ASKING FOR THE JOB: It’s About Sales

After 17 years in recruiting, I still wonder at the origin of the advice, “Ask for the Job.”

How does that work? “May I please have the job?” “I want the job. Can I have it?”

Of course not. But . . . you need to say SOMETHING at the end of the interview. You can’t just sit there.

You do need to clarify that you want to work there.

The correct term is: CLOSE for the job.

You don’t need to be a salesperson to close.

Most dictionaries define closing as the shutting down of something, the conclusion of a real estate transaction, the ending of an accounting period or, in sales,

“the final action in a selling presentation where a salesperson requests a buyer to order or give a commitment to buy.” – Black’s Law Dictionary

Let’s edit the sales definition to:

The final action in an interview where a candidate requests an employer to make an offer or give a commitment to hire.

OK, that makes sense. So how does the salesperson ask for the order? What can the candidate learn from their technique?

Some salespeople might say, “I’d like your business.” It’s obvious, but if someone is inclined to buy, it’s to the point and creates a situation in which the buyer can say yes.

This equates to “I want the job.” That’s not too much different than “May I have this job,” but if the employer has made up their mind to hire, it allows the conversation to move forward to start date and salary issues in quick fashion.

SUMMARIZE THE BENEFIT – Restate the value you will bring if they hire you

A more experienced salesperson, focused on the benefits of their product or service, might say, “It appears my widget would allow you to retain 25% more customers than the way you’re doing it today, saving you $20 thousand annually. Are you ready to move forward?”

This summarizes the expected return on investment for the buyer, which is what likely attracted them to the salesperson’s solution in the first place, and makes it easy to justify signing the purchase order. In fact, it would be illogical to not buy if the sales process has reached this point.

Through the lens of an interview, this is like a candidate saying, “It appears my background in building support centers that result in first-call resolution rates of nearly 96% while decreasing phone wait time by half would help this company provide the level of customer satisfaction it’s attempting to hit. I would really like to be a part of this team and drive this effort for you.”

Again, this brings home the benefit in a single powerful statement and leads to a smooth transition in which the candidate affirms their interest in the context of the value they would bring forward, based on a strong message of past performance predicting future success to the benefit of the employer. The candidate has likely shared specific ideas and successes throughout the course of the interview cycle – how they hire service reps, evaluate call center equipment, or track results – and neatly brings it home at the end of an interview, when it’s most memorable.

This will work most of the time for both salespeople and candidates. But why then do people lose sales or jobs, even when they apply these approaches? There’s no apparent reason why the decision maker would decline based on a simple analysis of their problems or objectives and the logic in front of them.

ASK FOR THE CONCERN – Vet any concerns and dig for sources of possible objections

The key word to above is “apparent.” No apparent reason. Meaning no reason that’s been said or which the salesperson or candidate is aware of. These are the insidious, unspoken concerns. Undiscovered, unchallenged concerns are the killers of sales and hires.

Concerns are not scary to the top 10 to 20% of sales professionals. High achievers want concerns. Features and benefits do not win the sale as much as concerns prevent the sale.

Top salespeople request concerns, so that they can overcome them, and so do top candidates.

They say: “It appears my widget would allow you to retain 25% more customers than the way you’re doing it today, saving you $20 thousand annually. What concerns do you have that would keep you from moving forward?”

If the buyer says, “No concerns,” the sale is made. If the buyer states a concern, the salesperson has a chance to overcome it. The concern may be something negotiable – price, delivery terms, features like size or color, support – or a non-negotiable deal-breaker.

The point is that the salesperson learns what objection they need to overcome, and will not leave the meeting without knowing what they must do to close the sale.

Now let’s put it all together and CLOSE this job

The candidate should say: “It appears my background in building support centers that result in first-call resolution rates of nearly 96% while decreasing phone wait time by half would help this company provide the level of customer satisfaction it’s attempting to hit. I would really like to be a part of this team and drive this effort for you. What concerns do you have that would keep you from making an offer?”

To this question, the employer can only answer in one of the following ways:

• *No concerns. Let’s discuss the sequence of steps to an offer.
• *We need to think about it. The proper response then is, “What particular concern do you have that’s making you hesitate?”
• *You haven’t done [fill in the blank]. This is most common. The candidate is a match in most ways but not in one or two others. The candidate can prepare for this by working on a story of how, in a previous job, they took on a task or project outside of their previous experience or training and hit it out of the park. This is an example of showing you’re a fast learner. (Don’t tell anyone you’re a fast learner – that’s clichéd.)
• *You’re not as good as we hoped, you’re not as fast as we hoped, you’re not as energetic as we hoped, you’re not as whatever as we hoped.” Wow – points for honesty. I don’t see this much but if a company is this transparent, write them a thank you note and stay in touch.
• *They say there’s no concern, but there are. This is the opposite of the response above– there’s something they don’t want to say because they don’t want to hurt your feelings or maybe there’s a protected characteristic they cannot mention. In this case the candidate should not want to work there anyway and probably dodged a bullet.

Anyone who’s ever lost a job they thought they interviewed well for, just like any salesperson who thought they had a deal then lost it, has likely faced an unrequested, unspoken, unmet concern.

Don’t ask for the sale and don’t ask for the job – Summarize the benefit, ask for the concern, and close the deal.

By: Larry Lebofsky – Executive Recruiter – MoneyTech Search Group®
larry@moneytechsearch.com

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