A great article by @jeffwidman (twitter name) for the Mint.com blog gives some insight into making social media avenues work for you with your job search. An added bonus with a couple quotes from Dirk, the Manager of out Technical team!
Hello all, we all know that these are challenging times, but we have seen much worse. Please review the link below and submit your comments.
Even in a down economy, people are still buying–you just have to find them.
A frustrated and frightened salesman asked me that just the other day. And I had a hard time answering him. Not because I didn’t think I had the answer, but because I didn’t think he was really a salesman.
Sure, his card read “Sales Representative,” but a title does not a salesperson make. And one thing that assures that a person will not sell, at least not to any significant level, is if he is frightened and frustrated.
So for my answer, my suggestion, my real world advice on how to sell in a miserable economy: Keep in mind that you don’t sell to the statistics, the unemployment figures or the consumer confidence levels. No matter how bleak the headlines may be, people are still buying–millions of them. Even in the Great Depression, roughly 75 percent of the work force was employed. Salespeople were selling them homes, suits, travel, chess sets and lawn furniture. Yes, many salespeople hung their heads low. Many more washed out of the business. But the ones who got smarter as the going got tougher still took home commission checks. Nothing was going to stop them.
As you know from the name of this column, I believe great salespeople are machines–heat-seeking selling machines. They find the pockets of heat and they hone in on them. They make their opportunities. They are not order takers–they are order makers.
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Last week I also spoke to a client who heads a New York real estate brokerage firm. How many homes do you think the firm’s agents have sold this year: 50? 100? 200? Actually, 3,000 and counting. Sure, this is off about 25 percent from the boom, but it is not mashed potatoes. It is not the brick wall so many would have us believe it is. It is 3,000 because real salespeople put on their suits in the morning, ignore the headlines and sell.
My prescription for selling in a meltdown:
Think of it this way. In the coming year:
Fear is contagious–build a firewall around it. And remember, optimism is contagious as well. Feel it, live it and you will be the bright spot everyone is looking for at a time when the shelves are stocked with gloom.
Mark Stevens is the CEO of MSCO, a results-driven management and marketing firm, and the bestselling author of Your Marketing Sucks and God Is a Salesman. He is also a popular media commentator on a host of business matters including marketing, branding, management and sales. His latest book is Rich Is a Religion.
I don’t consider my self an expert on resumes but after 10 years of recruiting and literally looking at hundreds of thousands of resumes, I think I am as close to one as can be. The resume is the “first knock on a company’s door”. This is your first impression and will make or break you getting to the next step with a company. Therefore, it is very important to have a professional resume that is going to get you the invite to “come on in”
Here are a few suggestions to writing a professional resume:
1- Keep it short and succinct. Hiring managers do not read resumes, they scan them. You need to keep it at about 2 pages. 1 is not enough and 3 gets a little overbearing
2- List the years of your employment at each company. The hiring manager and the recruiter want to see your past experience and your work stints at each.
3- If you have short stints on your resume, add a line after the date as to why you left the company ex- (lay offs) (moved to SF) etc
4- When listing your previous companies, put a sentence or two about what that company does. There are so many tech companies these days, and it is very helpful to have a bio on the company
5- Add a skills summary at the top of your resume. The hiring manager wants to look at 3 things when they scan your resume. Your skills, companies you have worked for and how long you have been there. So it is important to have the skills right up front.
These are just a few things that can help you to get traction with a company. We will add more info as our recruiters review this post, so stay tuned. As always, if you have any questions please call us 866-550-7661
Thanks,
Jeff Rust
President/Founder
Elevate Recruiting Group
The internet is the catalyst of what we call I.T. (Information Technology) with the availability of the internet to anyone with a computer; you would think that this would make the process of looking for a job or finding the perfect candidate easier, Right? Wrong! Because of the vast information and the overwhelming number of people on the internet, this system has become ineffective. Companies who post their jobs on line are finding themselves in competition with hundreds of other companies for the same candidates. Not to mention they are getting an influx of unqualified candidates. Candidates are also finding themselves competing against hundreds of other candidates for the same position. All the while they are having to apply to jobs@xyz.com or apply@xyz.com and ending up in a black hole. This has made the system of using the internet for the purpose of finding a job or candidate extremely unproductive and costly.
Using a recruiter will eliminate all of this and more. Let me show you the benefits from both sides.
Let’s start with the company-
Using a recruiter is FREE! That is right, FREE! A recruiter will provide their services free of charge until you find the exact candidate you want to hire. These services include the following: vetting out only qualified candidates, coordinating interviews, finding out the likes and areas of concerns from the candidate, reference checks, background checks etc. This does not cost you a dime. Once you decide to hire a candidate, it then becomes an investment in your company. Everyone knows that the most important investment a company can make is in people. Not to mention, this investment is guaranteed for 30-90 days. You get all of this service, and you get a guarantee in your investment. WOW!
A recruiter is also cost effective. They will save you money on your bottom line. Here is an example:
Studies have shown that by using a recruiter, you speed up your time to hire by 5X. Let’s say X = 1 week. By going through a recruiter you will save 4 weeks in the hiring process. By using that equation and applying it to hiring a Sales Exec, you will see how you save money.
A sales rep is hired and has a quota of $1.2million. You hire that Sales Rep at 100k base and 200k OTE. By using a recruiter you get an extra month of sales with that rep. The math is as follows:
1.2million/12months=100k (earnings to the company) -17k to the rep (Salary and commission) + 20k to the recruiter= 37k. So the end result is 100k-37k= 63k.
You have just made 63k in one month on your investment in using a recruiter. With that kind of ROI, why wouldn’t you use a recruiter?
Now, the benefits to the candidate
You have just seen why a company is willing to invest in a recruiter, and with those types of returns, the savings are passed on to you. A recruiter will NEVER cost you a dime. You get the services of an expert in their field for free. There is no other service in the world that can offer that. A recruiter will help to ease the burden of looking for your next career. By using a recruiter, you will only be introduced to legitimate career opportunities. A recruiter will be working with the actual hiring manager, and you will never be caught up in the black whole of apply@xyz.com. A recruiter will also be able to present the opportunity with all of your questions answered. They will know all about the company (funding, revenue, # of people etc) as well as have all the details that the company is looking for that is not on a job description. A recruiter will also do all the busy work for you. They will set up the interviews, discuss the outcome with the hiring managers, and keep you informed of the process. This allows you to concentrate on the actually interview and not worry about all of the details. Best of all, a recruiter will negotiate your offer. They are trained to negotiate the best possible offer and they know exactly what you want.
Most professionals pay a premium for these services, you get them for free!
I hope I have answered, “Why I should use a recruiter”
Please feel free to add more!
Jeff Rust
President/Founder
Elevate Recruiting Group
A little something about you, the author. Nothing lengthy, just an overview.