By Ed Adamowicz

Three weeks ago, this column discussed preparing a sales presentation as being an integral part of your personal marketing campaign. It discussed how you should model your efforts after sales professionals, who must close deals to earn a living.

For career seekers, it translates to scoring that next logical career opportunity in order to support your lifestyle. It seems obvious to follow up with the how-to.

With the competition for openings being fierce, the discussion centered around setting yourself apart from the many candidates submitting résumés to "the boards" or forwarding them to résumé To catapult yourself past the masses, I recommended a direct approach to the decision maker and selling your product (you) via the phone to the person who can actually hire you.

Before you do, my advice is that you fashion a powerful presentation demonstrating how you can add value to the prospective employer.

It starts with researching just with whom it is you need to speak. Should you fail to uncover a name, at least target a title. Of course, getting past the receptionist and possibly an administrative manager is a daunting task unto itself. I walked you through several scenarios pertaining to doing just that, and made the point that unless you achieve your goal of actually speaking to the decision maker; your efforts will have been in vain.


Toward the end of the column, I began to outline the presentation beginning with the introduction. Again, the emphasis here is to convey just why you are calling so as not to waste the hiring manager's time. Finishing with a sentence related to past performance and projecting how it pertains to adding value to the person to whom you are speaking lend credibility to the presentation. Some would call this a "grabber."

I find most people in the business of investing in human capital will listen attentively if you can focus on improving the team's performance. By the way, if you feel you can't -- in other words, if you have a confidence problem -- I suggest you work that issue before the call is made.

Now to the features portion of the presentation. This is where a brief mention of where you have spent most of your career will help put your intention in focus. So after recounting what it is you can do for the prospective employer, continue to "paint the picture" with a statement like: "After nine years as a top performer for the world's largest executive search firm and eight years as director of recruiting at EMC Corp., I've done just that." (This refers to the last sentence of your introduction where you used a "grabber.")

Note: A sales professional will routinely provide the prospective customer with the company's history or track record of success in the field and/or perchance his or her own.

The accomplishment segment of the presentation needs to be the most powerful, usually citing two major successes in your career. These accomplishments should relate to the bottom-line in either percentages or dollars or both.

"While at Motorola I facilitated a territory turn-around from a $27,000 run rate to $2 million."

"At Marconi Corp. I nearly doubled an existing territory from $24 million to $42 million, becoming the No. 1 sales director."

As you can see, these are two very impressive achievements and continue to tell the tale of an extremely valuable potential employee. Check modesty at the door when it comes to selling yourself; never embellish or exaggerate, but make sure the person on the other end of the phone gets the message.

If, as in this case, you're a sales manager and a proven No. 1 performer in your patch, seeking an interview portends a very good chance he or she will meet with you. Let's say that manager has a team of seven sales people. The fact is that there is a No. 1 and a No. 7. And while you should never suggest "upgrading" -- hence, letting a No. 7 go -- I submit that spending half an hour with a potential No. 1 is well worth it to the boss.

The benefit piece of the call flows nicely into the progression by stating that: "Because I've succeeded in such challenging environments, I will produce similar results for you." Since you've already provided the reasons one should interview you, a simple statement relating past performance to future successes with the new company positions you for the close.

A trial close is just that. You are attempting to close for a meeting and, again, because you've articulated concrete examples of your prowess it needn't be elaborate. Something like: "I would enjoy the opportunity to explain in person specifically how I can contribute to your group's success. I'm available on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Which works better for you?"

In this case, I've chosen the "alternate choice" close. Sales trainers will attest that customers, if given a choice, will pick one a majority of the time. Of course, either way, you win. But it is called a trial close, and doesn't always result in victory.

If you've had the good fortune of a decision maker listening to your complete presentation, congratulations. But you need to be prepared for the objections portion of the call. In other words, the most challenging moments are yet to come.

Wow, all this just to schedule a meeting. And we haven't even gotten to the heart of the matter -- the subtle nuances involved with scoring high marks once interviewed.

Next time, I shall continue to assist you in identifying the meeting objections and recommend some tried and true methods of overcoming them.
