Are you at the right place?

Those who knows me well, knows that I love shopping and that probably explains my long career in Procurement. I'd look for every opportunity to shop even if it's just 'window shopping', actually that's the main type of shopping that I do.

So whenever I get to travel, one of the must visit place for me is the local market. Fresh market, farmer's market, flea market, seafood market, supermarket all inclusive. It tells a lot about the place, the people and the culture. Supermarket is one of my favourite.

Heard of the term 'Eye Level is Buy Level'? Do you know why at most supermarket the first thing you see when you enter are fresh produce like fruits and vegetables?

The whole idea of correctly placing a product in a supermarket is to get customers to select them. Studies have showed that some of the strategy that helps product to be selected by customers are packaging, promotion, advertising, eye level positioning, aisle location, samples, complementary products and many more.

But do note that customer behaviour is not static and therefore the strategy will need to be revisited, refreshed and updated to meet the continuous change in behaviour in order to maximize sales and profit.

But that's not what this article is all about. The point I want to make here is on the most valuable asset that we have, ourselves, especially when it comes to getting a job/role and courting that targeted employer/company.

Are were placed correctly that increases our chance to be picked by the potential 'customers'? Is our CV tailor made to the requirement of the potential 'customer' for them to select us? Do we have the right branding on our CV? Are our key skills correctly placed and highlighted to attract the eyes of the potential 'customer'? Do we understand what the potential 'customer' need and regularly revisit them for relevancy? Do we offer samples to our potential 'customers' to attract them?

There's a lot that we could learn from the retail sector which can be applied when looking for a job/role and getting the 'customer' to select us. Remember, it's all about winning the customer.

This whole imbalance between oversupply of job seekers against job opportunities will continue on for a while. In order to attract the customer, the approach will have to be unique and targeted. To the jobseekers out there, wish you all the success.