What can you do to crush any job interview, wow potential clients, or negotiate a higher salary?
Put yourself in the position of a business owner or prospective employer for a minute. What do they want? They want specific suggestions on how their business can be improved and profits increased.
It’ doesn’t matter if it’s a three-person non-profit or thirty-three thousand car manufacturer. Every business needs to pay the bills and make money.
If you want a job, you have to provide some value and show them you’re the best person to help improve their business.
Here are some examples on how to do that so you can be in a better position to get hired on for a better position.
1. Bring a plan
A woman’s son had just finished college and been unable to find a job.”The plan she originated for his use was the finest specimen of merchandising of personal services I have ever seen.
When the plan book had been completed, it contained nearly fifty pages of beautifully typed, properly organized information, telling the story of her son’s native ability, schooling, personal experiences, and a great variety of other information too extensive for description. The plan book also contained a complete description of the position her son desired, together with a marvelous word picture of the exact plan he would use in filling the position.
The preparation of the plan book required several week’s labor, during which time the mother sent her son to the public library almost daily, to collect the data needed in selling his services to his best advantage.
She sent him also to all the competitors of his prospective employer and gathered from them vital information concerning their business methods. That information was of great value and included in the plan book. When the plan book had been finished, it contained more than half a dozen suggestions for the use and benefit of the prospective employer.”
You might ask, why go to all this trouble to get a job?
The answer is: doing a thing well is never trouble.
The woman helped her son nail the first interview. He got the job at a salary he set for himself.
Additionally, because of the effort put in the college graduate didn’t start at the bottom of the company. His title was a junior executive and he earned an executive’s salary. The presentation helped cut off ten years had he started at the bottom and worked his way up.
– Paraphrased from the book Think And Grow Rich.
This idea goes by a lot of names, and some people try to pass it off as their own. Think and Grow Rich was written in 1937. It isn’t a new idea for getting hired.
When you come prepared with a plan, you show initiative, your value, and reduce the employer’s risk. How to create a plan step-by-step:
- Visit the employer’s website. Learn all you can about them.
- Find out who their competitors are. Research their strengths and weaknesses.
- Identify 5 things you would improve as an employee that will help the employer’s bottom line.
- Write your plan.
This isn’t 1937 – don’t have your mom do all the work.
2. Work for free
Your first thought is:
Ok, but I have to pay the bills!
And when you have your dream job you can.
Maybe you’ve heard of something called contract-to-perm. It’s where an employer can hire you on a contract basis to try you out for ninety days and cut you loose if it doesn’t work out. Contract-to-perm benefits the employer because it avoids having to hire and fire someone and go through all the hassle.
If you can show a potential employer your desire to add value to their business and that you’re willing to prove it by working for free, what do you think their response will be? What risk is it to them?
In my first business, I worked a corporate job during the day and didn’t collect one penny from my side business for three years. And now I’m an early retiree. Does that sound like a good trade off?
3. Resumes are out
In our high-tech world, why not make a video of yourself to stand out?
A PowerPoint presentation?
A web page showing what you can do?
A resume tells someone about you. Most of the time it’s a bunch of lies because we all pad our resumes. When you put together something visually, you show the employer about you. It puts you in the 1% of candidates because nobody takes the time to do this.
Any of those techniques are simple tactics you can use to get an awesome job. You can use them to improve the chances you get a deal with a potential client. You can use them to negotiate a higher salary.
It all begins with doing your homework and research before you ever step foot in the door or make first contact. When you have ideas on how to help someone, they are going to want to your help on making it happen.
These are the things very few people do and will help you stand out from the crowd. Try these techniques when you’re considering a new job and see what happens.
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