How to Think like a Sales Pro during Your Job Search Building Your Future Now

How to Think like a Sales Pro during Your Job Search Building Your Future Now If you are a sales professional you have might have already worked your selling magic during interviews and while your were networking for your next career opportunity. For the rest of us selling might not come as naturally, but that shouldnt stop you from thinking like a sales pro during your job search. In fact, by utilizing some of the tips below getting your new job can be easier than you think. Know what you are selling In this case: You! You need to know yourself inside out and outside inwhich means how you brand yourself to prospective employers. You need to know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are and create an objections chartif someone asks you about a weakness you will know how to handle the objection. What tools will help you sell What will help you sell your brand to prospective employers? A concise well written resume is one tool and a other could be a job search business card you hand out to people you meet. Research specific tools and resources that can definitely help you land a job. Networking If you meet people on a daily basis you are networking. You should be constantly networking and finding out how you can help them and how they can help you. You will discover that before you know it you have a strong network of people that you can leverage for potential job opportunities. Following up on Leads In order for your network to work for you, you need to constantly follow up with them. Emails, calls, social media messages or even letters are all easy yet effective ways to strengthen your growing network and form stronger professional relationships. Know your market You have to know who you are selling your brand to! Find out about hiring managers and Human Resources personnel and what they need in an employee. Scour any sources of information to create a selling profile of the person/company you are selling to. Hubspot Academy has a great free certificate online course that can give you the nuts and bolts of persona-based selling. Image: Nastya_Gepp

Improve Results for Offered Opportunities - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Improve Results for Offered Opportunities - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Opportunities seem to be rare until the first one or two are presented. And then many more soon follow. This necessitates declining most offers in order to select the best due to the need for being time efficient and productive. Strategies to Consider: Consistency with values and priorities All messaging conveys your personal brand Pay attention to any knot in your stomach after the initial conversation Alignment of values and vision with opportunities increases odds for success “You have to” In the early years of entrepreneurship many individuals are told, “You’ve got to join this in order to get known.” The ones that prove to be a waste of time and money become excellent teachers for what to avoid in the future. You will find that avoidance is two-fold: The type of individuals who mandates, “You’ve got to…” Intuitively recognizing what’s not right for you Very few people enjoy being sold to in no uncertain terms. This too is a great lesson for what to avoid. Given our uniqueness in thought and makeup, it’s inappropriate to believe we can and should convince others as to how they are to behave or conduct business. At best. we are able to offer insights as to why we find benefit in order to help a prospective client come to a conclusion for themself. This is a much improved sales strategy. The journey of entrepreneurship is to weed out which direction to head and with whom to make the trip. It becomes a soulful journey with lifelong friends. This alone leads the way to grander vision, higher goals, and a far more rewarding business. Your Story Review the past opportunities that appeared to be handed to you on a silver platter. Were you coerced into any or did you happily accept? In the end how did they work out? Even though some may sound outstanding, they won’t all necessarily work out as expected. Looking back: Do you believe something was intentionally omitted upfront? What other questions would you ask today? Did you know deep down that you shouldn’t have proceeded? Maturity dictates to boldly get all of your questions answered upfront. Come to agreement with all terms including financial. Anything not sounding 100% straight-forward, either question further or walkaway By getting the facts upfront, you are bound to have a far improved outcome. Most of all, make certain the outcome portrayed sounds as if it will benefit all concerned. The bigger picture is for everyone to have a win in store. This is the signal that the opportunity presented will play out well. Sales Tips: Pose as many questions as possible about each presented opportunity Compare opportunities with your core values and priorities Walk away from any offer that doesn’t sound right or causes concern Seek out consistency in the messaging of offered opportunities with yours Ask for anticipated time commitment  and  deadline for completion of the project Be familiar with the anticipated outcome(s) Determine if your expertise will add to the anticipated outcome(s) Consider whether your clientele will find interest in the offered opportunity Determine if you can justify the time involvement for partaking in the opportunity Celebrate  your  success! Following these guidelines will lead you to the Smooth Sale!

Secrets to smart decisions when you graduate from college

Secrets to smart decisions when you graduate from college The transition from college to adulthood might be the hardest one we make in our whole lives. After we spend twenty years learning how to get good grades, we go into a workforce where those skills are largely irrelevant. In fact, the skill that is most important in adulthood is self-knowledgeknowing what you like, what you need, and how you make decisions based on that information. Self-knowledge is hard, though. Even for someone whos been in the work world for decades. To make matters worse, Dan Ariely, behavioral economist at MIT and the author of the book Predictably Irrational, finds that we are pretty bad at making decisions based on what we want, and we are easily influenced by extraneous issues. So here are some mental potholes to look out for when youre steering your own path. 1. Taking action is more important than taking correct action. Ive written before about how the soul search is not a good thing for a job hunt. This is because when we are job hunting and we perceive that everything is available, its nearly impossible to make a decision. So we dont. We tell ourselves were figuring things out, but really, when presented with tons of choices, our preference is to do nothing: Ariely describes a study someone did about buying jam in a chic-chic grocery store. Researchers gave free samples of twenty-four jams one day, but only six samples the next day. More people took samples with twenty-four jams to choose from than when given samples of only six. But when researchers gave people a coupons for buying jam in the store, 3% of the people bought jam on a day there were twenty-four jam samples, but 30% of people bought jams on a day there were six samples. Its just sugar and fruit, says Ariely, but twenty-four jams is just too much to choose from. In a job search, if you tell yourself you have a gazillion choices, you do yourself a disservice. Instead, force yourself to just take a job, any job. Because after a week or so on the job, you learn to naturally limit what you would consider nextyou see things you dont like about your current job and you say Ill never do this again. So the best way to zero-in on what you want to do is to force yourself to do somethingto do anything. And if you are reticent to take this advice, pretend youre at the jam counter, and you should arbitrarily knock 18 jars on the floor. 2. The worst time to go to graduate school is when you dont know what you want to do. One of the biggest problems with grad school is that people graduate into the work world, which is an open, undefined road. Its scary to see that you will probably go through your twenties having no idea what youre doing and trying a lot of stuff. The worst time to go to graduate school is when you are facing this problem of feeling lost, because the confused feeling of going through emerging adulthood makes you very likely to instead take what used to be a default course for life after college: Law school, business school, getting a PhD. Ariely found that if you are confused but you have a default choice, youll take it. He makes this point by showing the rate of organ donation among people in various countries. At first blush, the chart makes no sense. Less than 10% in Germany and nearly 100% in Austria, for example. Or about 20% in Denmark and nearly 100% in Sweden. These are culturally similar countries with drastically different donation rates. It turns out that it depends on the form that people got about organ donation. In countries where you have to opt out of donation, there is nearly 100% donation rate. In countries where you have to opt in, there is typically less than 10% donation rate. The tendency to choose the default option is not because people dont care about organ donation. In fact, they care so muchbecause it deals with their own death and also with ethicsthat they dont want to think about it. Ariely says that if there is a difficult decision and a default option, people go with the default. So back to grad school. When your parents were graduating, grad school might have been a safe choice, but today, its actually a really risky path. This makes it even more dangerous that people have a proclivity to choose grad school because we naturally look for a default in the face of confusion. To make a good decision about graduate school, do it when you are feeling safe, focused, and certain about what is right for you in life. 3. Take pride in making bad career moves. The truth is that even when we think we have a good understanding of our preferences, we totally overestimate our ability to control our lives in relation to our preferences. So now it makes sense that most of us have made terrible career decisions. It also makes sense that people who have not made some terrible decisions are not living, not trying to find whats best. The only way to have a perfect, straight and narrow path is to not open yourself up to your own irrational decision-making process. And if you are not making decisions for yourself, then what are you doing in this life? So today, lets celebrate all the times we went down the wrong path. Thats our nature. Thats how we know were really guiding our own careers.

Grad School Advice Business School Application Advice

Grad School Advice Business School Application Advice The business school application can be a stressful process and one that often leaves applicants disappointed and frustrated. Hopefully these tips will make your application process easier and you can use what I have learned to achieve your dream of going to business school. GMAT preparation: Devote a month or two to study for the GMAT before you start applying to schools so that you can focus on the test and not worry about what score you need, writing essays and getting recommendations. I took the GMAT right after college and thought I would ace it without studying. I was wrong and did very poorly on the test. After I failed, I enrolled in a GMAT course but still did not feel adequately prepared so I ended up putting my MBA dream on hold. After a few years, I buckled down and started studying every night after work. The second time I took the GMAT I was very relaxed and much more prepared. The only reason I did great the second time was because I was focused on one thing, the GMAT, and not all the other parts of the application that would come later. Information Sessions: Dont think about attending or applying to a school unless you have attended an information session. Most of my co-workers who are interested in business school think and talk about it a lot but dont take that next step of finding out if business school is right for them. The best way to do this is by attending an information session where you can ask questions and meet current students. I went to many information sessions before applying to schools because I found it was a great way to see if the school was right for me. I went to one school where no one talked to me and I knew I wouldnt like the environment. Another school I went to I found that everyone was very friendly. This was the school that I eventually decided to attend but I never would have known which one was right for me if I did not attend an information session. Recommendations: Choose someone you know and trust. Do you know about your recommenders family and what they like to do on the weekends? If not, get to know them well before you ask them to write you a recommendation. By making an effort to get to know your recommender, it allows them to also get to know you. Your recommendation will be much better if your recommender knows you well and thinks of you as a friend. You want your recommender to fight for you and put in the time to write a great application. Make it easy for them by giving them a list of your reasons for wanting to go back to school and your recent accomplishments at work. Most importantly, make sure you give them a thank you gift after they write you a recommendation. More tips to survive the application process: During interviews, be ready to explain how you can contribute and what you can teach to your classmates. During decision time, try to not think about rankings and instead make your decision to attend the school that will make you happiest. If you are facing a tough decision, ask those closest to you for advice. Sometimes, others know you better than yourself and can give you advice that makes the most sense. Consider options like attending business school part-time. There are many benefits to keeping your job while going to school and sometimes you can even finish just as fast. I hope that these tips have been helpful to you. I wish you the best of luck in getting into the business school of your dreams. Do you have any other questions about applying to business school?   Please let me know and I would be happy to answer them!

10 Ways You Can Increase The Productivity of Your Team CareerMetis.com

10 Ways You Can Increase The Productivity of Your Team Photo creditsThere are many aspects of a successful business. You need to have a talented group of employees, offer a high-quality product or service and achieve sales goals. However, perhaps the most imperative thing to a successful company is actually how productive your team is.evalUnfortunately, despite the increase in technology, tools, and apps to help us in our day to day lives, productivity has actually been going down over the last decade-plus. This decline in productivity also affects the overall economy as well. In fact, over 60% of income differencesacross different countries can be explained via productivity differences between the areas.With that in mind, this article is going to look at 10 effective ways that you can improve the productivity of your team and, as a result, have a more successful business.1) Communicate effectivelyevalIn a professional relationship, whether between coworkers or between CEO and lower-level workers, communication is incredibly important. C ommunication should be a two-way street and employees should be able to reach out and voice their concerns with you. However, there is nothing wrong with taking some time to be “uninterrupted” as a CEO to ensure your duties are completed as well.Communication is also about more than what you are saying, as the presence you have and the voice you have are also incredibly important. You should be as authentic as possible and try not to talk down to employees.2) Use technology and apps anywhere you canTechnology has changed how we talk to each other, how we entertain ourselves and how we run businesses. Nowadays, a CEO or his/her team should always be on the lookout for new technology that can boost the productivity or their teams.Apps and technology can help in all business areas such as accounting, project management, marketing, sales, IT and more. Cost shouldn’t be a big issue either as most of them will pay for themselves very quickly based simply on how much more your employ ees will get done.3) Don’t be a slave to your emailAs a CEO or business owner, you are likely getting a ton of emails every day. However, there is a good chance you are too busy to be constantly checking it. As a result, you should try checking your email at only a few scheduled times a day.evalIn addition to your exhibiting this practice as a CEO, it is also good to share it with your team. Answering, checking and responding to unnecessary emails can be a huge time waste and productivity killer. In fact, stats show that most people spend over a quarter of their timeat work using email.4) Know the strengths eval5) Be sure to PrioritizeNo matter what kinds of business you operate, there are a lot of tasks to be completed daily. With so much on your plate, it can be hard to manage everything and ensure everything gets done and nothing is forgotten.Because of this, prioritization is key. There are different strategies you can use for prioritization, but in general, the most important and pressing tasks should be taken care of first. Don’t feel the need to handle them in the order they hit your desk, either, as when you got the task shouldn’t play a part in when you finish it by.6) Keep accurate timesheets and schedules to keep everyone on the same pageOne of the biggest factors in being productive is knowing what to do and when to do it. If you don’t keep accurate timesheets or schedules, it can be very confusing and stressful for employees. Thankfully, scheduling is made easier nowadays due to the various types of tools and software out there which can help.These can often come with customizable scheduling features, easy-to-use interfaces, and so much more. By using these tools, you will ensure everyone is on the same page and is aware of not only when they work, but also what they are supposed to be doing.7) Cut down on time-consuming in-person meetingsWhile meetings can sometimes help good ideas flourish and team members communicate, they are also one of the largest time and productivity suckers out there. These meetings can take hours of your time every week and stunt productivity in a large way, and many CEOs should reconsider the idea of meetings altogether.Maybe you will only meet in person once a month, and hold other meetings via Skype or within an application or tool. This way the team is still all on the same page, but without wasting a large chunk of your day. Too many companies and CEOs are tied to the traditional meeting, and it is costing them a lot of time and money.8) Use the “two-minute rule”This is a productivity trick that everyone can use, so feel free to share it with your team and coworkers. When a new task comes to your desk, if you can complete it in two minutes or less, you should do it, no matter how serious or unimportant.It is incredibly easy to do and can stop these small tasks from building up. This method keeps you focused on the bigger picture and stops you from having to spend hours trying to re member or deal with the little things once they have stacked up on your desk.9) Provide feedback and praise for a job well doneevalWhile people receive a paycheck for their work, some people need a little more. If employees feel that their work is not appreciated or that they are not valued enough, it can absolutely ruin their productivity.Something as simple as thank you or some other acknowledgment of effort from a CEO or high-level executive is enough to really brighten someone’s day and get them being as productive as possible. Sure, an email or message saying “good job” is nice, but it’s definitely not the same as the CEO of the company recognizing your hard workin person.10) Provide a positive culture and work environmentThe quality of your work environment can have a direct impacton how productive a team is. The workplace should be clean, bright and cheerful and office policies shouldn’t be present. In addition to that, you should also aim to have a professional cul ture in the workplace.Of course, a bit of fun and some jokes are okay from time to time but don’t let it get out of hand or become unproductive. Also, ensure your employees are uplifted at work, and not knocked down. The happier and safer people are, the better the employee will become.In conclusion, these are 10 proven ways that you can increase the productivity of your employees. Productivity often goes hand in hand with success, so by having a productive team, you will likely have a successful team.eval

Its Tougher at the Bottom Why All Students Should Work Minimum Wage (at Least Once)

It’s Tougher at the Bottom Why All Students Should Work Minimum Wage (at Least Once) 16 Flares 16 Flares Veronica Park is an author, journalist and world-traveler of many different past and future vocations. Keep an eye out for her first published novel, which will hopefully be announced soon. In the meantime, you can read about her exploits in the Caribbean and find out her opinion on pretty much everything by following her on Twitter (@VeroniKaboom) and checking out her  website. When I was in high school, I was one of the few lucky students to take part in an experimental “school within a school” program. Not unlike different major programs in college, my school district decided it might be a good idea to give 11-12th graders career-centric, college curriculum inspired experience in the field of their choice (i.e. health care and social services, business, arts, etc.) As a student of the “School of Business,” I was lucky enough to have specialized training in disciplines most high school students won’t encounter unless they specifically seek them outâ€"specifically, skills like web design, tax preparation, financial planning, marketing and business presentations. Because we were so advanced in our studies (but not in actual practice, because most of us didn’t have “real” jobs at that point), it seemed almost laughable when our teachers suggested a week long role-playing session to teach us how to behave during a job interview. Obviously, most of us thought we knew how to be polite and answer questions about ourselves, so not many of us took this activity very seriously. Especially when we discovered that instead of faux interviewing for lofty future “career” type jobs, we’d be pretending to seek positions as Starbucks baristas and American Eagle retail jockeys. Imagine our surprise when we showed up that day for school, dressed to the nines, and found actual Starbucks and American Eagle employees from the local mall ready to grill us. One AE guy, who was probably in his early twenties, asked us to do an impression of an eagle’s proud, majestic cry. Another made us demonstrate how to properly fold a pair of jeans without showing the inseam. Confident in my own abilities to create intelligent responses with little or no preparationâ€"or, in less professional terms, “BS like a champ”â€"I found myself completely flummoxed by the Starbucks manager who asked me to recite the history of Starbucks, describe where coffee beans come from, and explain the difference between French roast and a house blend. The best part was, these people weren’t trolling us because we were high school students. All of these interview questions were completely standard for the companies they represented. I later learned this through personal experience (in a non-mock setting) when I attended a group interview for a position as a seasonal worker at Victoria’s Secret. I was 18, and I’d worked enough “real” jobs and internships by that point, I considered myself a pro interviewee. My resume was spotless, if a little bare. At the risk of sounding like a snob, I thought I’d be head and shoulders above the other candidates, regardless of the fact that I’d never worked retail before. I was an excellent student, at a top university, and I had a lot of really impressive qualifications. How hard could it be? In the end, I lasted at that job less than a month. Because, while I’d somehow managed to survive the Hunger Games style group interview, as it turned out I couldn’t handle the daily grind of restocking bras until three in the morning just to take home a paycheck that barely supplemented my two other jobs, and only gave me a 10% discount to boot. To those of you who have managed to surviveâ€"and even thriveâ€"in the retail environment, I mean no disrespect. In fact, I salute you. It takes a sincerely tough, hard working and humble person to be able to put up with the kind of things retail workers experience on a daily basisâ€"constantly rearranging artful displays, only to have them wrecked and re-wrecked dozens of times, negotiating returns on items clearly worn, marking prices up and down constantly by handâ€"not to mention the torture these poor people often endure at the hands of irate holiday shoppers during door-buster sales. If you can do all that with a smile, I’m even more impressed. And more than that, I would definitely consider hiring you on those grounds alone. Which brings me to the central point of this article: it’s TOUGHER to survive, let alone succeed at the bottom than it is at the middle, or even the top. I wasn’t able to carve a career out of my humble minimum wage origins, as some people have quite admirably done, but I did spend more than seven years as a server at various restaurants, working my way through undergrad and post-grad student loan repayment on tips and a measly $2.13 an hourâ€"which barely covered income taxes, most of the time. Though I haven’t picked up a ticket book in years, I still consider those years as some of the best training I ever received in terms of life lessons and career experience. Let me tell you why: 1. Interview Skills I’m not sure why, but entry level and minimum wage jobs seem to have more difficult and unpredictable interviewing techniques. Whether it’s the strange dynamic of a group interview, or an off-the-wall question thrown in there to make you feel uncomfortable and see how you react, or the occasionally bizarre tactic designed to see how far you’ll go to get the job (such as Red Robin’s former “wear a costume to the interview” rule, or ColdStone Creamery’s “sing and dance” portion of their standard group interview.) Honestly, I would advocate for parents forcing their high school students to at least attend 3-4 of these types of interviews, even if they don’t want the job. Just to see how they fare. 2.  People Skills (aka Grace and Professionalism Under Pressure) Working in a minimum wage, service industry position is the best way to learn how to deal with people. Hands down. All types of people. Polite people, rude people, introverts, extroverts, elderly people and children, wealthy people and penny pinchers alike. Being in some way subservient to other people is like looking through a special filter that allows you to see the true extremes of human nature. I once served a woman who started crying in the middle of her breakfast omelet, and it wasn’t until I’d kindly interrogated her for five minutes before she admitted that her omelet was supposed to have cheese on it, but she was too shy to correct the mistake and felt guilty for even telling me about it. Then, there was the guy who screamed at me for about ten minutes straight, and demanded to speak with my manager, because we were out of Diet Pepsi, and didn’t I know that this was America? If you can learn to truly understand and help these kinds of peopleâ€"not just put up with the mâ€"while maintaining a professional and polite attitude, you’re basically on your way to becoming management material. No matter what career path you choose to end up in. As long as there’s people to be dealt with, these lessons can be applied universally. 3.  Budgeting You will never be as grateful, or as careful, with your paycheck as you are when you’re making just enough to clear the poverty line. I don’t care if you’ve been living off student loans, or getting an allowance from the time you were five. There’s nothing like realizing that every hour you work has a price tag, to make you realize the value of every cent you spend. For me, it wasn’t until I’d gotten my first job that I started to equate a trip to the movie theater with two hours of scooping ice cream. Later, it was that pair of Steve Madden boots I really wanted, but which cost about three lunch shifts to buy. Nothing puts budgeting into perspective like trading your life away in hourly incrementsâ€"especially when you see your paycheck, and realize how much of what you earn is going to taxes. Some economists say that the youth of America are “too proud” to work minimum wage, and that’s why we’re having the nationwide employment issues we’re having. I don’t feel qualified to weigh in on this debate, at least not on a sociological scale. But I will say that if those economists are correct, the youth of America might want to rethink their position. True, you might not be very well treated, and you might not make very much money, but starting from the bottom and working your way up is an investment in your future success. So what if you have to wear a pirate costume, or sing an embarrassing song for your tips? You can always laugh about those parts later (or in my case, use them as fun anecdotes for an article about career building).

Find Your Hidden Talents and Resources for Career Success -

Find Your Hidden Talents and Resources for Career Success - Today, I’m happy to share a guest post from my business partner, Hallie Crawford. Do you know you need a career change, but you aren’t sure what path to take? Hallie specializes in helping recent college grads and boomerangs identify their ideal career paths and make it happen. Visit her site to learn more about Hallie! by Hallie Crawford, MA, CPCC Are you wanting to switch careers or explore new job options? Perhaps you are unhappy with your current career, but unsure your options. Maybe you have so many options that you feel overwhelmed. Whatever your situation, taking some time out for self-evaluation prior to making any big change is a smart move. Its probably been a while since you last thought about your natural talents and abilities! Career coaching can help you uncover and identify those talents and abilities that, once realized, can lead you on a journey to greater career fulfillment. Try the following brainstorming exercise, meant to help you pull out the best parts of your professional personality. All you need is a pen and paper or your computer, and some quiet time to reflect. There are no right or wrong answers here. Just be honest with yourself. When were reasonable about what we can achieve, were better matched to a future position, one that satisfies us because were already inclined to perform that particular role and do it well. 1. As a child, what types of leisure activities did you enjoy most? Were you handy with tools? Good at making crafts? Did you write stories, enjoy brain teasers? What about sports or outdoor exploration? Were you a budding entrepreneur, with lemonade stands, a paper route, or other lucrative childhood pursuits? What about science projects or caring for and spending time with pets? 2. When asked to volunteer for a group project, whether its on the job, with your church, school, or another place, in which areas do you typically offer your assistance? 3. Which electives did you sign up to take in high school, college, or other training school? Out of those, which classes stand out in your mind as being the easiest and most enjoyable for you? Which ones did you get the best grades in, and for what types of assignments or projects? 4. What extracurricular activities did you participate in at your high school and/or college? To which groups did you belong, and what areas did you sign up to offer your contributions? Were you on the school paper or yearbook committee? Did you enjoy building stage sets for the theater group or work as a deejay for your school radio program? Were you a sports team member or assistant coach? Computer or math club?) 5. Think back to all the memorable moments in your life where you were congratulated or acknowledged for your efforts. What did you do at that time to warrant recognition? If you can think back to notes of thanks, testimonials or other expressions of appreciation, what messages did people have to say about your best qualities? 6. When asked to write your performance reviews for previous jobs, in which areas did you most excel, and in what ways? Take some time to explain, citing examples of moments where you exhibited stellar performance on the job. When youre finished writing out the answers to the above questions, go back and re-read your answers. What personal attributes can you see popping up repeatedly over the course of your life? Can you think of different types of jobs where youd be able to best utilize these skills and personal strengths? Congratulations! You have just taken the first necessary step to uncovering your career skill set. Do you know what your next step should be?   Keppie Careers can help you put your networking plans into action for a successful job hunt. Contact me to learn more! Its not too late to join the free seminar I am offering with Carolann Jacobs from Vivid Epiphany. Read more about it HERE! photo by Thomas Hawk