Category: Sales

How To Convince A Recruiter That You Are The Perfect Fit

blogger

A lot of people have a negative stigma on the term “salesman.” When we think about that word, we conjure an image of that pesky door-to-door salesman in the worn suit, trying desperately to get you to answer the door so that you listen to him for 30 seconds because he can change your life when you buy his Tupperware (Whew, that was a mouthful!)

Well, no, that’s not the way it works. In the real world, everyone is a salesperson of some kind or another, you just don’t realize it. Salespeople are good. Matter of fact, salespeople are great! They make the world go around!

So why are you a salesperson? Well, you sold your university on admitting you to their institution. You might have sold your parents on paying for it. These “sales” may not have been too difficult, but you did them anyway.

Your next big sale is to sell a company on hiring your services! The point I’m trying to make here is that you really need to prepare for your Career fair and for your interviews like you might prepare for a sales call:

Finding out what the company is looking for, what their “ideal candidate” attributes are, and then by explaining how you match those to a T.

Ask questions like:

“What kind of attributes are you looking for in your ideal candidate for this position?”

“Describe for me your ideal candidate.”

“What kinds of specific skills are you looking for?

Use these questions to get them talking, and then probe them with follow up questions for clarification and more detail as you see fit. Asking these questions will give you a great picture of what they’re looking for in the candidate they want to hire. After that, you need to “sell” them on how you match their needs.

Now that you know what recruiters look for, it’s time to talk about how you can convince them that you are their ideal college student candidate.

For some people, this may be difficult, for others, this may be easy. Something that was brought up at a conference recently was the example of an Olympic athlete who was quite nervous before competing. His coach simply said to him “this is just like we did in practice. Nothing different, just another practice.” This athlete went on to win the gold medal.

If we apply that principle to our interviewing, it’s very easy to see that a bit of planning and practice on your interview responses can make all the difference in your outcome.

Planning properly is the key to the whole game, and since you’ve already gotten the answers from your recruiters, it’s all laid out for you! With the end in mind of showing a recruiter that you have “xyz skill,” work backwards from there. If they are looking for those set of skills, what kind of questions would you anticipate them asking during an interview?

For example, if a recruiter wants to see that you are technically competent, they’ll probably ask you questions along the lines of “tell me a time you were challenged by a technical problem, and what you did to overcome it.”

If they are looking for leadership, they might ask “Tell me about a time when you showed leadership.”

Once you have a few questions you think they’ll ask lined up, then you can formulate your answers. Answers should be in the STAR format as my book discusses and shows you how to formulate.

With all of your answers, you want to make sure that every example relates somehow to the attributes they are looking for. If it doesn’t directly relate, but you still have to use it anyway, make sure you can somehow explain to the recruiter how that attribute is transferable to their position.

Now you just need to practice running through your answers a few times, and you’re all set!

Why Smartphones Are Popular

blogger

Cell phones have gained considerable popularity in the world. It is not surprising that it is the one gadget that accompanies more and more people. While many people still use cell phones as originally designed for making and receiving calls, a greater segment of society is beginning to see it as an instrument for productivity. For this reason, cell phones are constantly evolving to meet the new demands of society

Cell phones have over the years evolved into minicomputers or smartphones. For example, in 2008 for which data was available, out of the 1 billion camera phones shipped, smartphones which currently represent the high-end of the cell phone market, made up about 10% of the market or about 100 million units. Current smartphone brands on the market include BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, Nokia and Samsung. These products are an- Internet-connected multimedia devices with a multi-touch screen or a sliding keyboard. The phones may function as a camera phone, portable media player, GPS navigator, and an internet client: with text messaging, email, web browsing and local Wi-Fi connectivity.

Interestingly, the rise in sales of smartphones will come at the expense of declining cell phone sales, currently 90% of the market. The bourgeoning of the smartphone market is much about the new technology as it is about the consumer. The smartphone- basically a pocket computer with cell phone capability-allows people to carry information and to access it everywhere they go. Just as portable lap top computers permitted desk-top users freedom of mobility, the smartphone allows its users the function of a desk-top PC with the portability of a laptop, and the utility of a cell phone.

It is to be expected that in every economic down turn people will shy away from luxury consumer spending such as the purchase of a smartphone. Rather, more and more people are opening up their wallets to smartphones. To be sure, the sales of iPhones, Blackberrys and other smartphone models are rising rapidly. It is estimated that smartphones will grow by 25% this year alone. Other new models have either come on the market or are expected to be launched during the course of this year. These new additions will certainly help to fuel the popularity and growth of the smartphone industry.

For a growing segment of the population, the social expectation is that one must stay connected and be reachable almost instantly by voice or email. The smartphone gives people that dual ability to stay connected, and therefore they can justify the cost of buying a smartphone. Smartphones are also seen as a status symbol. Just as it became socially unacceptable in the late 1990s not to have an email address, it will become increasingly unforgivable in the next several years not to communicate via smartphone.

The demand for smartphones can be attributed to the fact that they are perceived as being tools to enhance productivity in a society which is constantly on the move. Indeed smartphones were introduced to address a given market segment. For example, the RIM BlackBerry initially focused on enterprise/corporate customer email. Interestingly, it was the introduction of less business-oriented phones first by Blackberry that scored a hit with the general public and led to the widespread use of Blackberry which doubled its customer base from last year to 25 million. The smartphone wave is continuing to gain momentum, and although sales are rising fast, smart phone sales still account for only 25% of the total cell phone shipments this year in the US. However, the launching of new smartphones together with software offerings from companies such as RIM , Nokia, Apple, Microsoft, Google and others this year, smartphones will continue to make considerable inroads into the cell phone market.

Currently, smartphones are not cheap by any long shot. The handsets even with discounts from the wireless carriers typically cost a few hundred dollars, with the high-end going for several hundreds of dollars. Their data and calling service plans are typically up to a hundred dollars per month. One of the keys to lowering prices in the long-term is the breeding of vigorous competition among the brands. But considering that the market for smartphones is large, new entrants may find it expedient to identify a niche in the market rather than compete with the more established brands. However, the best avenue to making smart phones affordable to consumers is through innovation in smartphone technology that allows users to call and to connect to the internet no matter where they are at very reasonable cost.

It cannot be denied that even regular cell phones are getting smarter, and it’s only a matter of time before all cell phones have the advanced levels of functionality associated with today’s smartphones.

How To Create A 30-60-90-day Business Plan To Use In A Non-sales Interview

blogger

Can you use a 30-60-90-day plan for non-sales jobs? Of course–it works for marketing, project management, technical support, and many others. For instance, I got a call from a candidate going for a job in Marketing Communications. He had a 30-60-90-day template, but needed help translating it into a document for a non-sales job like the one he wanted. We spent a few minutes brainstorming together, and came up with some ideas and new directions that I also wanted to share with you.

To begin with, remember that there are objectives you have to achieve in every job. They aren’t all achievable in the first 30-60-90-days (or even in the first 180 or 360 days), but even with a really long-term objective, there should be some kind of break down of what needs to be done when, and certainly at least some of them can be taken care of within the first 30-60-90 days. So, for example: if you are in Marketing Communications, and you’re supposed to be building to a complete product launch in 9 months, there are some things that can be listed out to be done in the first 30-60-90-days in order to set yourself on the path to success and prosperity. Those are the objectives that you would use in place of sales objectives.

The same types of communications happen in many kinds of jobs – just not necessarily with customers. Instead of meeting with outside customers (as in sales), you might have more internal meetings, or you might be meeting with external vendors. For example, if you’re an events coordinator, you’re going to have to go on sites, request and review bids, share those with the sales staff perhaps, and have a plan for what needs to be done when.

Other possibilities for objectives to include in your 30-60-90-day plan: training, site visits, or learning company systems. There are many ways to tailor a 30-60-90-day plan to whatever job you’re interviewing for. Also, learning enough about the job to put one together will be helpful to you when you ask your own questions in the interview, because you’ll start off with more information than the average candidate.

The point to keep in mind is: Creating a 30-60-90-day plan shows initiative, preparation, written communication skills, and that you’re interested enough in this job to have done your homework. That’s always impressive to hiring managers.

Sales Funneling – A Marketers Guide

blogger

Sales people often feel that all marketing needs to do is to drive loads of leads their way. If this is the approach in your organisation, then you are missing sales and lowering potential profitability. Careful management of the tone and quantity of your marketing content across a planned sales funnel can deliver pre-qualified leads to a sales person, significantly improving the chances of conversion.

Many of us will have experienced a sense of ‘information overload’ where we simply switch off, or the frustration of wanting to know more about a product or service before we commit and not being able to find it. Both happen regularly, and when they do – you’ve lost a sale.

For almost every purchase we make, we run through a broadly similar decision-making process (I say almost, as the impulse bar of chocolate at the supermarket counter is quite a different process). Typically, and particularly for more complex purchases, our thinking will go something like this: ‘My laptop is heavy – I saw that ad for really light weight ones, who was it again?’ (Latent need); ‘There’s that ad, it’s X-brand’ (Awareness); ‘I’ll just check out their site’ (Interest); ‘Hmm, well the weight certainly compares well, but can I afford it, what are the other options?’ (Evaluation); ‘I’ll pop into Y-shop to see what it feels like and ask a little more about it’ (Trial); ‘I’ve researched the best price, I’ll get it from there’ (Purchase). Kotler and others have spelt out various different versions of this process, there’s bound to have been one modelled for most markets. By understanding the way people make buying decisions, you can map your sales funnel: 1. Awareness, 2. Interest, 3. Evaluation, 4. Trial, 5. Purchase.

Against this process you should map and measure your sales funnel, you’ll steadily whittle down your audience at each step, with interested parties moving through the funnel and those who either don’t want what you offer or who are turned off by your messaging going elsewhere. To maximise the conversion at each stage, marketers should consider two key elements; tone and quantity.

What do I mean by tone? As short-hand, think emotion. Against the sales funnel, there is an appropriate tone at each step. If you imagine a continuum from emotional to rational, typically your marketing material will need to start at emotional and move to rational through the funnel. To really get noticed, you need to appeal to our most human side, our emotions. If you hit a nerve, they notice you. However rational you are, e.g. ‘we’re cheap’, if they don’t feel a need for what you’re offering they’re unlikely to notice your communications in the first place. Successful emotional appeals, in marketing terms, usually hit on a negative feeling and say that you can take it away. This is called finding the point of pain. Once you’ve established that emotional appeal, your communications need to move into more rational territory, where proof is needed. As a sanity check on the tone of your marketing materials, map out each stage of the sales funnel and look at the material (offline, online, sales person, in-store, etc.) and then judge the emotional appeal – are you delivering rational messages too soon? Is your material providing further emotional messaging, when your buyer is looking for rational proof?

Quantity, in regard to sales funnelling, is a fairly straight forward concept – start ‘short and sweet’ and then provide more information at each step. Where most organisations fall foul of this is on their websites. Home pages are often jam packed with information. In a typical sales funnel, an organisation’s website is the second or third step – this means that people typically reach you looking for an emotional appeal (what’s the benefit for me?) and they are looking for key messages. Again, map out your journey and assess the quantity of information you are serving at each stage, it should start small and increase at each step.

So, if you’re experiencing lots of web traffic, but low numbers of enquiries – or lots of footfall and low sales, think about the sales funnel. An initial assessment against tone and quantity will signpost where your blockage might be and put you on the path to a free flowing sales funnel that has a tangible link to your bottom line.

Copyright (c) 2008 Bryony Thomas

Marketing Management Process

blogger

Marketing Management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firms marketing resources and activities.

Marketing trend is the most of the business units make the production in the anticipation of demand. In these circumstances, if the insist dose not takes place according to the expectations in the fixed period, and then individual efforts are to be made for this. It is clear that the extent to which the sale is more to that extent the working capital cycle will also be speedy and the profitability of the unit also increases. In short, the power of the business unit and long life depend on the sales. In the same way the employment opportunity arises due to growth of the business.

The activity of entire useful services necessary for the business activities increases and as a result the economic development of the country also becomes possible. Thus, the sales activity has a special importance. In the developed countries about 50% and in developing countries about 20 to 40% of employed personals are engaged in marketing activity. So, it is necessary to put special weight age on the marketing management process.

2. Meaning of Marketing Management process: Marketing is not just an advertisement or a process of sales or distribution. Actually, the analysis of market opportunities and formation of marketing strategy are also included in marketing management process.

In a simple definition The process related with the formation of marketing strategy and implementation means marketing management process.

As said by Philip kilter, the marketing process consists of marketing opportunities, researching and selecting target markets designing marketing strategies, planning marketing programmes and organizing, implementing and controlling the market efforts.

Marketing Management process is a part of business activity related to the sale of profitable products in the targeted market. It includes the analysis of business opportunities, selection of targeted market, formation and effective implementation of the marketing strategy.

3 Stages of marketing management process:

Following stages are included in the marketing management process:

[1] Examine marketing opportunities.
[2] Searching and selecting target markets and audience.
[3] Formation of marketing strategy.
[4] Preparation of marketing programme
[5] Implementing and controlling the marketing efforts