Article Contributed by Karen Armon
Doug Compton, a laid off 43-year-old operations executive, was frustrated. His efforts to find a new six-figure executive role had resulted in only two interviews in six months. And, although he’s growing his list of contacts, Doug’s networking hasn’t resulted in any real job leads, either.
Doug always landed a job quickly but that was over 10 years ago. Based upon his results this time around, he knew he had to change his job search strategies. “But to what?” he asked himself.
Top executives, like Doug who were upper-level managers, Presidents, Vice Presidents, Directors and CEOs, and who are looking for their next position often experience these same results. Many like to blame the economy, their age, or their networking efforts. However, none of these factors are the main cause behind their lack of results.
Now, $100k+ executives must shift how they approach their executive-level job search campaign.
Landing a top role in a company is tricky. It entails presenting your potential, not your past. It includes defining yourself within your network as a top talent. There is a mix of elements in an executive presentation – both in print and in person– that “gets the ear” of the top CEO or President.
The New 7 Elements of an Executive-Level $100K+ Job Search Campaign
– Being Tops in the Industry: A CEO wants to hire only the best. When CEOs are looking to fill their top ranks of decision-makers, they want to know that the executive they hire is at the top of his or her game.
– Had Name Recognition: Top decision makers looking for thought leaders first look within their network. Rarely is a $100K+ executive level position filled through traditional job banks. Even if a company hires an executive search firm, the recruiter still looks to find the candidate that has name recognition in the industry,
– Easily Found, But “Not Looking”: 100K+ executives who can be wooed away from their current positions are the most desirable. Leaders who distribute their resumes or profiles on every available job board give the impression that they are “damaged goods.” The trick, then, is to be easily found through their network or on the Internet but give the appearance that they are NOT looking for a position.
– Considered a “Thought-Leader”: Presidents or Boards of Directors who offer positions to high-level $100K+executives want leaders who have a persona with a point-of-view. This does not mean that an executive must go out and try to be a celebrity. But, as I state in my book, Market Your Potential, Not Your Past, having a point-of-view means that one is known for having an opinion about how to move forward in a crowded industry. They have unique opinions on how to find new markets to offer products and services, and/or gather new potential customers to a brand.
– Distinctively Different than Others: Do you know the number one reason why high-level executives fail in their positions? It’s because their leadership style can’t or won’t fit the culture of the company. Offers given to top executives include those who not only do their job well but also those fit the cultural style of the company.
– Message-Ready and Visible: Today everyone checks everything out on the Internet. To “Google” is now a verb as well as a noun. Yet getting visible on the Internet requires a strategy and a thematic message. You must also execute that strategy consistently. It is well known that top ranking executive search firms first search the Internet thoroughly before presenting a candidate to a company. Therefore, if you are invisible your chances of finding that next $100K+ executive level position will be significantly reduced.
– Extensive, Engaged, and Active Network: Finding a top executive-level position quickly depends on how large one’s network is and how active it is in helping you find that next 100K+ career. If your network is small, then you are asking each member to do a lot on your behalf. But if your network is large, then a small amount of effort from each individual can yield lots of leads.
These seven elements should be part of every executive’s game plan when trying to find a new $100K executive-level position. For most, however, building these elements into an executive career campaign takes time.
What can your do if you need a job right away?
Landing a $100K+ Executive Level Career Position
The answer is to begin where you are. It’s what I call, “building the wall and fighting the battle at the same time.” There are no short-cuts. But you can improve your odds by just beginning to incorporate these elements. Even a little movement in this direction begins to set you apart as a “must-have” executive.
And that’s the point, isn’t it?
About the Author
$100K+ Executive-Level Career Coach Karen Armon prepares leaders around the world for their next move. Her popular book, Market Your Potential, Not Your Past, is a hit among executives who desire a clear-cut, systematic game plan that drives their careers forward. Now get her new FREE eBook, “Ten Micro-Trends that Impact Executive Careers Today,” and take a critical look at today’s marketplace at: http://www.marketyourpotential.com/ebook.asp
Category: How-To Guides
You’ve put a lot of investment into your website, and perhaps even more into various marketing activities to drive traffic to your site. And it’s working — your traffic numbers are up. You are halfway there — now you need to turn those visitors into subscribers. Building a list of potential clients who are interested in what you have to offer is the only way you are going to make money from your online efforts!
The secret? Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. Here are five steps to help you do just that:
1. Get the right visitors. Seems basic, but it’s one of the most important ingredients to building a responsive list; it’s also the most time-intensive task. Extra effort spent on this step will also pay off handsomely.
It all comes down to making an emotional connection in your copywriting. If you have ads, links on other people’s sites, articles posted on article directories, etc., does your message convince readers that you understand what they are looking for (or trying to eliminate) and have answers for them? When they then get to your website, does that connection strengthen and grow, if they are the right prospect?
If you write articles or place ads promising info on how to avoid foreclosure, for instance, when they get to your site don’t immediately try to sell them a new mortgage (they’ll likely click away) — instead, share your own foreclosure story and how you overcame it (they may want to know more!) In your copy, use the language your ideal prospect is familiar with — no jargon, talk to them at their level, use the kind of words and phrases they are likely to search for.
This is a very simplistic explanation of this topic. If you don’t know much about keywords and copywriting — get help with this step.
2. Now that a visitor has found your site and stayed more than 2 seconds…is it clear to them what you want them to do next? Too many choices = confusion = click away! If your goal is to get subscribers (hint), then your home page should funnel them toward that goal. Don’t send them to your “about”, “coaching services”, or “products” pages — first-time visitors are unlikely to buy right off anyway (although it’s ok to have navigation that lets them get to those pages if they want to). Instead, make it clear that the ONE action you want them to take is to SUBSCRIBE!
3. They’ve read your copy and are interested in subscribing. Is it easy to figure out how to do so? Your form should be easy to find on the page — even having it in a couple of places will work well. Put the form right on the page; don’t make them click to get to the form (many won’t bother!) Use a graphic, colors, large print, but not too busy. If visitors are likely to land on pages other than your home page (you should assume they might), put a subscription form on EVERY page of your website. On the left, near the top of the page, is a good location.
4. WIIFT? (what’s in it for them) If you aren’t giving away something in exchange for their email address, why should they subscribe? Not very many folks really want another monthly newsletter or weekly tips; however, if you offer a valuable freebie, they might be willing to try it out! Be upfront about what they are getting: the format/length of the freebie, frequency of your newsletter, what type of info they should expect. A link to a sample recent newsletter (that opens in a new page, so they won’t lose the page they are on) is a nice touch.
5. Why should they trust you? No one wants more spam…so you need to assure them that their information is safe with you. Include a short statement about your privacy policy, and assure them that they can unsubscribe anytime. I also recommend asking for minimum info — email address, and first name so you can personalize their emails. Every additional piece of info you want will decrease their likelihood of subscribing.
The above steps will make it clear to your visitor/potential subscriber that you have THEIR interests at heart. That’s the beginning of the emotional connection that will build your list, and ultimately, increase your income!
Terri Zwierzynski is a self-employed business strategist and marketing consultant to solo entrepreneurs, and a grassroots promoter of the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. She runs Solo-E.com, the resource website for the self-employed which attracts thousands of solo home business owners monthly from over 100 countries on six continents (and was recently named a finalist for “Website of the Year” in the 4th Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business). Terri is also the co-author of 136 Ways To Market Your Small or Solo Business.
Building a successful long-term profitable business isn’t about “marketing” your business, it’s about “managing” your business – the marketing comes once you have your management systems in place.
You cannot begin to market your business if you can’t find the information you need, don’t know who you are marketing to, and don’t know where you are in your business.
So, let’s go back to basics and take a look at one of the key office organization systems you need to have in place to “manage” your business before you can start to “market” your business – your contact management system!
If set up correctly your contact management system allows you to:
* Keep a note of clients, potential clients, and colleagues contact information.
* Easily and effectively follow-up with a prospect.
* Locate critical client contact information quickly and easily.
* Build your business.
Having all of your contact data readily to hand will allow you to build your business. You have all the information you need; it’s all in one place, and you can locate it quickly and easily. Follow-up becomes a much smoother process and in turn it builds your business.
Let me share with you below my 5 easy steps for creating your ideal contact management system so that you constantly have a full pipeline of interested clients and prospects:
1. Choose your system. You need to decide on a system that works best for YOU and YOUR business. This could be using Outlook (as I do) to manage all your contact data, appointments, To Do lists, etc. or you could use dedicated contact management software. A third option might be to utilize one of the many web-based contact management systems.
2. Draw clients into your pipeline. Once you’ve got your contact management system in place, you need to have a system for keeping in touch with people you meet at in-person events, online networking forums, or visitors to your website. One way to do that is to publish a regular ezine (electronic newsletter). This will keep clients and prospects flowing into your business and provide you with a base of interested people who want to find out more about you, your services, and your products.
3. Define the process for working with new clients. Once you’ve got prospects into your pipeline the next step is to create a system so that those clients who are ready to work with you are able to do so. This could be through an initial complimentary consultation to determine if you are a good fit for one another. List everything you currently do and come up with a system for streamlining the whole process.
4. Keep it all up-to-date. It’s all well and good having the systems in place, but if you’re not keeping it all current, then your contact management system quickly becomes of no use to you at all. Ideally, you should be updating your client data as you go along, but if you find you’re not doing that, spend 15/20 minutes at the end of each day, before you shut down your PC, reviewing who you’ve talked to/emailed, what the outcome was, and when you promised to follow-up with them. Note it all down in your contact management system.
5. Create a waiting list! If you find that you have more clients wanting to work with you than you can handle, offer to put them on your waiting list. If you suddenly get a client who has to cancel (and it does happen, for a variety of reasons), then you’re not left with a big hole in your cashflow – you simply approach your waiting list and let them know you have an opening available. Plan to keep in touch with your waiting list on a regular basis so that they don’t forget you!
Consistency is the key to keeping a steady flow of clients and prospects coming into your business. Make the commitment to spend time each and every day on your contact management system, and watch your business grow!
If you’re an employer or a manager then work place absence is costing you money, inconvenience, and upsetting your customers. And as we all know, not all days taken off work are due to genuine sickness. Many employees “take a sickie” because their morale is low and they just don’t like or can’t do their work.
The challenge for employers and managers is to make people happier at work. And if people are happy at work then they are less likely to take a day off every time they wake up with a stuffy nose. Some bosses think that paying more money, improving job security or working conditions is the answer. It isn’t and it’s also something that can be very hard to achieve.
People who employ or supervise other people need to become more tuned to their employees’ emotional needs and find out what really motivates them. This is also much easier to achieve than paying more money or improving job security, however there is no quick fix. Some years ago I inherited a tele-sales operation with low staff morale and poor sales
results. It took nearly a year to fix. The long-term benefits were of course worth it in terms of fewer days lost due to sickness and an increase in business.
To reduce the number of sickies there are three steps you need to consider. Firstly, pick the right person for the job. There’s a television advertisement running at present
for a recruitment company. It highlights the fact that many people are in the wrong job for their skills and attributes. The daft thing is that it was an employer or manager who put them in the job in the first place. We need to get better at interviewing and selecting people. Take more time over it; pay more attention to the applicant’s human side rather than their qualifications or experience. Get to know them better.
Find out what makes them happy, how well they get on with other people and how much energy and enthusiasm they have. Make sure they know what they’re getting into and be sure
the job suits them.
A manager in the telecom industry was telling me about an engineer who was taking too many sickies. He was being blamed for a poor attitude to his work. His job involved working in tunnels under the city repairing and installing equipment. Eventually it was discovered that the poor guy was claustrophobic and was trying to deal with it on his own. He still works for the same team but in a job that doesn’t involve small spaces. It’s not always easy to move people, which emphasises the importance of getting it right in the first place.
Secondly, you need to believe in your people. If you’ve interviewed well and picked the right person for the job then you need to trust them to do that job. You need to constantly demonstrate to your people that you trust and believe in them by what you say, your tone of voice and your body language.
If you believe that your people are not to be trusted, that they’re unable to make a decision without checking with you. That they’ll turn up late and go homeearly, then that’s exactly what they’ll do. If on the other hand you believe that they’ll do their job well, that they can be trusted to make decisions and they will give you a fair day’s work, then it is more likely this is what you’ll get. As with all theories there is no guarantee that it will
work every time, however the majority of employees are reasonable people and if you treat them as such then they are more likely to behave in a positive manner.
The third and probably the most important thing you can do to motivate your people is to give them feedback and coach them. This is where so many employers and managers fall down in dealing with their people; we are hopeless at giving feedback. Many managers are uncomfortable telling staff how they feel about their work performance.
Most employees want to know how they are performing in their job; they want to know if they are doing it right or how they could do it better. If you really want to motivate your people then you need to give them feedback on what they’re doing well and what needs improvement.
When you notice an employee doing something you do like, tell them about it. When you notice something you don’t like, tell them about it.
Do it as soon as possible. Acknowledging a job well done is not much good six months later. Also, if you don’t immediately call someone’s attention to something you’re not happy about, then they’ll assume its okay. Either that or they’ll think you didn’t notice or you don’t care. Do it in private. Why is it some managers still feel its okay to reprimand someone in front of their colleagues? Even the mildest rebuke can have a negative effect on morale.
When you do speak to the person use “I” messages. Say things like “I liked the way you did that” or “I’m unhappy with the way your reports are always late and I’d like your views on why this is”. Avoid “You” messages such as “You’re doing great”. That can come across as patronising or insincere. “You’re doing that all wrong” may cause conflict, lower morale and may not sort the problem.
Focus on one or two things. Don’t run off a whole list of attributes or misdemeanours. Also be specific about job behaviour, focus on what the person did or didn’t do, don’t make a personal attack. Employees will feel happier if they perceive their employer or manager as a reasonable and fair individual – someone who is quick to praise but also says when they’re not happy about something.
When we start to look at what motivates people at work, it’s important to realise that we all have different needs. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that all our staff are motivated by money. However, research conducted over the years into what motivates people at work suggests some other factors.
Money is important however people are more likely to be motivated firstly, by the work itself. Secondly, by being appreciated for what they do and thirdly by a feeling of being in on things.
The message is – if you want motivated staff then make their work interesting, give them feedback and give them the feeling that they’re involved in the business.
We can make the job more interesting by giving people more responsibility, assigning projects and by training and developing them. We need to regularly give people feedback on how they’re doing; focussing on what they’re doing well rather than on what is not so good. To meet their need to feel involved we should regularly communicate both formally and informally. We could also involve staff in meetings they might not normally attend.
These steps will take time and thought however they’ll make a huge difference as to how employees feel about their work. If they feel good and gain satisfaction from their work then they’re less likely to find a reason to “take a sickie”.
Alan Fairweather, ‘The Motivation Doctor,’ is an International Speaker, Author and Business Development Expert. To receive your free newsletter and free e-books, visit: http://www.themotivationdoctor.com
Do you want a highly motivated team who don’t take time off work, don’t keep looking for other jobs and make a positive contribution to your business?
If the answer is “yes,” then there are three steps you need to take with each member of your team.
Step 1 – Spend some quality time
I didn’t say “quantity time” I said “quality time.” One or two minutes of quality time on a regular basis are far more productive than a one hour review every year. You need to get to know each member of your team better and they need to get to know you.
This will help you build a positive relationship with each team member. You’ll gain a much better understanding of them and how they’re handling the job.
It will also give the impression that you care about the individual and show that you’re there to help with problems both personal and business. Spending quality time will encourage opinions and ideas to flow from them and allows you to explain the company’s mission. It gives them a feeling of being in on things which is a huge motivator.
It will also help you build an “early warning system” of any problems both business and personal. Finally, it builds team spirit and morale.
Step 2 – Give feedback and coach
You need to regularly tell each member of your team when they’re doing well and when not so well. I read some recent research that suggested 65% of employees in the US received no recognition at work in the past year. My experience tells me that it’s much the same throughout the world and much worse in some countries. Some managers still believe – “why should I praise people when they’re only doing what they’re paid to do.”
If you want a happy and motivated team then you need to tell them when they’re doing well.
It’s also important to tell people when they’re not performing well. There are too many managers who either ignore poor behaviour or come down on the person like a ton of bricks.
There are particular ways to give feedback and coach and they’re described in detail in the book – How to get More Sales by Motivating Your Team.
Step 3 – Be a believer
We’re now getting into the area of “Empowerment” which was first introduced in the 1980’s and became a bit of a management buzzword. However, I believe that it’s one of the most promising but least understood concepts in team motivation today.
I’m a fairly down to earth practical sort of person (probably comes from my engineering background). I’m not big into motivation theories unless I can see the benefits for me – I see a great deal of benefit for managers and team leaders in Empowerment.
Empowerment is about utilising the knowledge, skill,experience and motivation power that’s already within your people.
The majority of people in teams and organisations throughout the world are severely underutilised. Your team have probably more to offer in terms of skill, knowledge and experience.
Put this to the test right away – implement these steps, motivate your team and achieve your business goals.
Alan Fairweather, ‘The Motivation Doctor,’ is an International Speaker, Author and Business Development Expert. To receive your free newsletter and free e-books, visit: http://www.themotivationdoctor.com