Hello! I will only take a few minutes of your time

Have you ever got that call? I received two of them this morning.

I am talking about sales calls. I like to take the calls to see what techniques they use and how they handle rejections.

I noticed with each rejection I threw out there, their tone changed. One was getting frustrated. The other guy actually got angry! Now he is trying to sell me something?!?!

Part of their frustration is that they talked for a long time, (I purposely let them). They were not looking for a response; they were paying attention to themselves and not to me.

Then my favor line came up. “Let me be honest.” Hmmm, you weren’t before you just said that, or only this one item is honest? I am always curious why people say that.

Now how does this little story apply to you the career seeker? Well it does in many ways! I hope you realize that you are selling yourself,your skills, your worth, every time you interview. So what do you need to be aware of?

• Sell yourself but don’t ramble on. Make sure you pause enough to let the other person respond. I know people sometimes ramble on because they are nervous. But I have never heard of anyone getting hurt during an interview.
  
• Watch your tone. When a hard question comes or you start getting uncomfortable, take a deep breath, pause and get yourself back in a positive state.
  
• Be honest all the time. If you say the “let me be honest” unconsciously the person interviewing will think what I think. So everything up to this point is not honest?
  
• Pay attention, look for the response, listen to their response. If the interviewer seems resistant of an idea or part of your presentation, take it another way.
  

Both guys might have sold me something, first if they would have backed what they said . They made factual statements and I asked them to send me the data and they couldn’t . Sell yourself as yourself.

Dennis