Great people don't get hired every day
I had a meeting yesterday with a potential client that I was extremely excited to talk with, an "exploratory call" was the title of the meeting that they put on my calendar. In anticipation and to prepare for the meeting, I reviewed participants LinkedIn profiles, looked at the jobs on their website, read about the company, looked at local talent in their field, and looked at their current employees within this specific function...and I thought I was prepared.
I'd even previously spoken with another member of their team and had a great conversation with her. She'd helped facilitate yesterday's meeting.
I wasn't prepared and I'm kicking myself about it since we hung up.
This meeting wasn't titled "Interview" but it was an interview, and I didn't get hired. My wife said to me this morning that "they'd be idiots not to hire you, you're the best at what you do" (maybe she is biased) and my response to her was "great people don't get hired every single day".
Some team drafts someone ahead of Michael Jordan...some high school coach cuts Michael Jordan...some person (maybe you) doesn't get hired and you go on to do bigger and better things elsewhere.
So how does this apply to objections and interviewing?
Certainly no two situations are the same but one thing is the same, whether it's an interview or a business development call, I should have anticipated what their objections might have been. It made sense that these would be their objections and I've addressed them before but I didn't expect them, and I didn't even answer them during the call.
Prospect: Objection stated
Me: No answer or no good answer
= Not good
领英推荐
How do you know what you're objections might be?
In interviewing, the job description is a good place to start. If there is a qualification you lack, that might be a topic of conversation and a concern for the interviewer. I've routinely seen people overcome that by relating a similar experience in the past and what they did to overcome that lack of knowledge and the resulting success. "My last employer hired me without experience using their ERP and I took tutorials every night after work until I was the ERP power user for the entire organization. After that success, and the company realizing our system had become outdated, I led the implementation of our new ERP which again I had to learn on the fly..."
You tell a story like that about your commitment, work ethic, and determination and if I'm interviewing you, I've already forgotten the question or what my objection was in the first place.
Other things might be culture, it could be industry related, any difference between them and you or your experience is ripe for the picking.
"You've never worked in this industry"
"We're all a bunch of people from XYZ and have all the traits of XYZ"
Think about what these things might be, anticipate them, and think of your answers before you're sitting there if it's really what you want.
Is that enough to get the job? Maybe. maybe not, whatever answers Michael Jordan gave to the Houston Rockets or Portland Trailblazers about his objections didn't work. The Chicago Bulls, Nike, and the rest of the basketball planet say thank you.
Whether I landed this client or not after yesterday's meeting, I'd feel a lot better today about my performance in that meeting if I'd have been better prepared to answer their objections.