Get your job search kicked off right. Help yourself to our Job Search Resources Exclusively for Mid to Senior Level Software Sales Professionals.
Has it been a while since you've interviewed? These articles will help you become a better interviewer, get you up to date on current hiring trends, and reveal some of the most common mistakes made during the interview process. Armed with this kind of information, you'll be ready to tackle even the most difficult hiring manager.
After several months of interviewing, you’ve been assured your offer is on the way. Now’s not the time to blow it! You’re almost there, and it’s about time!
First, the good news about securing a job offer. When a company says the offer is on the way, 99% of the time, it’s on the way.
Once the offer has been officially signed and all contingencies have been removed, you better be ready to show up for orientation. Because getting an offer withdrawn doesn’t happen too frequently.
The reason offers don’t get withdrawn with too often is because employers have plenty of time to change their minds as the interview process unfolds.
People approach recruiters when they’re exploring new job opportunities.
Presumably, this is because they’ve successfully worked with a recruiter in the past. However, in specific situations, using an executive recruiter is not always your best choice.
For example, if you are hoping to switch career fields, a recruiter won’t be an effective resource for you.
Some people find it disconcerting to hear recruiters won’t be able to help them move into a different field. But there is an excellent reason for this.
It's a fact of life that looking for a job is time intensive and exhausting. Today's job seeker will come across a variety of resources that provide overlapping services.
Don't go down the wrong rabbit hole! Differentiating between service providers will help you spend your time with the right people.
Searching for a new sales job is an important step in your sales career. Let’s look behind-the-scenes at the VP of Sales’ pet peeves when recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new reps.
Number 1– You Can’t Connect through Arrogance
A big part of winning the job is connecting with the hiring manager. In an interview, hiring managers love confidence and hate arrogance. Arrogance destroys connections and erodes your likeability-factor.
If you’re in an active job hunt, you may find you’ll have more than one offer. If you’ve never been in this situation before, it can feel awkward.
As a sales recruiter, I’ve worked with candidates who’ve expertly navigated the multiple offer situation with grace, professionalism, and transparency. I’ve also worked with sales professionals who found the situation extremely uncomfortable.
So, if managing multiple offers is new for you, perhaps this information will help you navigate this new terrain.
One of my old bosses gave me an offer on a Friday, and after hearing the details, I said, “I’ll think about it and get back to you on Monday.”
Then he went wild.
He was a high-level executive and not used to being delayed. “Sonja, leaders decide.”
I gave that some thought. It’s true, leaders do have to make decisions, some of them more difficult than others.
So how is it that you make difficult decisions?
What’s the best way to pick the job that’s right for you?
There are three types of sales professionals looking for a new sales job:
1. Employed, closing deals, and only looking for the bigger, better deal
2. Employed, missing quota, and looking for a new job fast
It’s no secret when you don’t get the job, it stinks.
Many times, hours of preparation are involved, new clothing is purchased, and hours of travel have been invested. You’ve had to take a little time off to meet with the prospective employer that you could have spent on leisure.
Sacrifices have been made and including time, money and energy.
Often when you don’t get the job, it seems as if it were for nothing.
Most sales roles can be split into the following:
1. Hunters—Reps who are cultivating new or mostly new business.
2. Farmers—Reps who are expanding accounts the company is already doing business with.
As sales professionals, we hear a lot about VALUE. How many times have you heard the following?
“Every time you go to a client, show them the value.”
“With each sales call—offer the prospect value. Don’t just call to check in, touch base, or follow-up.”
“Give your client value-creating content like a whitepaper or relevant article.”
“Send your prospect a value-creating email.”
Is Your Ego Costing You Sales Opportunities Throughout the Job Hunt Process?
If you are on the job hunt, or even considering new opportunities passively, it’s important to remember to put your ego aside. That is, if you want a better opportunity or higher compensation. When you’re interviewing for a new role, even if you’re in a good situation, humility does count.
Looking for a new sales job? Before you take the plunge, consider what you need to make a successful move. If any one of these ‘Critical Keys’ are missing, no amount of money will make up for it. All three keys must come together to formulate a good opportunity, or you will be looking for another sales job all too soon.
Let’s take a look behind the curtain of the interview process and find out what’s really going on. Because every company has access to the same technology and tools, and can even copy a competitor’s strategy, hiring the right people remains the one variable that can really be a game changer.
So you’ve been fired. Join the club. I took a very informal survey of my coworkers many years ago. I asked 10 of my colleagues to raise their hands if they’ve been fired. Three people raised their hands. Firing isn’t that uncommon, especially in sales. The real question is what are you going to do about it?
No one likes to lose out on job opportunities.
Finding out a company doesn’t want to move forward with you in the interview process can be disappointing. Salespeople like to win, and during the job interview, it feels personal.
Emotions rise and when bad news comes your way, the destabilizing feeling of rejection sets in.
If we're not careful, we can become demoralized, angry, and even behave less than our professional best.
Wondering about signing a non-compete with your new employer? Do you have limitations on where you can work next based on an agreement you’ve already signed?
In today’s competitive business environment, it is common for sales professionals to enter non-compete agreements with new employers.
Most of the time, taking the first interview is in your best interest. Interviewing can do great and unexpected things for your career. Besides, managing your career is time well spent.
You never know what will happen after you’re introduced to an organization. But when you’re on the job hunt, timing is everything. And sometimes, it’s just off. There will be times when you need to turn down an initial job interview.
When you're looking for a new job, you'll be reaching out to your network, former colleagues, employers, and recruiters. You will be juggling a lot of balls in the air at once.
This requires a new level of attention and focus that you haven't had to execute for some time.
You'll be performing at your current job while devoting additional time to your future job. Both will be demanding and require significant time out of your already cram-packed day.
Interviews can be strange, but what if you were so prepared it didn't matter?
Your future depends on your interview performance, so you'll need to manage through the strangeness with loads of preparation.
At times that won't even help, but most of the time it will give you a baseline to power through those awkward interview moments.
Most recruiters know that enthusiasm sells.
They tend to come to this conclusion through pattern recognition which at some point begins to looks like intuition.
But without a doubt, more than 90% of the time, the candidate who is most enthusiastic about a specific job will get it.
But why?
Because people who are enthusiastic about a job opportunity become deeply curious.
People who are curious listen well, investigate more, research, ruminate, and obsess about their topic of interest.
If you haven't already, you'll interview with several people who know little to nothing about sales.
These people will be like some of the clients you've had in the past who evaluate your solutions and ask some left field questions that instantly tell you they don't know what they're doing.
You'll face the same thing during the interview process at one point or another.
If you’re a sales professional, you must take the time to put together a crisp resume.
The more experience you have, the longer the resume becomes. How do you know if your resume it too long?
Just about everyone from your next-door neighbor to your old boss has an opinion on your resume. The more people you ask, the more varying opinions you’ll get!
These views will often contradict each other.
How do you know what to do? Who should you listen to for advice? Take it from a recruiter—we look at thousands of resumes, often a hundred a day, sometimes more.
You’ve made it to the final round, and an offer should be in your near future! Congratulations! Now it’s time for reference checking.
Who should you give as a reference?
What should you tell them?
When you get to the end of the interview process, it’s important to provide several strong employer references.
An ERE Survey in 2013 stated that for every job opening, an employer receives 250 resumes on average. Only four to six of these applicants are invited to compete for the role.
How can you position yourself to win the job offer?
If you’re in sales, a great place to start is supporting your answers with relevant stats.
If you’ve ever been in an interview and found yourself pitching your sales skills as excellent, superb, and extraordinary, you will benefit from quantifying your track record of success.
If you’ve been interviewing lately, you’ve probably gotten accustomed to rounds of phone interviews.
There are times when you should move the phone interview to a different location or select another time when you have more control over your environment.
If you've ever been asked to complete an online video interview assessment, I'm sure you were curious about what to expect.
The first question that should be running through your mind is, why do they want to conduct a video interview?
If they were interested in what you sound like, they'd interview you over the phone. But if they are interested in what you look like, they will interview you over video.
Why is it that some salespeople succeed and others fail? What makes one salesperson get a job paying 35% more than another when both people have similar backgrounds?
Why is it that some salespeople progress twice as fast as others?
If you've ever wondered how you can be the salesperson on the fast track to new job opportunities these tips will help you get there.
These five tips will have more impact on your job search than any other no matter what your current circumstances.
Managing your sales career is up to you. If you’ve ever wanted to move into sales leadership, sell a different offering, or start your own business, you’ll need to have a plan to get there.
You can’t hope that someone else will discover you, automatically promote you, or recruit you for a better opportunity at just the right time.
Tired of sending your resume into the proverbial black hole? Wonder why you’re not hearing back from employers when you meet the job description requirements?
Every day over the last 15 years, I’ve reviewed 100s of resumes. I’ve learned a thing or two about what separates a winning resume submittal from a losing one.
I’m going to share several key tips with you that will help you get called in for an interview even if you don’t know anyone at the hiring organization.
These keys will show you how to double your chances of getting noticed with a cold online resume submittal.
Isn’t it frustrating sending out resumes and never hearing back? It’s especially aggravating when you meet every job requirement and all you hear is radio silence.
This happens more often than it should.
Since 2004 Optimal Sales Search has been helping companies accelerate growth by hiring high-performance sales and sales leadership.
Running into an interview? Grab our best 14 sales interview questions and walk out of the interview with all the right information.
