ALWAYS BE SELLING - applicant side

Many of you have heard/used this terminology – it is often heard with the term or said as the following… “ABC – Always be Closing“. You may know or have heard of this term from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. This was introduced to me years ago but it’s an awesome point to remember from the applicant side too!

Regardless of your industry or whether you’re applying for, always be selling yourself…

1. Know and feel confident about your skill sets, your qualifications and the benefits that you bring.  Remind the company why they made that decision to actually reach out to you to speak!
2. Know details about the company that you’re speaking with – when you are in an interview, a company also wants to know that you know what they do too!
3. Know your resume back and forth – make sure of that you smoothly know everything that you put on your resume and highlights that you may have mentioned! Remember, this is your story!
4. Know what YOU want from the job or company! This includes duties in the job and income ranges or how flexible you are with this!
5. How is the company that you applied to going to benefit from you as an employee? What can you bring to the company that makes you stand out as an asset to them?
6. Use your manners! After you speak with someone, write your thank you notes! Don’t forget that please and thank you sound nice during the conversation!
7. Remember to take this approach – This is what I can bring you and this is why it would be beneficial to your company to hire me.
8. If a company asks you something that you don’t know – is it something that you are interested in or are you open to expanding your knowledge so that you do know it? If you don’t know it, be honest but let them know that you would like to learn about that skill set or if you have worked with a similar tool or skill.
9. At the completion of the conversation, ask when you can expect to hear back from them.
10. Know your availability if they ask you about times that you can either video conference or go in for an interview.
11. Any upcoming travel or events coming up?
12. At the end of the conversation – quick note about how you are excited about the opportunity and why!
13. Be pleasant to speak with – it always makes the conversation flow more smoothly and leaves a better impression. Think of how you have felt after conversations when someone was rude versus being polite or pleasant to you!
14. Know your answer before they ask as a general overall policy.

ALWAYS BE SELLING!