesperson, to make it happen. Does aggressive in sales mean an obnoxious loud person? No. Aggressive means taking a product or service directly to potential buyers by prospecting aggressively and often. Aggressive means utilizing every prospecting technique available, and not just doing it some of the time like an hour or two per day. In sales, there is no magical high paying commissioned product that will just sell itself. If there was, everyone would be selling it, and everyone would be rich.
So how do you be an aggressive job seeker / salesperson?
1. First, you need to step back for a moment and truly analyze whether or not your sales literature (your resume) is beyond exceptional. Buyers are discerning when you find them in a particular field, so it is imperative that your sales material is a professional first-class document. Most resumes are not good, even though people convince themselves otherwise. Most think that it is "good enough". Is "good enough" okay when you are competing? No. Ask anyone in the advertising and marketing profession and they will tell you that sales literature and marketing brochures, which is what your resume is, can always be improved and that this information is key to opening up new opportunities. There is no stopping point when a marketing person says, okay, that'll do it. That's good enough. Improving your material is ongoing and it can always be improved.
2. You need to identify qualified prospects to approach. Job boards should be on your list for research purposes, but you need to dig much deeper than this. If you are relying on job boards for a successful job search, you are making a huge mistake. What are the alternatives? You need to think and be creative. There are an endless number of ways to prospect for a new customer. Cold-call, referrals, networking, research, and many more.
Drive around a business park in your area and write down company names (don't be so naive as to think that the 100's of millions of companies in America are all using job boards). Get a list from the BBB, go to orgs and associations, search companies in Yahoo or Google finance, LinkedIn, Spoke and a million other places. Research competitors of a company you worked at. Experiment with searches on search engines "list of manufacturing companies in Michigan", and the list can go on and on. It is truly endless, but you cannot give up after an hour or two of looking. You will get better at it and you will eventually find an unlimited number of potential prospects for your product. Think abundance. You live in a big city, a big county, a big state, and a big country.
Right now, you have the greatest sales prospecting database in the history of man. The Internet is an outstanding, sort of free if you go to a public library, prospecting list that sales people would have dreamed about years ago. Get good at using it. Search on how to search better. Learn how to use Boolean operators, hit the advanced search button and get list of companies all in Excel. Use the Internet for useful purpose, not hanging around the HuffP looking for someone or something to blame or complain with. Also, do not prejudge potential customers. A cardinal sin in sales is to make the decision ahead of time about the potential value of a customer. Look at them all as equally outstanding prospects until you really know one way or the other. Pre-judging can kill your motivation and enthusiasm when you find a potential company to offer your services to.
3. It is time to prospect. You need to use multiple methods like successful salespeople do. One of them will always come through, if you really work at it. Maybe it will be the cold call, maybe someone in your network, maybe a referral, or maybe a flier. Yes, use the yellow pages (resume posting) and yes, send out flyers (resumes) to companies. But go beyond this. THINK.
Look up the Marketing Director at XYZ in your area of expertise that works at a relevant company to your skill set. You can find almost anyone on a number of websites that provides this type of information. Search the Internet "Sales Manager" "XYZ Corp.". Now, cold call them. Look to see how people in that company do their emails, and send them an email. Almost always, it will be the same format for everyone. BCC a bunch of other emails that might be possible. I can get an email through to anyone at any company at anytime. Show up at the front desk of the company and say that you would like to drop off a document for Jane Doe, Plant Superintendent. Send the company your resume once per week. The point is to be aggressive in your search. Call the person and don't always email someone you may know at a particular company that would match your background. Use email, but do not let it always take the place of a phone call.
You cannot worry and be sensitive about what someone is going to think when you are trying to sell a product. WHO CARES. Show me a salesperson who has got it in his or her head that they do not want to interrupt someone, bother someone, or be thought of as annoying or aggressive, and I will show you a person that will be making a career change in a matter of weeks.
Think about it. This is you livelihood we are talking about. Do you want to eat? Do you not want to be a government dependent person that some people and groups out there are pushing you towards? Do you want low grade government run socialized medicine/health insurance or the best policy possible from a top insurer? Do you want a measly government social security pension or do you want a real standard of living when you retire? I will tell you one thing you do not want and that is to get into the degrading habit of factoring the government and what others can do and provide for you. This is the number one sign of a loser.
Publish Post
You have a great service to offer. That is all that matters and all that you need to know. It does not matter if you see a job posting at a particular company or not. If a company is a match for your background, a very good match, approach them anyway. That is what sales is. Do not log on once a day to some job board and expect a successful outcome. Use them, but diversify your approach. Get creative. Don't think too much, just go out and start being more aggressive. You can do it.
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