The Job Search is all about Sales

Photo by: cccdebbie

Over the past ten years I must have said "the job search is all about sales" at least 250,000 times. 

One of my favorite movies is "Boiler Room" starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel and Ben Affleck.  It's about a character with an overbearing father who tries to impress him by taking a "seemingly" prestigious job with a financial services company "J.T. Marlin."

Seth Davis, the character played by Ribisi, gets thrown into the fire and quickly learns how to sell.

That's ALL the job search is.  A sale. 

But more importantly, you should view networking the same way a salesperson views building a sales territory.  Customers probably won't buy from the salesperson during the first meeting.  So, a savvy salesperson will ask lots of great questions, identify problems and challenges, build rapport and do a great job of staying in touch.

In fact, a friend in the private wealth management field told me over the weekend that he has done everything from play racquetball to attend charity dinners to get closer to prospective clients and build rapport.  It's all about building trust.

Here's how to build your own job search "sales territory."

1- Create a list of target companies. 

2- Identify the people most likely to meet with you.  Read this post for advice on who you should contact and why.

3- Ask great questions during these meetings to identify what the company's needs are.  See this post for advice on how to prepare for informational interviews and build rapport.

4- Then strategically stay in touch, so when the right opportunity becomes available, the people you met with will contact you!

Does anyone in sales have any anecdotes or strategies to share?