What is the Eighth Step of Jobpreneurship™ 101?

If you noticed, every prior step is required before you introduce yourself to the world through networking. Remember, first impressions are usually lasting impressions so you want to be sure to put your best foot forward as you begin creating your brand in your community. However, many people are not focused on their activities, not productive in their networking, or don’t really have a plan on how to approach the real world.

So, we teach the use of a Marketing Plan. You can also call it a Sales Plan. You can call this whatever you wish and modify it to suit your needs but simply put, it is a spreadsheet where you plan your sales activities, goals, and measure your results week by week to ensure you are focused, learning from mistakes, not wasting time, and focused on producing results for each step of the tactical networking through employment process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you look at the chart, another way of putting it is that all your work on product development and marketing is almost done. You will always be improving it based upon what you learn as you step out into the sales process but now you are ready to take the tactical steps required to get the job.

So, the typical tasks are networking meetings that drive relationships (not merely handing out business cards) that result in referrals that lead to one-on-one referral meetings that ultimately end up with referrals into the hiring manager who either emotionally decides to hire you or decides to refer you to others in her network who might be able to help you. If they decide that they want you (notice it is an emotional gut decision), the next step is usually to ask for your resume that they (not you) send to either the external recruiter or internal HR recruiter to add to the slate of candidates for the job.

The major difference here is that if the decision maker is the one sending down the resume, you likely will have the job unless there is a far superior candidate on the slate, they find red lights in their review of you, or you trip in your interviews with each level. Remember that, even if you are wanted and the most qualified, you still have get the political support and team concurrence before you will get a formal offer. But you will be well positioned versus anyone else whom the decision maker does not know.

Worst case, you should walk away with a follow-up to get referrals from the decision maker and anyone else who liked you.

So, your Marketing or Sales Plan starts with how many networking meetings are you attending each week. Are those meetings producing the right results, right introductions, right referrals, and right opportunities, or are they a waste of time with people who cannot help you? Keep in mind that some networking venues should be non-profits where you are passionate about helping others or peer job search groups where everyone is looking. You can learn, help others, and pay it forward. This is all about helping to build a positive brand of a person who cares about others, not just themselves. On the other hand, if you are not ever meeting people who can help you, you may need to drop some venues and add new ones.

Some of you will be tempted to substitute LinkedIn and social media to replace physical networking. I strongly support including internet business networking but think of it as a supplemental networking venue that needs to still lead to one-on-one meetings. Trust is only built face to face over time. Even if the new generation disagrees, most hiring managers and decision makers still trust personal physical meetings before they will be willing to provide referral support or be willing to hire someone. This is particularly true for higher level jobs.

What else needs to be measured? How many referrals are you getting per week? How many one-to-one meetings? How many meetings with influencers, trusted advisors, hiring managers, and decision makers per week? How often are you getting the emotional buy, the referral to HR, and actual job interviews?

This model is to help you track, focus, and measure results. Don’t be surprised if things move quickly when there is interest – including being asked to write a job description for a job that didn’t even exist before you met and wowed the decision maker.

 

What is the Sales Process in Jobpreneurship™ 101?

Here is another major paradigm shift. Most non-sales people view sales as negative, high pressure, and an effort of wasting your time trying to sell you something that you don’t need or want. The Jobpreneurship™ sales process is a process that even financial people should feel comfortable with and is how true insiders operate every day.

Here is the sales process. First, most sales people you know probably don’t fit this model. That is why most business people don’t always trust sales people and why many sales people are not as successful as they could be. Second, there are over 21 different types of sales which may be appropriate for different situations. Many are not appropriate for trying to get a job. For example, the buyer / hiring decision manager is in a company. Companies are businesses usually characterized by multiple layers of staff, influencers, advisors, hiring managers, decision makers, and competing silos. Businesses can be complex and highly political. The hiring manager’s job and career growth can be impacted by the hiring decision and that person’s future performance in the job. Further, the reason to hire is for someone to solve a problem, that is to be a solution to a need within the company. Frankly, those issues are seldom highlighted in the HR job descriptions. Also, the human element of company cultures and individuals likes, dislikes, and wants come into play.

That is why trying to get a job is a business to business complex solution sale based upon relationship development and referrals into influencers, trusted advisors, and friends of hiring managers and decision makers.

This is why effective networking, developing positive relationships, getting referrals from those relationships, and expanding your effective network through one-on-one meetings from referrals with influencers, trusted advisors, and friends who then refer you into the hiring manager or decision maker is the secret to getting in front of them based upon their trust in their friends. That is how you get around the no call backs and the gatekeepers to make a trusted relationship impression upon the buyer who then is either emotionally interested in hiring you or interested in referring you on to their network because of your perceived value by them and their friends.

Notice that this is not the model most of us think about when we say, “sales”. However it is the model that insiders use and successful repeat business is build upon. When you are building a career, changing jobs, changing careers, or even starting your own company and needing customers, isn’t this a model that you should consider?

This process takes longer than a quick close, high pressure, I need a job or a sales con job. However, most successful insiders and executives will tell you that this is they way they get jobs and would advise their friends and family.

Even if you are a high school student, a clerical worker, a Walmart stocker, or a blue collar worker, these processes work because they are based upon how human relationships work over the long run.

 

What is the Seventh Step of Jobpreneurship™ 101?

This step is critical. Many readers have said the use of this step have made all the difference in their job search. Why? Because what we are about to discuss has two purposes. First, it is a one page document that helps you to summarize many of the concepts that we discuss in our blogs, our books, in our audios, and in our virtual group coaching and seminars. If you get this document done correctly, it will give you focus on the job search process and communication messaging. Second, this document becomes what you will use in the networking referral process, that we will discuss later, so that others will have the information that they need to help you. In other words, this document will help you and will help others to help you. We call it the Marketing Document because is contains the marketing messaging and becomes the leave behind collateral for others to remember you and to be able to tell others about you.

So, what is a Marketing Document? It has three parts. First, is your contact information, value proposition, and a one sentence executive summary of what you are passionate about wanting to do. This is the most important section because if nothing else happens but someone telling someone else about you, these are the three sentences they need: how to get hold of you, why they might be interested in you, and what you want to do. That’s it! Anything else is too much at this stage.

The second part is important but rarely used. It is a listing of up to 10 areas of your expertise and results written in prioritized bullet point fashion that simply says, “Yes, she can do what she says because her background backs it up.” However, in the Jobpreneurship™ approach most people will quickly skip over this section because they will assume that if a friend said your value proposition is worth taking some time to chat with you, your goal for the referral stage is accomplished. However, for detailed focused people or if someone give your marketing document to the gatekeeper, they may want to read the bullet points. At this stage, most senior decision makers will assume you can do the job based upon their friend’s recommendation of you – and that is how you get introduced around the gatekeepers as a trusted prospective hire.

The third part is important for those who have taken a liking to you and really want to proactively help you. It includes where you are networking, what type of company you are looking to get into, and a list of the top ten companies that you are trying to get into. The purpose of this section is not to be exhaustive but to facilitate brain-storming and dialogue with enough information that the other party can better understand and think of ways they can help you or people whom they can introduce you to.

If you are following each step, I guarantee you that this document is where the rubber meets the road and will be invaluable to you. We will share how to use it in a future blog. Samples are in our books.

 

What is the Sixth Step of Jobpreneurship™ 101?

Finally you are ready to talk about yourself! Well, almost.

The next step is to develop layered conversation in short story formats so that you can share examples of how you can provide your value to a company based upon your education and prior results with other companies. Notice that the stories must be forward looking of what you can do for others but based in the facts of your prior experience and results.

Second, you keep these stories in you hip pocket to take out only if the occasion calls for it. If someone is interested in your value proposition, it is best to add a short explanation but to immediately ask them a question about what intrigues them about your value, what their background is, what their problems are, etc. In other words, engage them in a friendly conversation, as you would a friend, to begin developing a relationship to see if what you offer might be a match for what they want or perhaps for a friend of theirs who may have a need.

You don’t want to bore them, or they will tune you out. You don’t want to overwhelm them, or they will probably forget the most important points, forget what you said, or tell others something that was wrong because they misunderstood what you said.

The goal is to get the word out to the community or the internet about who you are in a simple summary so that those who might be interested in what you offer (your value proposition) will seek you out and want to know more. The second goal is to use your value proposition as the basis to ask them what they want. Remember the car sales person? Getting successful repeat buyers is not through hard sales but by finding out what they want and helping them get it – whether that is you because you are a fit or by introducing them to someone else who is a better fit.

This may sound incredulous. Why would you take the time to become a friend, want to know about them, want to find out what they are looking for, and trying to help them find someone who is the best fit for what they want? Because they will remember you, appreciate your trustworthiness, want to know more about you, and probably tell others about you. These are three secrets to success. First, if no one remembers you the problem is yours not theirs. If no one trusts you, why would they want to spend more time with your, do business with you, or hire you? If others cannot appreciate you and your value to others, why would they tell their friends about you? 80-90% of jobs come from recommendations and referrals of the influencers, trusted advisors, and friends of the hiring manager. Those referrals come through this process.