04 Nov A No Sell Approach to Selling Yourself

IT professionals aren’t typically the best salespeople. Unfortunately, many IT folks actually consider that a compliment rather than an insult. It’s really neither. That aside, there is something we need to learn from effective salespeople (admit it, you met one or two).

What makes a good salesperson effective and why should you care? The first answer is because they do their homework on the client. The second is they ask the right questions. If it doesn’t go without saying that you should research a company prior to your interview, then I’ll say it again. Research the company and people you’ll be interviewing and always know the company’s name (don’t get me started on that one).

As for asking the right questions, what is a good question worth? Honestly, it’s worth its weight in gold. Good questions dig into what a company is looking for (i.e., the real job), what they are doing (the work) and where they are going (the opportunity). Getting these answers allow you to identify work, knowledge, and experience that you possess that directly and indirectly relate. Now your job becomes making these connections with the interviewer during the conversation. If you’ve asked good questions you’ll gain better insight into the opportunity and provide the interviewer with the information they need to draw a proper conclusion on how good of a fit you would be for the opportunity. You will now have a better understanding of whether this is a job that you want. If we can accomplish those two things then interview is considered a success.

Oh, and the by-product of asking good questions is demonstrating interest and enthusiasm, which is more than just a cheap trick.