Over the past year I have received endless phone calls from friends, former colleagues and friends of friends that have been caught up in the recent layoffs. Many of the people that have been pointed in my direction are career Sales Professionals or in Sales Leadership. They have spent time in many industries across many different geographies and have sold products and services alike.
Just about all of the conversations start off the same with the person telling me how frustrated the search has been and many share their feeling of discouragement. And more often than not they tell me the endless number of job postings they have sent their resume to, only to rarely if ever hear anything back.
What I share with them during our call is nothing profound, yet I am often told how helpful the insight/approach that I share with them proves to be. I am not a coach nor in the business of giving anyone a pep talk. My goal is to give smart people a simple yet effective strategy that most of them have actually been following their entire sales careers. They just have never applied that approach to a job search. I share with them three simple steps.
- Start with WHO you KNOW.
- Help Them, Help You (Help them with their amnesia- see below)
- Ask them to Broker Introductions.
Who Do I Know and Where are They Now (Step One)
I recommend that they turn their computer off for a while and stay off the job boards and career pages until they have a game plan. Sales 101. I recommend that they grab a clean legal pad and start to brainstorm. To help them with that brainstorming I ask very specific questions about their past roles, employers and clients (see below). During our call, I pull their resume or profile up and I ask the following…
- Who are the best salespeople and sales leaders they worked with at each of their former jobs?
- I ask them to list the names of who their best customers were when they worked at each company. Followed by what are the names of the people at the customers that you had the most success with?
- I then ask them for the names of any and every person they hired and worked alongside. Not only in sales but in customer success, national sales, implementation, product and sales support.
- Lastly, What outside Consulting Firms worked with your former companies? Any of the Big4, Sales and Leadership Training companies. Ask them to list the names of who the consultants were.
Sales today is made up of every acronym possible which in this case is very beneficial. Companies employ hundreds and in some cases thousands of SDRS, Regional Sales Managers (RSM), RVP — Regional Vice President, Sales Enablement and Customer Success Managers. Chief Sales Officers (CSO) along with Chief Revenue Officers CRO)..
- I take it a step further and ask if they worked at a startup and ask who the investors were? Investors are constantly in need of great sales professionals to help grow and scale their investments.
- Private Equity and VC firms have many portfolio companies. I ask them to remember who the people from the investment firms were and to explore the Portfolio Companies that they have invested in.
Just like in recruiting where I made a living and always wanted to identify five great assets off of each and every resume, the same approach should apply when networking for a new career opportunity. I suggest that over the next few days that they fill up that yellow legal pad with 50 to 75 names of current and former colleagues that they believe would be willing to help with their networking.
I remind them that the Job Search is a Human Contact Sport. Nothing but good can come from conversations with people within your industry/field.
Help Them Help You — Help Them with their Amnesia (Step Two)
When I share names that I find that these job seekers are connected to I often hear… “I haven’t thought about him/her in years” or “I forgot that so and so worked there.” For years most sales professionals have made an endless amount of contacts and have hopefully left a good impression on many of them. It is so important for the job seeker to not only research before each call whom they would like to be connected to, but ask very specific questions that help the person that you are speaking with to jog their memory.
I suggest that once you have your list of 50–75 to then go back to the computer and start “connecting the dots” I have experienced that it is very helpful if not a non negotiable to have your contact’s LinkedIn profile pulled up at the time you are asking for help.
Help them Help You. Don’t ask closed ended questions like; Do you know anyone hiring? Do you know anyone at Company X? Instead ask direct questions that make it easy for the people you are networking with to help you. Again Sales 101 — Preparation is critical. Have the names of the people and companies that you would like introductions to.
Followed by the following questions.
- When you worked at company A, who was the VP of Sales Enablement?
- When you were at company B who was the person responsible for new product launches to your customers?
- Who was the best RVP or CRO you ever worked for?
- If you were building a team today of the best sales professionals you ever worked with, who would they be?
While just about everyone we are calling is willing to help out we must remember that they too are busy with life. Asking very specific questions (again Sales 101) and specific names will likely lead to more names being shared back and forth which in turn will be tremendously beneficial during a persons job search.
Ask them to Broker an Introduction (Step Three)
I am a texter myself. Most people that I have worked with in the past and people that I am willing to introduce them to are in my phone contacts.. A casual introduction of two smart friends should be very welcomed by both of your former colleagues/clients etc. No matter what the economy is and no matter where you are in your career, people that truly value great employees and talented professionals will want to meet one another.
Not everyone you are introduced to is going to ask where have you been all of my life- we are dying to hire someone like you. It will usually go something like… Any friend of Ralph’s is someone I am more than happy to help out. This is where I tell people to do what they have been doing most of their professional careers. Engage in commonalities and discuss in a humble yet confident way what you have accomplished and where you see yourself adding the most value to a team/company. The thing I recommend to look for in commonalities is current and former employees, current and former customers and common projects/accomplishments in your career. The folks you are networking with may not be hiring at the moment of your conversation, but just give it a few hours and something within their immediate department, company or network will change.
https://hbr.org/2017/06/a-friend-of-a-friend-is-no-longer-the-best-way-to-find-a-job
Applying to the Black Hole…
A quick google search for the number of job boards returns 3.6B hits in less than a second.. Obviously this is not the actual amount of job boards. But it can inadvertently add to someone feeling overwhelmed as to where to start.
I often share with friends that job boards are like the NYPost. I log on every morning to read about the NY Mets and NY Giants and an hour later I have purchased two new golf shirts and a pair of golf shoes and haven’t yet read the box scores. I go back to the old adage I mentioned before. Job Searching is a Human Contact Sport and an over reliance on job boards and career pages takes you away from that. The average posting on LinkedIn is receiving upwards of 500 applicants. I recommend that you utilize your network in a structured way that continues to boost your mood.
Recently I shared an article that discussed the conscious and subconscious behavior around how hiring managers and professionals react to cold resumes. There is little to no excitement to engage with the applicant. However, my experience has shown me that those same professionals want to engage with “proven resources” or not so eloquently put, a known commodity. We apply this approach in almost every aspect of our lives. When we need a plumber or electrician, an auto mechanic or a pediatrician. The last thing we want to do is flip open the yellow pages (yes I realize I am dating myself) and start engaging with strangers. Job Searching and Hiring is no different.
Keep your head up during your search. The next time you ring someone or you get a call back it just may be what you have been long searching for. Before you fire up your computer and fire out a bunch of resumes I strongly suggest that you, Plan your Work and Work your Plan.
