Understanding the sales situation correctly
You probably know the saying: Application is advertising! Yes, the application is about sales. But the comparison tempts many applicants to advertise themselves like a product. They reach into the salesman’s trick box with self-assessment and objection handling. This kind of selling does not even work on product markets today. And instead, application is about an investment. The company wants to ensure that the applicant will generate a return in the future that justifies the investment costs. And for this, good arguments are needed, namely facts. So, the more appropriate picture is that of the investment sale. With highly qualified applicants I go one step further. I compare the negotiation of an employment with the negotiation of a joint venture. Both sides check whether a cooperation is in line with their own longer-term strategy. However, the prerequisite for this is that applicants see themselves as self-entrepreneurs.
Application as a process
Compared to the recruitment process, a lot can be learned about application. Companies take a structured approach to employee recruitment. After each process step, they evaluate their findings on the applicants in order to arrive at an informed decision. I also advise applicants to proceed in a process-oriented manner and to do only what’s possible at each process step. The decision to apply for a job then only implies an interest in an interview in order to get to know the position better. The resume should ensure an invitation to an interview. It therefore only shows the hard skills and not the soft skills. The latter and the personal successes are communicated where there is the opportunity to do so, namely in the job interview. And they make the decision when they have all the information: at the end of the process. With this approach, applicants appear calm and confident.