5 simple tips to help you stand out from the crowd and get recruited quicker

It’s hard enough getting noticed in the crowded market place, but if you’re not maximising your chances to be found it’s even harder here are a few simple tips to help you get found.

1.       Ensure your CV can be found

You’ve got your CV polished to perfection and your 100% happy with it, great, now what? Well it’s time to get your CV found, search out the major job boards, Jobsite, Reed, Pareto (that’s ours ;)) add your CV, and make sure its searchable, this will ensure recruiters can easily find you and you don’t just rely on your own applications.

2.       Always include those contact details

Always include a contact phone number and email, a phone number is really important as often businesses and recruiters won’t have the time to email people and wait for a response, so they will want to have a conversation. Anything that puts up a barrier doesn’t help your chances of getting a job and you will often be overlooked despite an otherwise dazzling CV. Oh and if you think you won’t be around or are unable to take a call, ensure you have a professional answer phone, nothing can turn off a recruiter quicker than an unprofessional voicemail.

3.       Prepare for those calls

Ensure you know your CV and everything on it, get yourself a quick reference list of key achievements and even potential weaknesses this is especially useful if you get caught off guard by a call.

4.       On the call

You’ve been called by a recruiter, first of all, relax no one is trying to catch you out, they just want to have a brief chat and get an idea about you and if you are interested. It goes without saying but obviously be friendly, ask questions find out about the role and if you would be interested (no point wasting yours or their time!), get more details or ask for them to send you an email with more details to look at. If they arrange a call back interview be punctual (i.e. answer the call!) and be prepared.

5. Interview/Assessment day

So you’ve made it to the interview or assessment day, excellent! Well hopefully you’ve been fully prepared by the recruiter for the day, if you have to do a presentation, ensure you practice, they will be able to tell if you haven’t.

If you know the company, ensure your research has been thorough, that’s more than just the front page of the site! Have an idea what they do, who their customers are if possible, what they’ve done and what they are doing now, doing this shows you care enough to learn about them and what they do and will come across well.

Finally For the interview/assessment day ensure you arrive punctually but not too early, there is nothing wrong with being keen but turning up too early can be distracting for the people that are holding the interview/assessment and additionally you may have to wait awhile! 15/20 minutes is almost universally acceptable. 

For Assessment days be keen, be energetic and most of all get involved, it's your chance to show how well you can communicate with others and how you can build rapport quickly, show your best qualities off!

These are just a few very simple tips for getting recruited quicker, hopefully they’ve helped. If you have any tips of your own please add them in the comments. Thanks!

Things to avoid when the deal is done

You can do so well in a sales meeting and obtain the deal, but then you suddenly ruin it at the last hurdle. Many sales professionals can be brilliant during the whole sales process, exhibiting a pleasant and professional manner. Sales people often fall into the trap of coming to the close, the client finally agrees to buy and the sales person turns into someone who has seemingly just won the lottery.

Sales people start spending the commission they could earn from the sale before the deal is even closed, although you may be excited, the last thing a client wants to see is you excitement as they may see this as it been at their expense.

Sales people also become agitated when they have closed a deal; they feel like the client could change their mind at any time. You’re either running out the door or slamming the phone down before anything else can be said, or the contract could be ripped up. You have to slow down and realise that the client is interested; they’re not going to run away when they have seen the value in your service/product and have signed the contract.

This can mean that many sales people also rush through the paper work or the logistics of the service involved with closing the sales. This means that the service won’t actually be sold or completed, which may mean the client won’t return for repeat business and any further deals that could have been made are lost because of poor attention to detail.

We all want to close the sale, but sometimes taking your time to do that can benefit you in the long run, it can show clients that you value their business and want what is best for them rather than a quick sale. Take your time and make sure you have looked at all the client’s needs and developed a strategy that benefits both parties.

Get more sales and business from your LinkedIn

LinkedIn has the potential to be a fantastic tool for any business owner or even sales executive, are you getting the most out of it? Read some simple tips and get more from LinkedIn now.
Social media is seen as the way forward when doing business, it can keep you in touch with customers along with finding out what they are thinking and feeling at a particular time, out of all the social media opportunities the most suited to the sales environment and building business relationships is LinkedIn. LinkedIn can be a goldmine for sales opportunities if it used properly and if you know how to get the best out of it here are a few of our tips for getting the most out of using LinkedIn.
1. Add those contacts!
Very straight forward build up your list of contacts, whenever you get a new business contact add them on LinkedIn (don’t forget to also add your existing clients too). First it’s a nice way to keep in touch, but secondly it gives you a thorough understanding of their past and in some circumstances their interests or potential business needs. Also if the person is difficult to contact it gives you yet another alternative point of contact.
2. Map clients & identify potential business
Moving on the first point you can use LinkedIn to identify alternative opportunities within your existing and prospective client base; by looking through those connected to them you can identify other potential decision makers or even other business prospects who work with your current clients, if you have a strong relationship with your client you could even ask for referrals!
3. Ask for recommendations
A fantastic feature of LinkedIn is the opportunity is the to ask for recommendations, not only is this a great way of showcasing the great work you are doing, but it also adds to the reputation of your business (you can ask for recommendations on your company page too!), so remember ask for the recommendations and let your clients shout about how good you are!
4. Set up a company page
If you haven’t already, ensure you set up a company page this is a great way to advertise your products and services online and it’s completely free. Invite clients to follow you and they can see when you add new products and services, also you can even ask them to recommend your products and services.
5. Join Group discussions
Get in there and join real world conversations that are happening there are plenty of groups on LinkedIn especially around sales and marketing, join these groups and add to the conversations. Not only can this be a good way of identifying potential needs in your market (people often come on asking questions around their work and advice), you could even identify new business opportunities. Finally you could also become known for adding quality knowledge and a great contact point for advice or even a contact for when someone is looking to do business
These are just a few of the potential ways you could be using LinkedIn so get on it today and maximise your opportunities, identify new clients and stay a step ahead of your competition.
Any more tips to share? Please feel free to comment below and add your own tips ideas on how to get the most out of LinkedIn.

Many graduates aren’t ready for the world of work

There are so many graduates that have gone to a respectable university and completed a degree in Business Management. Many graduates feel that this is a good degree, with a broad base of modules covering marketing, business, human resources, psychology and operations management.

The graduates have qualified with a 2:1, and look set to get their dream job with a FTSE 100 company, yet the graduate market has become diluted, with so many graduates and many achieving a 2:1. Graduates are feeling disillusioned with their university education, and many feel they haven’t received the correct career advice. A survey conducted by Totaljobs.com found that 46% of graduates feel they are not ready for the world of work.

With this many employers believe that graduates are lacking the necessary skills or experience to take on a role within their company. According to the survey, 43% of graduates also believe that in hindsight they wouldn’t have chosen their degree course. So it is quite clear that with so many graduates in unemployment and failing to get their dream job because of their lack of experience, employers/recruitment agencies need to provide closer links to universities to provide this much needed experience to graduates.

Many graduate assessment centres tend to look at a graduates ability to cope with work, shown by the competency based questionnaires and group exercises. Their technical and academic achievements are what got them so far, but employers need to see these workplace skills that many graduates don’t possess upon leaving university.

Graduate recruiters are trying to get universities to incorporate more work life skills into their curriculum, yet many academics would argue that university isn’t a prep-school for the world of work and rather a place for learning. Yet they do both agree that university careers services need to develop a better service for their graduates when they are starting their graduate job search.

Sales Training Never Seems to End

Every sales person knows that sales training isn’t a one time event, it’s a continuous development as new processes and technologies come into play. Sales training must and does change within several years, even some of the most experienced sales people need to look into new training and development techniques to enhance their skills.

What can often be a winning formula for a sales person can sometimes become outdated, a company can feel that their methods aren’t as effective as they once were and market industry changes have forced them to change their sales approach.

Sales is often a process that with practice you can develop a better knowledge in negotiation, and presentation skills that only comes with experience. However the most successful sales people need coaching from their managers and also training and development in best practices. Otherwise by themselves sales people can get into bad habits that may work now and again but don’t have a great success rate over a longer period.

Sales people need to beat their competition and to do this they always need to be improving, having a training programme in place that always assesses the competencies of your sales team can not only help them develop the necessary skills but also make the sales person feel more valued by the company and therefore produce better results. Training is consistent, although it can take you away from selling; the time that you are away can be valuable and give you the tools needed to be a sales superstar, delivering a better service to your clients.

The most important thing to remember is that no one has all the perfect sales techniques – sales is a role that continually develops and evolves, which highlights the need for sales training and development. The opportunity of sales training can at least allow a company, sales team or sales person to brush up on the skills they already have.

Why Sales People Fail

There are a lot of discussions on how to find good sales people, so why is it so hard to find them for your business? The thing about sales is that almost anyone can try their hand at it but not everyone succeeds.

Selling is the most important part of any business, yet often as not it receives the least amount of investment. We expect sales people to emerge perfectly formed for their role. Many companies only measurement is, 'did they hit target', and by the time this is measured it's already too late to do anything about it.

Sales people can fail to utilise an effective sales process, with each sales opportunity handled differently. Some of the most successful sales people use a process that has the highest probability of producing higher closing rates. Other sales people will use manipulative persuasion tactics to persuade and convince prospects to buy their products which can create resistance. Many sales people fail to find the need the prospect has for their product, their financial capability, who the decision maker is and spend too much time on prospects that don’t match the necessary criteria.

Many sales people are just a poor fit for their role, sometimes expecting the sales to do themselves and being too lazy to put the necessary time and effort in. Yet it can also be down to poor management, or lack of backing from their organisation in training a developing their training teams. There are many reasons why sales people fail, so you need to consider how to improve your sales people to become sales superstars.

Grim figures have just been released showing youth unemployment hitting the one million mark

Figures released today have shown that the number of 16-24 year olds that are unemployed has risen to just over 1.02 million, an increase of 67,000 in the three months to September.

This is the highest figure since the records began, with total unemployment increasing by 129,000 to 2.62 million. Employment minister Chris Gayling told Sky News "It's bad news. It's a situation I find unacceptable."

This news has meant that many Business leaders are preparing for another recession, with a lot of the recruitment freezes that started in 2008 coming back. Businesses are currently very cautious, which is not very helpful in reducing the amount of unemployed graduates.

The stats heap even more pressure on the chancellor to do a lot more to kick start the economy and get unemployment rates a lot lower. The figures also outlined that the number of UK born people in work has dropped by 311,000 in the past year whilst the number of non UK born people has risen by 181,000.

"Today's ugly labour market data will raise concerns that the UK economic recovery is fading away, and that a long-term impact will be felt among the nation's youth," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

This Week’s quarterly survey by the CIPD has revealed that UK employers are locked into a ‘wait and see mode’, which has resulted in recruitment freezes and a significant reduction in the number of companies outsourcing work overseas.

Pareto has written a guide on how to build your sales team in a changing world which will enable you to overcome this ‘wait and see’ culture. The guide looks at a new form of sales recruitment; Insourcing and how it can help you to maximise your sales opportunities. Let’s see this as an opportunity for UK businesses to improve sales without the headache of headcount or long term cost risk.