"He who has a good idea but doesn't know how to sell it is no more advanced than someone who doesn't". (Abraham Lincoln). And what if this quote was also true for those who have skills but don't know how to sell them? The word SELL may not be popular, so you can transform it as you wish: enhance, highlight, argue, explain... In all cases, you need to be convincing.
It's not easy when the pressure, the stakes and the stage fright get in the way. Fortunately, there are methods for improving your efficiency and confidence, and increasing your chances of success.
Whether you're selling a product, a service or your skills, understanding your needs is an essential element. Identifying the need will enable you to prepare effectively and make a difference from the outset. Then it's time to SELL yourself, which is all about proving that you have the right skills to meet expectations. Alexandra David-Ardite, an expert in human resources and recruitment, takes a look at these concepts.
Understand the need
First of all, you need to find out about the company, its sector, its strengths and weaknesses. All means are good: personal network, press articles, social networks, company website, etc. Why this research? To give yourself the means to prepare properly for your interview, to gather key information to help you position yourself and answer questions. It also helps you to go into the interview with things you know, so you can gain in confidence. Self-confidence is a real asset and requires good preparation.
Understanding the need is also based on analysing the elements of the position and the profile sought. This may be an advertisement, a job description, information provided by your network, an initial discussion with the recruiter to refine the recruitment criteria, etc. It mainly covers working conditions, financial conditions and technical and behavioural skills. These are the skills that will help you prepare for the various stages of the interview, from presentation to argumentation. Today, behavioural skills (soft skills) are as much a part of recruitment as technical skills (hard skills).
As Julie Bordier, digital and print editorial project manager at APEC, points out in an article published on 23/09/2020 on the APEC website: "Given that the proportion of people with technical skills has become significant, they make less of a difference on the job market. So it's your soft skills that will add a winning element to your application. With the same (technical) skills, this is an excellent way of MAKING THE DIFFERENCE! Soft skills are harder to measure, as they relate to behaviour, communication, adaptability and critical thinking. Fortunately, there are methods for presenting them, making them more concrete and therefore easier to evaluate..
Making a difference right from the presentation
Convince people that you are an interesting candidate and make them want to find out more. This is the aim of pitchwhich involves presenting yourself briefly but effectively.
The elements highlighted, the words chosen and the articulation : nothing should be left to chance. For this reason, the pitch must be prepared, adapted to the job in question and rehearsed. It's not about learning a text by heart, or giving your personal details. Above all, your message must not be a repetition of the CV, because then it becomes useless, even boring. It should grab the recruiter's attention from the outset by saying what the CV doesn't say: why you are here, what has marked your career, what drives you, the results you have achieved, your vision of the future for yourself and the company you want to join...
Right from this first phase, the recruiter needs to be reassured, because the pressure is not only on the candidate's side. The terms turnover or breaches of probation periods are causing concern in human resources, as is the shortage of candidates. Already on 25 June 2021, Frank Ribuot, Chairman of the Randstad France group, pointed out on BFM Business that many companies were desperately looking for workers. Vacancies are synonymous with production delays, lack of responsiveness, customer dissatisfaction, loss of skills, etc. So right from the presentation stage, it's proof of skills, backed up by concrete examples, that recruiters need to understand that you are their solution.
Argument to convince its skills
Then comes the dreaded question phase. When preparing for the interview, there's no need to imagine the worst: a recruiter looking to make you feel uncomfortable, to trick you, in short, to destabilise you at any cost. Such recruiters do exist, but fortunately they are not the majority. There will always be time to deal with them without them having already destabilised you before the meeting.
However, you need to be prepared for the questions that will be asked. Their main purpose is to gauge motivation and skills. This is the time to get into STAR. This method allows you to present and argue the benefits you can offer in concrete terms, using evidence.
- S as a Situation: in what context did you apply this skill?
- T as a Task: what work tasks were required?
- A like Action: what actions have you taken?
- R like Results: what results have you achieved?
This methodology is there to support technical skills, but also behavioural skills, which are apparently so difficult to prove. It helps to give concrete examples.
Example : "I'm a rigorous person". S : I had to follow a project from A to Z. T : To do this, we had to validate that the objectives had been achieved at each stage. A : I built a monitoring tool that I systematically updated every 48 hours through follow-up checks and briefs that I led. R : This tool has enabled us to monitor each stage of the project in great detail. Internal audits validated the accuracy of all the elements listed...
In a commercial relationship, it's a win-win situation. In recruitment, the objective is the same. So sell yourself well!
