If you break the interaction between a job seeker and an interviewer down into its basics, it is easy to recognize that selling yourself in an interview is much like selling a product. The job seeker is the product that must be sold and the interviewer is the buyer to whom the product that must be sold. There are two ways of approaching this sale. You can be job focused or company focused.

You can tell when job seekers are job focused because all of their efforts are focused on two things:

1. Finding a job opening
2. Presenting their qualifications--background, skills, and abilities--in a way that fits the job description and demonstrates that they are qualified for the job.

To put it in a sales perspective, job focused job seekers assume that if they describe the product they are selling in terms that are attractive to buyers who are looking for this product, the buyers will buy.

Company based job seekers are focused on two things:

1. Determining the needs, problems, and challenges of potential buyers who might need this product, even if they don't know they need it and are not looking to buy at this time.
2. Presenting stories describing ways in which this product can help provide solutions to company problems.

In other words, the seller does not focus on why this product is the best product that the buyer could possibly buy. They recognize that there will always be other job seekers with more or better qualifications. They focus on their own uniqueness and how the buyer will actually get more value for their money immediately because this product will actually help provide solutions to the company's immediate problems.

In order to be an effective job seeker, you have to differentiate in the mind of the prospective employer the differences between you and other job seekers. Once they perceive this difference they will hire you.

If you run into companies that interest you who say they would love to hire you but there are no openings, the issue is not really an issue of openings. What they are actually saying is that they do not see how you can give them anything they either (a) don't already have, or (b) can't do without. When most job seekers run into this situation, they lower their salary expectations, try to make the sale based on price and usually, they go away frustrated and unemployed. Company based job seekers recognize that the real way to generate offers is to help the company identify ways they could be making more money, through things like increasing sales, reducing costs, or reducing the time it takes to get products or services out.

When the company begins to recognize that (a) they do have problems that can be fixed, and (b) that you can provide solutions to help solve those problems, then they become willing to spend money to hire you because there is a clear return on their investment.

Your role as the job seeker is to help the company identify the problems they have in your area of expertise and then to raise the importance and value of solving that problem.

In order to help the company identify problems you have to:

1. Ask open-ended questions that probe into a company's needs, problems, and challenges in your area of expertise.

2. Talk about what you can and will do for that company rather than focusing on describing what qualifications you have.

Getting the company to value you has to happen in the interviewer's mind. It doesn't matter how many degrees you have. It doesn't matter how many years of experience you have. It doesn't matter how young or old you are. If the interviewer doesn't value the qualifications you're offering then those qualifications are not important. The only thing that matters is what the interviewer believes is important and you have to ask them to find out what that is. You have to focus your efforts on identifying the employer's perception of their needs, problems, and challenges.

Some job seekers accept this company based position but use it only after they have identified a company with an opening. That's somewhat like telling an employer you have an M.B.A., and then claiming that your problem-solving skills are really more meaningful. You must take a company based position from your very first interaction with the company or they will suspect that you are typing to con them and they will screen you out claiming a concern about your honesty.

Sell the value of your background, skills and abilities. Sell what you can do for the company, not what the company can do for you. Sell the benefits and solutions you have and do so through stories about previous situations you have faced and resolved.

If you sell yourself based on salary expectations, someone will always make them a better offer. If you sell yourself based on your years of experience in this field, someone else will always offer them more experience. In effect I'm saying that if you sell the product based on price (your qualifications or salary expectations) someone else will always offer them a better price. But if you differentiate yourself from other job seekers and sell the product based on the value you will bring to them, no one else can offer them that and you will get the job. Ask yourself, what problems do prospective employers have that I could solve with my knowledge, skills and abilities?

There are 4 parts to selling your value to an employer. Those 4 parts are represented by the PLUS in Value Plus Selling.

1. P = POSITIONING
   Your position is the result of every contact with every potential employer. Who does the employer think you are? What counts is the impressions you give a potential employer. What is important is who they think you are and what you can do. Position yourself with every contact with every employer. Every time you have a contact with an employer you are making an impression. Review your cover letters and resume. Are they presenting your potential? Do they present effective examples of the ways in which you have provided solutions for previous employers? What impression are you making with your phone manners, your dress, and even the answering machine message on your phone at home? Are you presenting an image of a problem-solver who can get things done?

You must also position yourself as someone who is more interested in solving the company's problems than your own. What kind of positioning statement do you have to make? There is no one correct positioning statement that fits all situations. There is no one line we can teach you that will be convincing because every single employer is different.

To use a company based approach you need to let your questions drive the interview. In order to be able to do that, you have to understand the company's business before you first make contact. Learn about the industry. Read trade journals and publications and use computerized research tools to learn what ever you can about the company. You need to understand the company's problems as well as possible before you start to talk to them. How can you do that? What public resources are there where you can learn more about each company? You should know the primary products or services they produce. You should know their sales and number of employees. And you should know some of the trends or fads going on in the industry because that information is generally available. The effort you put into learning about the company will substantially increase your ability to position yourself as an effective problem-solver.

2. L = LISTEN
   It is amazing what people will tell you if you just ask, so ask and listen. It is important for you to spend time developing questions that are unique to each company based on their individual situations. Sit down and generate open-ended probing questions about each company's product and services. Keep in mind that your objective is to get prospective employers to tell you what problems they are having that are important to them. Start by asking a couple of questions about their industry. They will answer you from the position of their division or department. Then drop down and ask them questions that probe into the specific aspects of their business where problems are likely to be found. Remember, it does you little good to learn about what a company is doing correctly. The company is not likely to need someone to help them do what they are already doing successfully without you. Ask them questions which will tell you about their perception of where improvements can be made. However, when an interviewer does share with you areas of strength, use that knowledge to help you identify related areas where they are likely to be having problems. If they say they are pleased by their growth in marketshare, ask them what factors are likely to prevent their continued growth. If they mention that they are known for the high quality of their products, ask them if they are pleased with the time it takes to produce each product. Employers will tell us what they need and what we can do to help them solve their problems if we just ask and listen. If your understand how to ask the right question at the right time from the right person, they will give you the information you need.

3. U = UNIQUENESS
   What is unique about you? Present that uniqueness. Don't describe yourself as hard-working, reliable, sincere, and honest. How many job seekers are likely to present themselves as hard-working, sincere, and honest? Use words that present your uniqueness. If you present yourself in the same old way that every other job seeker does, why should any employer think you can do anything that someone else can't do? You need to be using words that demonstrate your uniqueness. What can you say and
   do to present your experience, your skills, and abilities in a different way from everyone else who is looking for a job?

4. S = SOLUTIONS
   Solve the employer's problems, not yours. Put your focus on presenting examples of your ability to solve their problems, not on what salary or retirement plan it will take to hire you. When you put the focus on solving your problems the chances of your receiving offers go down but as soon as you start focusing on the company's problems and on what they want to accomplish, the likelihood of your getting offers increases. How do I present my ability to provide solutions, you say? Through stories, stories of past situations where you faced similar problems, took actions, and solved needs, problems, and challenges.

Say to yourself, "Every business problem has a BLANK solution," and in that blank put your own name. As long as you focus on the company's problems and understand in the back of your mind that you represent a solution to those problems, then you're going to be successful in winning offers.

So remember these four aspects of selling your value to potential employers:

P L U S
POSITION yourself
Ask probing questions and LISTEN,
Present your UNIQUENESS and
Demonstrate your ability to provide SOLUTIONS.

Watch what your expectations are and that will help you insure that you are using a company based approach. Review the questions you have prepared to ask potential employers. If your questions seek to find out the qualifications for a specific positions, you are job focused. If you are approaching your job search as if it is a numbers game and you need to maintain a certain flow of letters and need to make so many calls a week to win a job, you are job focused. Instead you need to be asking employers questions. "What problems do you have?" "What are the top three problems facing this company?" "What kind of problems are you having in this industry?" "What can I do to help companies solve these problems?" Business problems typically revolve around profitability. You should focus on identifying and solving problems that relate to the profitability of the company.

As you present stories that describe your problem-solving ability you will want to provide clear, quantified solutions to problems. Those solutions must be presented terms that have meaning to the company and, as much as possible, use the company's jargon and terms. When the company tells you attrition is a problem for them or if they talk about thruput or productivity, then you need to get the interviewer to quantify it in company terms. Often times they will quantify their needs in dollars, but they may also talk about thruput, satisfied customers, or retooling. These may or may not be terms with which you are familiar, but to be truly effective your solutions must be phrased in the company's terms. It is very important that you demonstrate an understanding of the company's problems. Speaking their language communicates knowledge and understanding of the field. You are trying to present your value in terms that make sense to the employer.
In order to present yourself most effectively, sit down with your qualifications and your stories and analyze each feature and the corresponding benefit and tie each benefit to a solution. "What solutions can I offer?" Now instead of spending valuable time telling the interviewer about your qualifications, spend the time asking questions about their problems.

To summarize, in a job focused job search the candidate tells the interviewer all about their qualifications. But with a company based focus, the candidate goes to the companies and asks about their problems. Be a company focused job seeker. Ask questions like, "Wart are you trying to accomplish?" "What is preventing you from accomplishing that?" Then show them how you can help meet their goals; how you can help overcome their problems, and quantify your examples in company terms. As long as you are focusing on what the interviewer and the company want to accomplish, then your ability to receive job offers will increase.

Ask yourself, so far in your job search, have you been job focused or company focused? Have you been looking at what you can do for the company or at what the company can do for you? Taking a Value Plus approach means making your experiences and your skills and abilities more valuable in the minds of the companies than anyone else's. It doesn't matter who your competition is. It doesn't matter if they graduated from Harvard or even if they have 10 years in this exact position with a competing company. The best story wins. Not the best qualifications, not the best sales person, but the best story wins. Which stories and which solutions make the most sense for each employer? What kinds of solutions will you be offering in your interview?