While it might not be a secret, the fact is you need to sell yourself if you want to land that dream job. It doesn’t matter if that position is a sales position with a high-growth company – one that comes with a great package and a company car – or if you are seeking a way to break out of safe harbor job that you can no longer endure. Selling yourself is critical to getting the job you want, and this article will go over some of the reasons why job hunters fail to sell themselves.
Why You Need to Sell Yourself
For most salespeople, the thought of selling is second nature, especially when it comes to selling goods or services. But why doesn’t this apply to selling oneself? After all, job hunts can often be an arduous process – one which is more trial and error than the “scientific” approaches employed by corporate sales professionals.
But let’s face it, we live in an age where everyone needs to think about the best ways to market themselves. This can include internal activities that help raise your profile within your current organization or external activities. The latter is important not only to reach out to potential customers, but also to raise awareness of your standing in your industry.
This is important, as we live in an age where marketing has become part and parcel with sales. So, why do you need to sell yourself? The answer is simple: We are living in an age where technology is busting down barriers. While getting social makes it easier to reach customers, it also means your competitors can reach the same people. As such, you need to find ways to stand out in the crowd – it doesn’t matter if you are looking for a new opportunity or not.
The point being that you need to sell yourself, and this starts by looking at ways to stand out in the minds of your audience.
How Do You Make This Happen?
In many ways selling yourself is a lot like selling a product or service. In fact, you need to think about selling yourself in the same way that you approach selling the widgets your company offers.
This starts by taking a candid look at your strengths and weaknesses, and while this might be a challenge for most salespeople – after all, we are all great – it is necessary to understanding where you best fit in the market. As such, you might want to include friends and family when putting your list together. Doing so will give you an external view of what makes you special; though you want to prepare for tough answers.
Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, you want to look at the ways to put your best foot forward. If you are in sales, this might mean highlighting your ability to get to yes – for example, a customer who said no for years but who finally came around to what you were offering. This not only illustrates your tenacity (an important skill in corporate sales) but also your ability to win over even the toughest customers.
Remember this is not about boasting; instead, you want to highlight what it is that makes you special. Now, this can be hard within the confines of a resume but we live in a connected world and as such, you might want to include a link to video blog or some other tool to get your point across.
Beyond this, you might want to look at templates by Resume-Now as these will give you some additional options to break out of the resume trap.
Learn to Embrace the Humble Brag
When it comes to selling you know how to make your products stand out from the competition. But what is so hard about doing this with yourself? Maybe it is the mindset, which most of us have when it comes to not talking about ourselves – too much. After all, a key tactic in networking is not to talk about what you are doing but rather to get the other person to open up about themselves and what they do.
However, job hunting is about selling yourself and as such, you need to embrace the humble brag. This is talking about yourself in a way that doesn’t give the other person the impression that you think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Instead, your focus should be on the challenges you faced and how you overcame them to reach your goals.
To sum up, don’t be afraid to stand out, don’t be afraid to talk about yourself – especially when it is context. Finally, don’t fail to sell yourself, as that is the purpose of a job hunt.
Kostas Chiotis is a blogger and a content marketing specialist. You can learn more about him by checking his blog at opportunitiesplanet.com.
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