Know Your Product

What is your product? You’ve got to know what you have to offer, and what you’re selling, inside and out, before you can sell it successfully. And what are you selling? These…

Your Strengths

You’re going to be asked what they are. And when you’re sitting opposite an interviewer, you’d better know, because you cannot raise your eyes to the ceiling for that great drop-down menu in the sky that never appears.

Your Accomplishments

And what’s the very next question after “What are your strengths?” Wrong! It’s not “What are your weaknesses?” That comes later. The very next question is “Really? Can you give me some examples? I need to get of sense of how you’ve used those strengths in your previous job.”

And that’s when you’ll probably get the deer-in-the-headlights look, because how often have you actually had to illustrate your strengths by talking about a time you used them to get some very impressive results?

Your Poise and Bearing

Knowing your strengths and accomplishments ahead of time will allow you to walk into an interview as you should: one professional calling upon another, to discuss and demonstrate how you can solve that company’s problems, and address that company’s needs. In other words, it’s all about them, and what you can do for them.

Your Passions and Goals

Still, your needs and wants matter. You need to be satisfied with where you land. So, what’s most critical to you in a job? Salary? Benefits? Those are the things that people think of most often, but how about reaching your fullest potential? Helping others? Finding a boss who has a working style and vision similar to yours? Commute? Work-life balance? Leaving behind a legacy others will remember? Working by yourself? Time freedom?  And what do you want to strictly avoid in the next phase of your career? Now’s the time to pinpoint your goals, so that you can keep them in your sights all during your search, and not get sidetracked or thrown off course.

A vital part of your preparation will be completing some exercises that will identify your skills and accomplishments, allow you to speak of them easily and naturally, and present yourself in the poised and professional manner that employers want to see.

Resume Development - Your Personal Marketing Brochure

A resume exists for one purpose: to get a potential employer to say “Wow! Look at what this person has done for his previous companies! Imagine what he can do for us! Let’s set up an appointment to talk!”

The competition is fierce out there, and you need an advantage to get ahead. Your greatest advantage is a resume that demonstrates your strengths, your experience and expertise, your industry knowledge, and precisely what you’ve contributed to the success of your former employers. Impossible to do? No, transparently easy; but you need to have all your facts and information prepared in advance.

Your resume may be one of several hundred that land on a recruiter’s desk. It needs to stand out among the competition if it’s going to make you stand out among the competition! There are three things a resume must be:

• Visually attractive
• Informative
• Legible

We’ll help you put together a resume that is the consummate marketing brochure of you, highlighting your strengths and skills, and the contributions you’ve made to former companies, so that an employer will look at it and feel compelled to say “Wow! Let’s set up an appointment to talk!”

Networking Skills

Most people do it wrong. You won’t. Learn what networking is and how to do it, both the traditional way and electronically, and open up a universe of contacts, job leads and opportunities you never knew existed. You’ll understand why total strangers will happily agree to meet you, what it is that you’ll be asking, how to avoid the competition, and what you should never, ever mention in a networking meeting.

Interviewing Skills

An interview is a sales call. Period. You’re there to tell them - professional to professional - what you can bring to them and how you can enhance their success. But just what it is that recruiters and hiring managers want and need to hear you say?

• Ace your interviews using “The Two Rules of Life of Interviewing.”
• How do you answer the stinker questions: Tell me about yourself? What are your weaknesses?What are your future career plans?  What salary are you looking for?

You’ll be amazed . . . the answers are just plain common sense. Plus, good salespeople ask about their customers’ needs. Do you do the same on interviews?

Our goal is to make you the most poised, articulate, confident and knowledgeable candidate you can be. No more sweaty palms, no more butterflies in the stomach. Just the comfort of knowing precisely what to say and how to say it.

Campaign Communications

Cover letters, responding to ads, requests for networking meetings, proposals, thank you’s . . .
if you need assistance to conquer the little editor in your brain, and express yourself as effortlessly and comfortably as possible, we can help. And what about giving salary information when a company says you have to provide it, or you won’t be considered? We’ll tell you what to say instead.

Your Personal Brand

What makes you different? Special? Valuable? Not necessarily better than every one of your competitors all the time, but better for this job and this employer. What are the qualities, strengths, skills, experiences, values and passions that come together to create the unique product known as you?

Identifying yourself as someone distinct, and learning how to position and effectively describe yourself in the job market, will lift you above the competition, make you stand out, be better able to demonstrate your excellence, and enable you to create professional individuality.

• What’’s your tag line?
• When you meet someone new, how do you introduce yourself so that people will remember who you are and what you do?
• What is it that you do so well you want to be known for it?
• Can you describe it quickly and concisely?
• What’s needed in your field, industry or profession?
• How do you want to position yourself?
• What niche do you want to fill?

You’ll learn how to put together your personal brand, and present yourself as a unique solution to companies’ problems . . . not one-size-fits-all, but someone tailored to a targeted audience.

Negotiating

Congratulations! You’ve got an offer, now how do you respond? If you love it, do you say “yes” immediately? If it’s not quite what you were hoping for, how do you communicate your desire for something more or better? Do you dare ask for it? What can you ask for? What can’t you? And what words do you use?

Learn how to respond to an offer, what to say and what to avoid, and how to achieve a win-win situation.

Starting Off On The Best Foot

What do you do on the first day at the new job? And in the days, weeks and months after? Learn how to gauge, and fit smoothly into, your new company’s culture so you’ll be welcomed and valued.