You Should Conduct A Job Search Like A B2B Sales Pro

 When people who are out of work come to me for guidance and my expertise one of the first things I tell them is this. “If you are intent on finding a new job in considerably less time than the current 35-45 week national average you must view yourself as a marketable product and learn how to be new school B2B salesperson who can market and sell a product in the most effective and efficient ways possible.”

As I’ve said and written many times over, the rules of writing a résumé and conducting a job search change with the times and résumé writers and coaches like me and the job seekers I help must explore new options, methods and approaches as the marketplace evolves.

This is why I found a recent Harvard Business Review article I read of great interest and why I think it may be worthwhile food for thought for all job hunters, especially those of you with 5-10+ years of experience.

In the article “The End of Solution Sales” Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, and Nicholas Toman write “The hardest thing about B2B selling today is that customers don’t need you the way they used to. In recent decades sales reps have become adept at discovering customers’ needs and selling them “solutions”—generally, complex combinations of products and services. This worked because customers didn’t know how to solve their own problems, even though they often had a good understanding of what their problems were. But now, owing to increasingly sophisticated procurement teams and purchasing consultants armed with troves of data, companies can readily define solutions for themselves.”

The first and most telling similarity I found is that employers (aka customers) don’t need you the way they used to. The 2012 talent pool is deep, hungry and very competitive and employers today are sitting in the proverbial catbird seat. They dictate what they want and how much they’ will pay, and they rarely have to settle for less.

I also find that most employers and decision makers today (aka customers) know what their problems are and how to solve them; what they want to hire is someone who can execute their plan.

Most conspicuous I find that recruiters, HR departments, decision makers, and business owners today are much better informed than in the past and have more sophisticated tools to source and hire talent; notably social media and ATS software.

Since there is a correlation between B2B selling and conducting a job search it may be wise to look at what the new breed of successful B2B salespeople are doing instead of 100% solution based selling.

According to “The End of Solution Sales” this is what the new breed of B2B salespeople do and how they think.

• They “evaluate prospects according to criteria different from those used by other reps, targeting agile organizations in a state of flux rather than ones with a clear understanding of their needs.”

• They “seek out a very different set of stakeholders, preferring skeptical change agents over friendly informants.” This is something I am not sure is as applicable for job hunting as it is for B2B sales.

• They “coach… change agents on how to buy, instead of quizzing them about their company’s purchasing process.” This can be adapted to a job search especially in networking.

Let me know what you think. Do you think these are applicable points for job hunters.

Next week I hope to continue with this topic and discuss solution selling vs. insight selling.

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Tweeting Your Resume

Social media, most notable Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter and blogs such as Career Rocketeer, have changed the way people around the globe communicate with each other, develop networks, and educate themselves about the nuances of resume writing, career planning and conducting a job search; and today social media is the premier tool for finding a new job and changing careers.

Twitter is unique among social media since it allows users to report on what is going on in their life and find out what’s happening in selected circles they follow in real time. What makes Twitter so special is it has totally changed our mindset to where we are now accustomed to communicate information in 140 characters or less and with abbreviations and symbols such as RT and # among others that convey instructions, directions and a call to action to the reader.

Over the past few years job seekers have been using Twitter to a greater extent to promote their availability and distribute their resume to a wider audience, while more and more recruiters and employers are beginning to use Twitter to source talent.

For me the jury is out on how effective a tool Twitter is in a job search, and which sector of job seekers it will benefit the most. Still since there is a potential upside and limited downside to incorporating this approach into your search action plan,tweeting your resume is an option worth trying if you are unemployed or don’t care if your employer may find out you’re in the market for a new job.

So here are some tips to help your get your resume seen by the right people.

Linking to Your Resume

As we all know Twitter-communication is done in 140 characters or less so it is impossible to post an entire resume on Twitter.

What you will post is a link to your resume that people can access; you can post it on your website if your have one, use Google docs or other file sharing you are comfortable with, and a very popular option is using TweetMyJobs.com. I do suggest active job seekers make the time to become familiar with this site. In addition to tweeting your resume, especially since so many sites now offer places for users to post their resume, you might want to also consider tweeting a link to your LinkedIn profile or portfolio, since it should have links to all your other social media profiles.


If you link to your LinkedIn profile, employers will see not only your resume but also any professional recommendations or references you have, as well as your involvement in personal and professional groups and networks. Similarly, a portfolio will show employers relevant skills and work samples in addition to your resume.

Once you’ve determined where your resume will reside online the next step is linking it to your Twitter message. This can be tricky if the URL has an inordinate number of characters. If that is the case shorten the URL by using TinyURL or Bit.ly or another URL shortening and bookmarking tools. This allows you to conserve your allowable 140 characters and add more information in your tweet that allows you to be found.

Short, Sweet & To The Point

Once you set in motion a URL where people can click and view your resume you need to promote it.

Since you have a maximum of 140 characters to use you need to become familiar with hashtag along with Twitter/Texting shorthand. This will help your resume get found by employers, recruiters and the people you want to network who are on Twitter and looking for someone just like you.

The reason to use a hashtag is it allows your resume to be found through site searches by people you are most interested to be found by. To create a hashtag you place a pound sign # before a word i.e. #jobseeker or #C++ PA seeking job.

To learn more about hashtag and what are the best ways to create them can visit HashTags.org.

Another helpful tip is to begin the message you’re tweeting with the letters RT thus telling readers who see this message that you would like them to retweet your message to gain additional and broader exposure.

Example:

RT #Perry Newman seeks Tech Writer job http://tinyurl.com/perrynewmanresume @TweetMyResume #resume #techwriterjobs. Using a TinyURL, with spaces this entire message is using on 122 of the allotted 140 characters you have available for a tweet.

In English this hashtag means Perry Newman is seeking a tech writer job and if you are interested in viewing his resume it can be found on TweetMyResume.com under this link. The other hashtag we used are to get the attention of people conducting a general search for resumes using #resume and a focused search for tech writers using #techwriterjobs.

As I said I am not sure how much results you will get with this broadcast method, but if you are an active and unemployed job seeker I see no reason why not to test the waters and see what results come from this fishing expedition.

As usual I am available to offer readers a no-cost professional resumes and social media critique and offer way to improve your presentation. Just email your resume to me at perry@perrynewman.com

Job Postings… Who Can You Trust?

Previously I wrote about information overload when it comes to wrriting your résumé and the information you can trust. Several people brought to my attention that the same trust factor holds true for job postings as well.

Just like job seekers, career changers, and professionals looking to move up and across the lattice who websites, blogs, and Linked-In groups to seek legitimate information on how to write a résumé and conduct their job search need to trust the advice people offer there, so too they need to trust the jobs posted om them.

The problem is many people posting jobs, especially on Linked-In groups, do not exist and post for an ulterior motive that can be detrimental to you as a job seeker.

What I find is there are two reasons these people, real and non-existent people alike, do what they do.

1: Many jobs are posted by an employee who assumes a Nam de Plume, or on occasion uses their own name to post opportunities to drive traffic to a site they are affiliated with. The catch is an online application is required and this can be problematic. Since this model pays a CPC fee these people’s intention is to get paid for clicks. The more clicks they generate the more money they make. Their intention is not to fill jobs but to fill their coffers.

For you the question is how safe your information is if you apply online and what is done with it. I can not answer this question, but once you lose control beware of what may happen to your resume and personal information. Also when you click you are likely to get some spyware on your computer and perhaps a virus of some sort.

2: A more serious problem is identity theft scammers use job posting as a way to gain your personal information.

In my early 20’s when I started in personnel with a Wall Street employment agency every applicant who came into the office filled out a form that went to the consultant they were assigned to and was available to others in the firm.

Truth be told this is one of the reasons I accepted the job. Let’s face it how many positions do you know where women come into your office everyday and give you their name, address and phone number? This allowed me to call them at home each time I had a new position to discuss with them, and I can say I was brazen enough to call many of these women at home to ask for referrals of their friends and others they might know looking for a new job. Some I even called and asked them out for lunch or a cup of coffee to get better acquainted.

Times were different then. Today there are several people and companies postings jobs that are stealing or selling your personal information for their personal financial gain, and on occasion they do so for outright identity theft.

What I suggest is before you post your resume online or file a detailed application– especially if it asks for a Social Security number – that you validate who the person who posted the lead is and who they work for to see if they are legit.

If you see certain people posting on a Linked-In group on a consistent basis, Google them and their firm and if the results don’t look quite Kosher, I suggest you comment on this so the group monitor can look into them.

The bottom line is, as technology expands you need to be more cautious about how you go about looking and applying for a job.

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Résumé Info Overload… Who Can You Trust?

Have you noticed that in career services focused blogs and Linked-In groups, places that people visit and rely on for both guidance and professional advice, there is no shortage of expert opinions on the right way to write a résumé?

For instance, this year I’ve seen online résumé writing advice from professional résumé writers and HR professionals like myself and my colleagues on Career Rocketeer, a 75 year old retiree who is at least 10 years behind the times in his take on what works today, a secretary with a degree in English and a CPRW who has never interviewed or hired someone for a job who now feels qualified to offer résumé writing advice, a 2012 college graduate who has yet to find his first job but is undeterred in offering his 2-cents, and countless others who profess they know the right way to write the perfect résumé.

All of us are well meaning in our desire to help others, but cumulatively we have created an “information overload” on a subject in which too many contributors don’t have the hands-on experience, knowledge and training to be considered a true Subject Matter Expert.

I myself do not profess to have all the answers. However what I can say with certainty is the advice a SME should offer must vary depending on who they are advising; a 2012 college gradate, a recent MBA with several years experience, a mid career professional, a career changer, a mid-level manager, a VP and CXO level executive, and all of the over 50 year old job seekers having difficulty getting noticed in the crowd can not be treated as a single entity. Résumé advice also differs depending on the job seeker’s industry and occupation or vocation.

A knowledgeable authority should make it clear that, for instance, the advice offered a recent grad, a graphic designer, or a network administrator is not ‘One-Size-Fits-all.” Most written advice I see on blogs fails to make this differentiation.

One requires a traditional résumé, one a technical résumé, and one a résumé stylized to stand out in a huge stack of résumés submitted by almost equally qualified candidates. This is what a competent blogger should be telling people and what you should take to heart.

So if you are reading blogs like this, and especially if you are following discussions on Linked-In groups where there are way too many posters who are as phony as a $7 bill, you need to investigate who is offering the advice before you accept it at face value.

The first thing I suggest doing is to Google the writer to see that he/she is who they say they are and not just a cipher. On blogs like Career Rocketeer and mine you can read their bios, or next best go to their Linked-In page to learn more about their credentials and what others have to say about them. Then go to their website and look at samples of their work to see if they can “walk the walk as well as they talk the talk.” Finally I suggest you read articles they’ve posted in the past to see if they are consistent in their advice or if they are just looking to drive paid traffic to a 3rd party blog.

Doing all this is not an infallible way to ensure their résumé writing advice is right for you. So if you have any doubts I suggest you call or email them and ask them what they would suggest in your case. A true professional will be happy to return your call or email and give you a moment or two of their time. I know I would.

Again, I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

The GEN Y Generation

Every decade a new generation of entry level and early career employees arrive to leave their mark on how the job market evolves; in 2012 it is Gen Y – 18 to 29 year olds with a new attitude.

Here are some interesting facts about this collection of young men and women who will soon be our future business and social leaders.

According to PayScale and Gen Y research firm Millennial Branding 47% of Gen Y’s work for companies with less than 100 employees, while another 30% work for companies with less than 1500 employees. As for Gen Y who desire to work for mega large companies the preference is to work for companies known for innovation and leaders in technology like Google, Amazon and Qualcomm etc.

My feeling is what’s happened in the economy the past 5 years; the inability of well established companies to create quality jobs and their lack of loyalty in the workplace has created this trend to avoid working for the larger companies.

Where in the past the ‘American Dream’ was to start at the bottom rung on the ladder and slowly climb your way up, or when possible do so on the ‘fast-track, today there is a changing dynamic of replacing ladders with lattices. You can find out more about this from my previous post Career Lattice is replacing the Career ladder.

In terms of Gen Y preferences, researchers found the appeal is flexibility, a chance to be entrepreneurial, and the freedom to use social networks in the workplace without strict corporate guidelines.

In this global age when business can be easily conducted remotely, flexibility is quite important. The ability to get your work done outside of a strict 9-5 schedule and work from home some, most or all of the time is not only appealing, in many jobs it is crucial. With technology we can now attend meetings and collaborate with people on the opposite coast and across the pond on our laptops at home. So Gen Y workers see little value in being at the office at 5 am in the morning or at 11 pm to attend a meeting or speak with a co-worker in Paris or Tokyo about the project they are collaborating on.

Also there are many companies that allow you to work 100% remotely and this too appeals to Gen Y since it broadens the number of companies they can work for.

I think because of the lack of job creation today Gen Y also sees opportunities that allow them to develop their entrepreneurial skills a big plus because this way they can create companies and jobs a few years down the road rather than look for new positions or be among the long-term unemployed.

Wanting the freedom to use social media shows me how important social media such as Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ etc. has become today, and how much it will grow in importance in the next 10 years. This generation grew up in the age of social media and older workers must learn from them how to embrace social media or get left behind.

On the negative side many entry level Gen Y employees are having a very difficult time finding jobs in their chosen field due in part to competition from older, more seasoned unemployed and employed candidates.

As for education, most Gen Y do have a 4-year college degree and many have advanced degrees, however these diplomas no longer guarantee placement in a white collar position. This is why so many are working in jobs that are beneath them and do not require a degree at all.

The smart Gen Y are now seeking degrees in science and related majors leading to jobs in biotech, neuroscience, robotics and similar fields.

This is the mindset of the Gen Y generation, but it is also worthwhile for career hangers in their 30’s and to consider these new workplace dynamics.

Again, I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send it along to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.