Here’s the Pitch! Now What?

Tags

Business card, Elevator pitch, LinkedIn, Marketing and Advertising, Personal Branding, personal branding statement, Professional Networking

So you have your Elevator Pitch. What are you planning to do with it? The Elevator Pitch is essentially your Personal Branding Statement with a call to action at the end. Most people think of the Elevator Pitch as the primary tool for in-person networking at professional meetings and other networking events. But it can be so much more.

“Your Elevator Pitch

is the keystone of your

personal branding plan.”

Think of your Elevator Pitch as the keystone of your personal branding plan. It establishes the structure and integrity of your entire marketing effort, and keeps you focused upon the message you’re intending to convey. But how do you use it to its greatest effect? Your Personal Branding Statement and Elevator Pitch can be employed as the basis for:

• In-person networking
• The back of your personal business cards
• Voice mail messages
• Online user profiles
• Webmail marketing.

In-person Networking Events:

At professional meetings and networking events, introduce yourself with your personal branding statement and then follow with these quick questions: What do you do and how can my skills be applied to add value to your efforts? Go silent, then really listen. Learn where there could be a potential fit for you in the future. Once your contact is done speaking, thank the person for his or her time, and exchange business cards. Then conclude the conversation with, “I look forward to connecting with you again soon. Feel free to reach out to me anytime.” After your conversation, write keywords on the back of each business card so you can add identity to your contact. Then move on to pursue your next introduction.

Personal Business Cards:

When engaged in professional networking, it can be advantageous to have custom cards with your contact information and branding keywords. You will not have enough space to print your entire personal branding statement on the back of your personal business cards. However, you can print your most important keyword phrases on the back of your personal business cards. Fit as many of your keyword phrases as possible, and don’t forget to add your LinkedIn URL and your primary e-mail address tied to your LinkedIn account. By the way, it’s best if your LinkedIn account is tied to a webmail address (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) as a webmail address will remain intact following a change to your cable service or a change to your personal website url.

Voice Mail Messages:

A great way to establish and maintain contact with your important connections is to devote 15 minutes each day for phone calls to your professional contacts. Allocate and limit your conversation to five minutes per call and be prepared to leave a voice mail if necessary. Your personal branding statement is a great tool for voice mail messages when followed by a relevant and compelling call to action that motivates your contact to return the phone call.

“Every second counts,

especially when

cold calling!”

Using your personal branding statement, add a single sentence stating the purpose of your call, and how your audience will benefit from returning the phone call. Limit your voice mail message to about 30 seconds. The potential for deleting the message after 30 seconds increases with each additional second.

Practice your pitch; don’t ramble and don’t stumble over your words. Every second counts, especially when cold calling! The initial impression you leave with your voice mail message will determine if you receive a response. This is especially true with busy business executives and overburdened recruiters.

Online User Profiles:

It’s important to establish user profiles that are tied to every major search engine. Invest plenty of time into developing profiles for Google, Yahoo, Windows Live/Bing, Skype, SlideShare, etc. Other than Google, where you can use your LinkedIn summary, most of these other profiles will only accommodate a very short summary.

“Keywords and keyword phrases

enable you to be

easily discovered.”

This is where your personal branding summary comes in very handy. The keywords and keyword phrases will enable you to be easily discovered by recruiters and others with an interest in your special skill set. Common use of your personal branding statement on each profile ensures you present a very consistent and focused view of your unique brand throughout the web.

Webmail:

Many have stated that the power and reach of e-mail marketing has been rendered obsolete by messaging within social networking communities. Don’t believe it! Nothing can be further from the truth. Webmail has grown and developed into a marketing machine that cannot be ignored by any business, let alone individuals. Use webmail to its full potential. The ability to embed objects in webmail makes it indispensable for your personal branding efforts.

“Webmail has grown

and developed into

a marketing machine.”

Think of the many ways one can be creative with a webmail account. Let’s start with basic elements one can add to e-mail. In the subject line, entice the reader to open your e-mail using an action headline that highlights your unique selling point. A custom stationery template can incorporate your personal logo, something classy that defines your brand without being too loud. Be creative, but don’t deviate from the message your personal branding statement was crafted to deliver.

“Just plant a seed

to harvest

in the future.”

If your career depends upon the clarity of your verbal communication skills, don’t hesitate to attach a recorded message. In essence, you’re producing a 30-second podcast. Deliver your elevator pitch with a carefully crafted call to action that motivates the recipient to commit with a return call. Don’t be forceful; just plant a seed to harvest in the future.

Be diligent in practicing your elevator pitch. Use a digital recorder to determine where the smooth flow of your natural voice could suffer. Then revise that phrase to optimize it for vocalizing, and practice!

“Test the link

to ensure

that link works.”

In the footer area, use your personal branding statement in place of the statement that reads this e-mail was scanned for a virus. Use a classy and readable font, perhaps in italics, to make it stand apart from the body of your e-mail message. Below your personal branding statement, add your LinkedIn url so it stands alone and test it every time prior to sending to ensure that link works. If you publish a relevant blog, add that link below your LinkedIn url.

In the next post, you’ll learn about using your Facebook account for personal branding. For now, update your online user profiles. Then practice your elevator pitch until it embodies your true spirit, and you know that you own it.    □

Win An Interview Using Your Elevator Pitch!

Tags

Applicant Tracking System, ATS, Brand, Business, Elevator pitch, Employment, Human resources, Job description, Job hunting, LinkedIn, Personal Branding, personal branding statement

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have been adopted to reduce the number of candidates that will be considered for an open job opportunity. This machine will decide your fate if you allow yourself to succumb to its implementation in corporate America. Up to 95 percent or more of job applicants are eliminated from consideration before their resume is seen by a real person.

What happens to the remaining 5 percent of applicants? A Human Resources administrator will tally and compare the scores of the applicants, search for weaknesses such as interruptions in employment history, and eliminate several more before the decision maker gets involved.

Is this a process you really want to participate in? No? Then change the rules! If you don’t, you’re just wasting your time and energy. You can win that first interview with the decision maker and circumvent the ATS. How?

“Use a compelling

elevator pitch.”

Use a compelling elevator pitch that addresses the source of the hiring manager’s pain. You must motivate the hiring manager to take ownership of the hiring process.

What is an Elevator Pitch and Why Use It?

An elevator pitch is a short, focused 30-second speech that provides the decision maker with a compelling story to justify spending additional time with you. It’s named an Elevator Pitch in recognition of the time it takes an elevator to reach its destination floor. It’s still commonly employed to capture the attention of senior executives, venture capitalists, and other influential business people.

The decision maker will recognize an elevator pitch immediately. However, the hiring manager was previously delivering an elevator pitch to someone else. Expect your decision maker to be mildly amused and intrigued to now serve as the audience for your elevator pitch.

Also expect that hiring manager to be harsh and abrupt if you fail to deliver what’s expected. A successful delivery is best accomplished by addressing how you can:

• Reduce the Hiring Manager’s stress
• Save the Hiring Manager precious time
• Reduce operating cost
• Increase revenue
• Generate profit.

By using an Elevator Pitch, you are demonstrating you understand how business is done. In the eyes of the hiring manager, you’ve elevated yourself into a different social circle by using the elevator pitch. So your elevator pitch must be delivered artfully and effectively.

“You are demonstrating

you understand

how business is done.”

You need to be comfortable with public speaking, familiar with body language, and be a good storyteller to deliver your message in about 30 seconds. Yes, it can be done but it requires practice.

Do Your Research:

Begin by researching the company. Determine what the company does and learn who is its competitor(s). If you have a job description from the company, identify the keywords. Otherwise, search for a generic job description on the internet and focus on the keywords it uses.

Research to discover the hiring manager. Follow the company on LinkedIn to see if the job opening is listed. A job opening often mentions the job title of the direct supervisor as in “Reports to….” but that probably isn’t the hiring manager. Search the employees listed in the company profile. If you find a match by job title, review that employee’s profile to see what he/she does. Sometimes a LinkedIn profile will clearly state “Reporting to Director of ….”

If that’s the case, find the name of the Director in the Company profile as this will be the hiring manager. If that person is not accessible via LinkedIn, Google the hiring manager and learn everything you can about that individual. Call the company switchboard and ask the operator for the hiring manager’s extension and then ask to be connected to voice mail. Voice Mail recordings often include a lot of contact information that can be used to your advantage later.

Craft Your Elevator Pitch to Win Your First Interview!

Must you address all five points in the bullet list? No, but the more points you can address, the more likely you are to get the interview and land the job. The point is you’ll be successful in grabbing the attention of the decision maker. Here’s my pitch for promoting my personal brand.

“As product manager for a market leader in industrial machinery, my focus is upon Technical Marketing and Product Development through technical leadership, innovation management, and business development. I conduct market research, analyze market potential, lead product development, and spearhead marketing efforts to launch new products that achieve both near-term tactical sales objectives and long-term strategic business development objectives. As such, I’m accountable for meeting annual sales goals and product line margins affecting P&L. My efforts have helped ensure my employer’s profitability for over 15 years.”

Learn the Anatomy of a Personal Branding Statement:

This is referred to as a Personal Branding Statement. Let’s dissect my personal branding statement. First, it’s comprised of four sentences totaling 85 words long. Can you read it and comprehend it within 30 seconds? I bet you can. Does it have everything needed to get me an interview? No way!

There are two critical things missing; my introduction with my name, and my concluding sentence that must motivate our decision maker to action and “close the deal.” If you don’t “close the deal,” you’ll conclude your pitch without any tangible result. You must state what you want from the decision maker and motivate the decision maker with a call to action.

Let’s do a little more dissection by listing the keywords and keyword phrases:

First Sentence: Market leader, industrial machinery, technical marketing, product development, innovation management, business development.

Second Sentence: Launch new products, tactical sales, strategic business development.

Third Sentence: Accountable, sales goals, margins, profit & loss (P&L).

Fourth Sentence: Profitability, 15 years.

I’ve packed 15 keyword phrases into four sentences that should take no more than 30 seconds to speak or read, and wrapped the message up with profitable for over 15 years. Now, review the five bullet points identified earlier. My personal branding statement satisfies four of them. The one that isn’t satisfied is “Reduce operating cost,” but that’s inferred in the words, “accountable, margins, and P&L.”

So far, we only have a personal branding statement. It’s not an elevator pitch unless it has a call to action. Let’s make the personal branding statement into an elevator pitch by adding an introduction and conclusion with a call to action.

“It’s not an elevator pitch

unless….

it has a call to action.”

“Hello, I’m Michael Schonfeld. As product manager for a market leader in industrial machinery, my focus is upon Technical Marketing and Product Development through technical leadership, innovation management, and business development. I conduct market research, analyze market potential, lead product development, and spearhead marketing efforts to launch new products that achieve both near-term tactical sales objectives and long-term strategic business development objectives. As such, I’m accountable for meeting annual sales goals and product line margins affecting P&L. My efforts have helped ensure my employer’s profitability for over 15 years. I want to learn more about your specific requirements to fill your open position for Director of Business Development. Can we meet next week to discuss this opportunity?”

Notice the strategic use of your to recognize the hiring manager as the owner of the position and his/her responsibility as the decision maker. Simultaneously, you have conveyed your respect and recognized his/her responsibility with a call to action. You have motivated the decision maker to commit to this opportunity with an interview or some other action.

In the next post, you’ll learn how and where to use your elevator pitch. Until then, write your elevator pitch so we can prepare to plant the seeds that will land you that first interview. □

Your Resume is a Paper Tiger

Tags

Applicant Tracking System, ATS, Contact Management, Employment, Hiring Manager, Job Search, Personal Branding, Professional Networking, Resume, Resumes and Portfolios

Don’t let your resume run you ragged and wear you out at the onset of a job search! Much has been written about resumes, and the subject seems to be addressed every week in someone’s blog. Most of us believe a resume is required before a job search begins in earnest. That’s one reason why a competitive cottage industry has grown around the craft of resume writing. However, due to rapid changes in digital technology, web-based services, and how resumes are now processed by prospective employers, developing your resume should be among the last marketing efforts you need to engage in during a job search.

Why? Most of us are under the impression that a resume is used to qualify one for an interview. But quite the opposite is where the truth lies. Advertisements for an open position will potentially generate hundreds of responses. An employer cannot afford the time and effort necessary to interview all applicants or even review all of those resumes. The majority of applicants are disqualified by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), a machine that scans each resume for job description key words. Key words serve as search criteria that may or may not have anything to do with the open position for which one has applied.

It really depends upon the accuracy of the job description relative to the exact job opening. In many large companies, a job description such as Marketing Coordinator or even Marketing Manager is generic by necessity to align compensation range with that particular job title. A very broad and all-encompassing job description incorporating quite a number of keywords is tied to that generic job title. This is done to streamline maintenance of numerous job descriptions in the absence of headcount allocation for Human Resources support staff.

“By design, your resume is

currently used to

work to your disadvantage.”

In the past, a resume was your primary marketing document used for a job search. Times change and you must change in response to the new dynamics of hiring practices in the 21^st century. A resume is used by the employer to disqualify potential candidates from further consideration. Given current circumstances associated with high levels of unemployment in a variety of industries and regions, your resume alone will almost never work to your advantage. By design, your resume is currently used to work to your disadvantage.

Your resume is a paper tiger (or these days, a digital monster) that can undermine your job search efforts if you allow it to. Don’t release your resume until the appropriate time. Keep your resume confined to the digital vault of your computer until you’ve identified, contacted, and developed a professional rapport with the key decision maker (the hiring manager). The hiring manager is typically one or more levels higher in the organization than your future direct supervisor.

Your resume will always be most effective when you hand-deliver it to the hiring manager, who will then pass it on with a personal endorsement. Don’t release your resume until this process is reasonably assured! Otherwise, the outcome is more likely to be a disappointing setback rather than a resounding success.

“Maintain a consistent,

uplifting, and

clearly beneficial presence.”

More true now than in the past, the best opportunities are rarely advertised. Often, the job description is written to accommodate a favored candidate. After you’ve identified the hiring manager, you must then focus upon promoting your professional reputation and leveraging your network. Call upon your professional network to support your efforts and pave the way toward that first interview.

Once you are fully aware of all requirements for that particular position, and your initial interview is almost certain, that’s when it’s time to prepare your resume. Until then, don’t worry about having your resume ready to submit. That’s just a waste of time and effort. Due to current digital technology, your resume, along with your cover letter, will change to meet the distinct requirements of each position for which you hope to be considered.

For now, focus upon professional networking and meticulous contact management practices. Be sure to recognize and reward any assistance you receive from your professional contacts even if a particular effort didn’t pan out for you. You’ll be surprised to learn of the positive impact even an e-card can have. Maintain a consistent, uplifting, and clearly beneficial presence. This is how a career opportunity will knock upon your door in the future.      □

It’s All About You!

Tags

Brand, Business, Contact Management, Employment, Job (role), Job hunting, Job Search, Overqualification, Personal Branding, Professional Networking

Because this job market is so volatile and unpredictable, few people know how to approach a job search and land a position they will find satisfying for years to come. Most candidates spend hours each day responding to multiple on-line advertisements that might be a potential fit. Candidates apply for positions based upon their own evaluation of position requirements and themselves without doing any research and soul searching. So, a biased viewpoint about the position and an underestimation of one’s marketable skills causes most to apply for positions they are overqualified for and possibly not especially interested in.

Employers have no desire to hire someone who just needs a job and is willing to accept any offer. Hiring overqualified people fuels attrition. In a tight economy with rising inflation and chronic underemployment, attrition can spread throughout a company like a disease. Recruiting costs each company huge sums of money, so selecting the right candidate for each job opening is important.

The key to success in this employment market is establishing and managing your professional reputation such that prospective employers are attracted and drawn toward you. Reputation management and personal branding is all about marketing the product that is you. If you’re not actively developing your professional reputation and promoting your experience, marketable skills, and key competencies, it will be less than obvious to an employer that you are their solution. Without self-promotion, your chance for long-term success will be greatly diminished.

It’s All About You – your reputation, your career, and your obligation to yourself to promote your personal brand. All About You Branding can help you with that….

In 2012, you’ll find useful information about:

• Personal branding
• Reputation management
• Professional networking strategies, and
• Contact management.

The information you find here can guide you in establishing and marketing the brand that is uniquely you. Follow All About You Branding in 2012 and show your audience you are different, a cut above the norm, and well worth knowing. □