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The Job Interview: Your Most Important Sales Pitch

The only way to sell any product is to first sell yourself. Treat the interview the way you do a sales call.

Pre-opening

• Prepare your sales materials beforehand. The most important is your resume. Bring extra copies. Also, bring a job skills portfolio with your resume, your letters of recommendation, any marketing materials you may have created for past jobs, facts and figures about your sales record, and other hard evidence.
  
  
• Ask what kind of interview it will be. There's a big difference between the traditional interview and a case interview.
  
  
• Act as if you're interviewing with everyone in the company, including the temps in the office you say hi to on your way to the interview. Always be friendly and courteous.

Opening

• The first five minutes of an interview, your opener, are the most important.
  
  
• Have a firm handshake, maintain eye contact, project confidence, and mirror the interviewer's behavior and demeanor.
  
  
• Don't be pushy. People don't trust loud salespeople and they don't trust loud job candidates either.
  
  
• Be enthusiastic. Don't act as if this is just another job interview.
  
  
• Make sure you feel comfortable in the environment where the interview will take place.

The Pitch

• Author and marketing expert Joyce Spizer advises, "Act as if you've already arrived." Behave as if you've already achieved whatever position you're interviewing for. Present a job skills portfolio, a resume, and business cards. Dress in a neat, crisp, confident style.
  
  
• Think like the manager. See yourself through their eyes. Remember that they are considering you according to what they think they need from the position. You need to show them that you can give them what they need, including qualities and skills they haven't thought of.
  
  
• Think in threes. Talk in threes, and think of three behaviors you want to project, e.g. "professional, confident, friendly."
  
  
• When asked about specific experience, e.g. "What was your best triumph," describe the problem you solved, what you did, and the results. Give specifics.
  
  
• Ask your own questions, and pay close attention to what the interviewer says. Then, ask more questions. Offer more examples of what you can do for the company.

The Closing

--Tell the interviewer how much you want the job.
--Leave behind your business card and copies of your resume
--Thank the interviewer or interviewers.
--Be as nice to everyone you met in the office on the way out of the interview as you were on the way in.

Follow-up

• Send a thank-you letter that restates your qualifications.
  
  
• Talk to past employees who have held the sales position.
  
  
• Talk to people at the company.
  
  
• Talk to your references and alert them the company may call.
  
  
• While you wait for the response, prepare for the next interview.

Practice super sales interview techniques, and you may be more in demand than you ever thought. Finally, if you lose the sale, move on to the next, and give it your all. You will succeed!

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