Smokend Info Blog

Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your career search. Job Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Job Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career faires scheduled for 2010 across the US.

How do you get to the real interviews at a Job Fair? The contention can be considerable, but you can help yourself jump out from the bunch with early homework. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the internet to research the companies that are there before you go. Go to their sites and see if they have their jobs listed. Pick a small number to target, and get ready to spend about an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 9 in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and exectuve names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.

Second, if there are job postings on the web, read them to see what the hiring manager is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the terminology match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.

Third, create a ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential organization/job combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally describing why you are a good prospect for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job stall.

Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re going after. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the achievements and skills that most clearly match the job prerequisites. Especially at a Job Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be a no-brainer to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.

Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a clearly labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or scent sparingly, if at all.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

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Delivering a talk can be highly frightening. However, as with many initially scary things, if you pick up some of the basic ideas, you will easily begin to start getting better. You can very speedily become highly proficient with your sales pitch skills. If you have job interview or are in sales, it is a key acquisition to acquire.

You need to understand what your main messages are going to be. Then stick rigidly to delivering those messages. Next consider the vector for your messages. Are you going to use a story or simile? Are you just going to give a lecture or are you going to use a question and answer format?

Script out the story board for your sales pitch and then work out what optical clues you can use to signpost your talk. recollect that the visible clues are not the talk. Don’t over do it with PowerPoint. Think about putting visible prompts on your sales pitch script so that you recollect when to talk about the next item

Work out how you are going to use your voice. You may even listen to voiceovers artists to work out how you might make yourself sound even better. There are plenty of great voice-over talents out there. Think about what souls hear and what sounds smashing.

Listen to the radio, as you can often find that the voiceover artist they have are well prepared. Many of them have gone to voice over workshops and they know what they have to do to make themselves sound clear.

You have to look good and sound crisp. So ensure that you are dressed smartly for your lecture. Do not be distracting by your appearance – either because you look too crisp or too bad. It would be a real dishonour to get yourself all prepared to sound good, if nobody listened to you because you looked a mess or too raunchy.

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Affiliate marketing is akin to an auction internet site. You push the merchandise on your internet site and for all your effort, every last sale brings in money. There is less effort required, very low operating costs, it sells while you sleep, and it is easy to learn. At the start, you must make up your mind exactly what niche market you wish to specialize in. To get this out of the way, find out solutions to issues a specific group of interenet users are going through, and determine the best solution. A good way of accomplishing this quickly is to look for groups of narrow keywords; generally customers search for these less frequently, even so more of these result in a sale. These crucial keywords can be obtained by using Micro Niche Finder. Data gathered by Micro Niche Finder or analogous programs and services gives you associated keywords in an extensive list format giving valuable targets to achieve top placing on the web based search engines. Additional data is also accessible by the application, such as search frequency, the exact number of competing websites, and how successful that competitor is. Lastly, Micro Niche Finder information should help in getting related domains, content for your web site, and reveal suitable items for you to sell.

Constructing a website is next on the list; yet you’ll plainly need to do more than that. Search engine optimization is an absolute must. Applications such as SEO Elite can make this simple. Competing sites are analyzed by the application which then offers suggestions on improving search results. With applications like SEO Elite, data created from the program advises you where to get links, what words to focus on, and even information on where to submit articles. In Brief, SEO Elite information is much like to the data you may get from a practised SEO specialist. Once you settle on your niche market, design some product promotion, and your web site has been put together, then it is time to enhance your search results. The money will roll in on weekly basis and question why you did not think of this earlier!

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This type of marketing is similar to an auction internet site. Your internet site pushes merchandise in return, every lead nets you cash. It isn’t nearly as much effort, very few overheads, it sells twenty-four hours a day, and it is simple to master. At the start, you have to determine just which area most suits your life. To do this, determine solutions to problems a particular set of net users are experiencing, and find out a solution. An effective method of doing this quickly is searching for specific sets of extremely specific longtail keywords or phrases; by and large people look for these less often, however greater proportion of these convert.

These profitable keywords can be found by using Micro Niche Finder. The information collected from this program or other applications and computer software creates a list of related words and phrases which you should target in order to achieve a high placing in the search engines and generate site traffic. Micro Niche Finder information will in addition calculate detailed figures on the words or phrases, precisely how many different sites use them, and how strong the competition is. Lastly, Micro Niche Finder information can help determine suitable domains, material for your website, and identify suitable merchandise to market. Constructing a internet site is the next step; yet there are still fundamental tasks to complete. Search engine optimization is absolutely essential. Products like SEO Elite can make this simple. This program examines competing sites and advises you exactly what you must do in order to have top position in the search engine results.

With software like SEO Elite, data supplied by the application indicates where you should find relevant links, what words and phrases to concentrate on, and even information on where and how to submit articles. In a nutshell, the results produced are the same kind of data you might get from an experienced SEO professional. Once you determine your target market, have your product ads, and your website is completed, then you are ready to positively enhance your search engine rankings. You’ll collect a steady paycheck and you’ll question why you doubted that affiliate marketing could work for you!

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There are several essential aspects you would be smart to consider in advance of buying glassware or stemware for your catering company, restaurant, or hospitality venue. In many circumstances the difference between whether your company thrives or goes broke all counts on the glassware you choose. For instance, using cheap wine glasses to serve top quality vintages may spoil your guests’ restaurant adventures. Contrarily, putting exquisite crystal glassware on your stations in a busy eating room may cause needless replacement expenses due to breakage.

Spend On Glassware That Best Echoes Your Fare

The vital facet to making the wisest selection in glassware is determining what you really need. Purchasing the makes you use and recognize is the common rule of thumb with nearly almost all stemware. When a maker has a solid repute for crafting select glassware, chances are you won’t choose poorly.

You will receive an equal return on your investiture, so if you aren’t knowledgeable about any of the options you come across, then your best calculation is to make this presumption. Guests who are cheap expect to drink from mediocre glassware and clients paying for a high-priced restaurant experience anticipate drinking from expensive glassware. We propose matching the price of the fare with the cost of your glassware.

High Tech Glassware Is The Wave Of The Future

The advanced glassware technologies that now are are the other main development you’ll also want to also keep a watch for. Many varieties of glassware such as Bormioli Rocco’s patented Magnesium chemical formula combine the fineness of costly crystal with the durability of toughened glass. Because your glassware doesn’t break as often, although you pay a bit extra, you will save dollars in the end.

Visit www.HospitalityDirect.com.au to learn more!

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If you really want to secure government contacts at the county level; there is a lot more than just getting on a list and bidding on a solicitation. Government even at the country level is a little corrupt and insider-ish. You can complain about the evils, backdoor deals and wasting of tax payers money or you can remember that the imperfect system is run by humans and what goes on in generally what should be expected. No difference than the shenanigans of the Catholic Priests.

First you need to know who the County Board Of Supervisors are. It is important for you to know the local county supervisors representing your area by name. It is equally important for them to know yours. You should attend at least one function during the campaign season of a county supervisor. Incumbent supervisors are usually re-elected so attend one campaign party. If a county supervisor has an office in your town, it should be on your schedule to visit and meet the staff. Many county supervisors have an office staff of two to three people. They make good customers because their caseload is high and they are too busy to do much shopping. These caseworkers are like reporters; they know everything and every body. Kind of like the staff at the catholic churches, they know who is doing what, when and to whom.

You also need to make it a point to meet the Department Heads where you believe you might be able to get a contract with; either for services or to sell your wares. You will eventually over time meet all the department heads in the county. These department heads determine who gets what contracts and how long they get to keep them. They will divulge information to you that you should not know. For instance:

What contracts will be coming up before an official announcement has been made

The price the present contractor is charging

Any problems with the present contractors

They many times do favors for friends or contractors they would rather work with. Some are on the take we expect. You are not to indulge in bribes and kick backs, but you should realize some of them are and your competitors are part of the scandals. If you become a whistle blower you will never get a contract so we do not advise that, just be aware of the reality. Face it they lied to you in school the honesty in government is a complete fraud, but you are grown up now and must deal with it. So understand the game, but take the high-road. Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Most people simply don’t know how to put themselves across by telephone.

Face to face, they’re fine. They dress well, make eye contact, deploy a firm handshake, carry a snazzy briefcase or folder under their arms, present crisp business cards, and smile warmly.

Look back at this paragraph.

The person who puts himself across face to face has a lot of props on which to rely, don’t you think?

When we’re on the phone, we have to prompt ourselves to use the tools that are available to us.

Here are five tips for enhancing your telephone presence, your credibility and your overall effectiveness.

(1) Speak slowly. The tendency is to speed up when we’re nervous. When we do, we sound like undeserving amateurs.

(2) Speak clearly, enunciating your words more than you normally do. Many people are in the habit of slightly slurring their speech, which is barely permissible face to face because there, people can read our lips and interpret our gestures and facial expressions.

(3) Smile! Folks aren’t in front of you, true, but you still need to seem nice, open, and friendly to be accepted graciously.

(4) Write out your opener, the first words you plan to say. Rehearse it, off the phone, many, many times. This will make you sound professional and organized, and therefore, credible.

(5) Be prepared to deliver succinct, but meaningful messages to secretaries and to voice mail. Again, scripting these morsels helps a lot.

You don’t have to be present, in someone’s field of vision, to have telephone PRESENCE.

Implement these five tips, and you’ll be on your way to being able to come across as big as life, over the phone!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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We’ve all heard the term KISS at one time or another – “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”
However, the majority of salespeople violate this basic principle more often than
not.

Let me start with some examples of what I’m talking about. At one position I held, I
sat next to someone who could have been a top salesperson. He and I both
operated much the same in that rather than cold call, we ran our own personal
marketing programs to generate leads and simply took the calls that came in as a
result. The problem is what he did with the calls. When someone called me, ready
to buy, I immediately went into closing the deal and making arrangements to either
come out with the paperwork or to fax it over. He, on the other hand, went into a
full-length company story and a lot of other information that he absolutely should
not tell a qualified prospect unless they ask for it. The end result is that people who
called ready to sign up for one of our services lost interest and didn’t buy anything
at all.

Another example is what happens every time I try to make a business
purchase. Here I am, saying “Yes, I’m going to buy,” and the sales rep lauches into a
company story about how long they’ve been in business, who their big clients are,
and on and on. Lucky for these salespeople, the product usually sells itself and I
still buy. However, I’m willing to bet that a lot of people don’t. Nothing is more
frustrating than picking up the phone saying, “Hi, here I am ready to buy,” and
having some rep go into a story bragging about how great the company is and all
that they can do. That comes off as pure arrogance to a business owner. What’s
more, talking about your big enterprise clients alienates most small business
owners. They assume their needs will be placed second to those of the big dogs
and that they’ll be treated as just a number when calling for service.

I think most training is at the root of this massive problem. Every course I’ve taken
has gone through the steps of a sale. The problem is, what if all the steps don’t
take place? Consider “objection handling.” When I was working for that company I
mentioned earlier, many of my prospects had no objections because my marketing
pieces took care of them in advance. By assuming that each of these steps are
going to take place, a lot of salespeople will cause something to happen when it
really shouldn’t have to begin with. If a prospect doesn’t come up with any major
objections, don’t give them a reason to!

I’ve seen a lot of managers require their reps to fill out a “lead sheet” that
documents each step of the sale. This assumes that each of the steps will happen
when they may not. If you’re required to maintain these types of records, skip
anything that doesn’t happen naturally. Don’t induce a prospect to enter a selling
phase that may not only be unnecessary, but may cause you to lose the sale
entirely.

Use the KISS test when you’re selling. Always ask yourself if what you’re doing is
actually necessary. Believe me, you’ll save yourself a lot of wasted time and lost
sales by doing so. I did.

Frank Rumbauskas is the author of Cold Calling Is a Waste of Time: Sales Success in
the Information Age. He is the founder of FJR Advisors LLC, which publishes
training materials on generating business without cold calling. For more
information, please visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com

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For many years as a sales manager, I would only hire the stereotypical sales representative. You know the typeon a human relations continuum or scale of zero to ten, with the ten representing a candidate who is totally gregarious and outgoing and the zero, someone who is introverted with few people skills, I’d always recruit the ten. As an advisor to businesses and professional service firms on how to build an effective sales team, I would also council my clients to hire “tens.” Big mistake!

Pareto’s principle (the 80/20 Rule) is vividly illustrated in most industries by the fact that 80 percent of the sales are closed by only 20 percent of the sales professionals. After 24 years of working with literally thousands of sales representatives and service industry professionals as an advisor, trainer and coach, I have learned an important truth–that the ten personality is rarely found in the ranks of the top 20 percent of the sales professionals who produce 80 percent of the sales. For this reason alone, I now hire candidates that fall about a six on the personality continuum and I council my clients to do the same.

Why hire a six? Because the six personality makes up the vast majority of today’s top sales producers. And they are successful at selling, simply because they have a six personality. They are a bit reserved and a lot less outgoing than the ten, but they still have the people skills to communicate well. They do less talking than a ten and they listen better, giving them a decided edge in communicating effectively. Although six personalities have less charisma than a ten, they have a much greater ability to deal with the details of the selling process. This helps them to consistently find new prospects and to organize their day to get more done than an eight ro ten personality. Their ability to produce leads, the effective use of time and their systematic approach to presentations, gives the six personality a selling edge. Most sales professionals with a ten personallity absolutly loath prospecting, paperwork and organizing themselves, so they simply rely on their personality and charm to achieve their sales objectives.

You have to hire smart to develop a sales team that are all “top producers.” You don’t have to live with an 80/20 rule sales team, if you truly understand the personality of the sales or service industry professionals who make up the 20 percent and then only hire candidates that fall into this demographic. However, there’s one problem with this suggestion. You rarely can find a candidate that is in the top 20 percent, who is actively looking for new employment. And, a company or firm would be crazy to let their top producers leave them. Most employers usually do everything in their power to retain their best performers. Your only recourse then is to hire someone from the 80 percent grouping with potential to be a top producer. And how to do this must be the topic for another article

Best wishes for continued sales success.

To Obtain a discount on 101 SALES MYTHS manual click on:

http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/myths1.htm

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publications, Inc. Menlo Park, California. He has also authored a Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides.

Virden teaches for the Center For Professional Development, Texas Tech University at Lubbock, Texas and in the School Of Entrepreneurship, J. Willard And Alice S. Marriott School Of Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. You can contact Virden at: Virden@TheSellingEdge.com.

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Easy, quick and painless. If your Credit policy is flowing smoothly, it is probably all of these.

“Become the Squeaky Wheel,” a new book written by a leader in the debt collection industry, Michelle Dunn, explains that Credit policies are a must for any business. Her book will give you the tools you need to collect more money and prevent bad debt in the future.

Some steps you can take to make your credit policy, Easy, quick and painless are:

1. Make it easy for the customer to get credit with you. Have packets paper clipped together at the front desk, include the credit application, automatic payment permission forms and anything else you want filled out before opening an account.

2. Make it quick, by having these packets ready and waiting for anyone who comes in. Have pens and clip boards available so they can be filled out immediately.

3. Make it painless, by either having them wait and running the credit application while they are still there or responding to them within a certain time period, say 24 hours.

“Consumers today, like everyone else, are expecting convenience and speed,” explains Michelle Dunn. “If you make opening up a credit account difficult or are unorganized, you might lose the customer.”

“Customers that are approved for credit, will buy more if they can pay later, so make the process as streamlined as you can,” says Dunn.

Michelle Dunn has over 17 years experience in credit and debt collection. She is the founder of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, is a writer, consultant and the Editorial Advisor for Eli Financial Debt Collection Compliance Alert Newsletter. Michelle started M.A.D. Collection Agency and ran is successfully for 7 years. She owns and runs Credit & Collections.com a free online community for credit and business professionals.

She has written 5 books in her Collecting Money Series. For more information on Michelle’s services or to order any of her books please email her at michelle@michelledunn.com or visit http://www.michelledunn.com & http://www.credit-and-collections.com

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