When it comes to telling a story, one of the most difficult concepts for some people to grasp is positioning. To help you understand exactly what I mean, perhaps the best place to start is by making a distinction between presenting and positioning.
PRESENTING is telling your story from your point-of-view.
POSITIONING is telling your story from the customer's point-of-view.
Your customer may be a hiring manager within your current organization, a potential employer, or quite literally, a person with whom you would like to do business. Whatever the case, it is absolutely essential to know this person so well that you can speak directly to their needs, challenges, and pain.
If your goal is to make a connection with a specific person, it is in your best interest to know everything you can about what drives him or her:
- What challenges does this person face?
- What opportunities are on the horizon?
- What are his or her goals? Why?
- When do these goals need to be accomplished?
- What factors are driving these needs and goals?
Think of yourself as an investigative reporter. Learn everything you can about the person's situation. Once you know this, start by asking yourself these questions:
- What can I offer this person that will help solve a problem or capture an opportunity?
- What experiences have I had that support my ability to succeed?
- What are the REASONS TO BELIEVE my involvement is the NEXT LOGICAL STEP in my personal or professional development?
- Why does this opportunity excite me?
Interestingly enough, although a personal connection certainly helps, it isn't a requirement. You simply need to know the important similarities the person shares with other people in their same situation. For example, when I write copy targeting career-changers, I can speak to a wider group by knowing the struggles they all have in common. However, I don't write the copy as if I am addressing a large audience, I write it as if I am speaking to a single person. Starting with a question can be an effective way to accomplish this:
"Have you ever applied for a job that seemed like a perfect fit yet never received a response?"
If you have ever been in that situation, you would probably read that line and immediately relate to how disappointing and frustrating it can be. By putting myself in the customers' shoes and speaking to their pain, people reading it feel I am connecting directly with them in a one-on-one conversation. That is my goal. That is positioning.
Having captured a person's attention, I would continue to tell the story from THEIR point-of-view thereby giving them a REASON TO BELIEVE I have something valuable to offer.
Presenting, on the other hand, would be telling my story from my point-of-view. In this case, the communication might look more like this:
- "Over the past 15 years, I have worked with career-changers at all levels in a variety of fields ranging from finance and engineering to advertising and manufacturing."
Even if you happened to be in one of the fields I mentioned, I haven't communicated anything that would get you to believe I truly understand what you are currently experiencing. Unfortunately, that is what happens when people don't take the time to position their experiences. They attempt to speak to everyone and, in effect, speak to no one.
The next time you need to gain the interest and attention of a prospective customer or employer, take the time to tell your story from THEIR point-of-view. If you want to truly connect with a customer or hiring manager, positioning is always worth the effort.
Showing posts with label negotiate salary promotion career job search development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label negotiate salary promotion career job search development. Show all posts
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Avoid Artificial Performance Measures
Having specific, measurable goals in place, along with agreement on what happens when the goals are achieved does more than help you track your success; it helps you avoid the heartache of artificial performance measures.
Some companies, for example, are more preoccupied with tenure than performance as my friend Ross discovered. The company he’d been interviewing with extended an offer, but Ross didn’t accept it immediately because didn’t have a clear picture what his path within the company would be. The hiring manager told him that people in his position typically get promoted in 12 months. Being a hard-driving, energetic guy with a track record of rapid promotion, Ross didn’t like that answer so he asked: “What, specifically, do you expect that person to accomplish before they reach the next level?”
The conversation continued until Ross learned the specific, measurable goals he needed to achieve. At that point Ross said, “I know myself well-enough to know I can achieve all of those goals in 6 months.” He proceeded to back up his claim with examples from previous positions and asked, “When I achieve these goals in 6 months, what happens then?”
Unmoved, the hiring manager said, “No one has ever achieved that in 6 months. Even if you did, it would still take the full year until you were promoted. That’s just the way we do it.”
After a somewhat spirited negotiation, the hiring manager begrudgingly agreed to write up a formal letter stating that if Ross achieved the goals at any point before the first year of his employment, he would be promoted immediately. Not able to distinguish talent and confidence from arrogance, the hiring manager went on to say she didn’t think he could do it. Nevertheless, Ross accepted the offer.
Six months later, after achieving all of the goals, Ross went to his supervisor and proudly requested his promotion. His supervisor told him a promotion at that point wouldn’t be possible because he had only been with the company six months as opposed to the 12 months dictated by company policy. Even with the a written letter of agreement, the company didn’t want to promote Ross because it would appear he was getting preferential treatment relative to other people in that position. The company eventually honored its agreement, but not without a fight.
The morals of this story should be clear:
1. Agree on the specific, measurable results—and outcomes—BEFORE you accept a job, promotion, or additional responsibility.
And, of course:
2. GET IT IN WRITING!
Calculating Your Value
Take the time to establish, in advance, where the company is and how the value might change through your efforts. This information will help you justify performance-based compensation beyond whatever salary was budgeted for the position. A helpful book in this regard is Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss. The book, which was written primarily for consultants, describes principles and strategies valuable to anyone who wants to be compensated for the value they bring to the organization.
According to Weiss, for a business relationship to be truly successful, the person who received the service has to be able to say: “That was a terrific investment” while the person who provided the service has to be able to says: “And I was fairly paid for my efforts.”
Through my coaching and speaking, I have met countless people who have contributed far more value than they ever received in return. One executive, for example, saved his company more than $5 million over a 16 year career through strategic investments in automation, real estate negotiation, and other initiatives. Many of these accomplishments went well beyond his areas of responsibility and the standard metrics used to evaluate the performance of a person in his position.
For purposes of illustration, we’ll ignore the value he created in other areas and focus exclusively on cost savings as if it were the only measure of success. In this are, he contributed, on average, more than $312,500 annually to the company’s bottom line. Yet during the same period, his average annual compensation was under $140,000. Arguing for performance-based compensation isn’t about being greedy; it’s simply about being rewarded for the legitimate value you contribute. If you can save a firm over $300,000 every year, you are worth a lot more than $140,000. It’s up to you to see that you get it.
If you take the time to quantify your accomplishments and understand the expected value of your efforts, you will be in a far better position to avoid the inequities above—tight labor market or not.
Some companies, for example, are more preoccupied with tenure than performance as my friend Ross discovered. The company he’d been interviewing with extended an offer, but Ross didn’t accept it immediately because didn’t have a clear picture what his path within the company would be. The hiring manager told him that people in his position typically get promoted in 12 months. Being a hard-driving, energetic guy with a track record of rapid promotion, Ross didn’t like that answer so he asked: “What, specifically, do you expect that person to accomplish before they reach the next level?”
The conversation continued until Ross learned the specific, measurable goals he needed to achieve. At that point Ross said, “I know myself well-enough to know I can achieve all of those goals in 6 months.” He proceeded to back up his claim with examples from previous positions and asked, “When I achieve these goals in 6 months, what happens then?”
Unmoved, the hiring manager said, “No one has ever achieved that in 6 months. Even if you did, it would still take the full year until you were promoted. That’s just the way we do it.”
After a somewhat spirited negotiation, the hiring manager begrudgingly agreed to write up a formal letter stating that if Ross achieved the goals at any point before the first year of his employment, he would be promoted immediately. Not able to distinguish talent and confidence from arrogance, the hiring manager went on to say she didn’t think he could do it. Nevertheless, Ross accepted the offer.
Six months later, after achieving all of the goals, Ross went to his supervisor and proudly requested his promotion. His supervisor told him a promotion at that point wouldn’t be possible because he had only been with the company six months as opposed to the 12 months dictated by company policy. Even with the a written letter of agreement, the company didn’t want to promote Ross because it would appear he was getting preferential treatment relative to other people in that position. The company eventually honored its agreement, but not without a fight.
The morals of this story should be clear:
1. Agree on the specific, measurable results—and outcomes—BEFORE you accept a job, promotion, or additional responsibility.
And, of course:
2. GET IT IN WRITING!
Calculating Your Value
Take the time to establish, in advance, where the company is and how the value might change through your efforts. This information will help you justify performance-based compensation beyond whatever salary was budgeted for the position. A helpful book in this regard is Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss. The book, which was written primarily for consultants, describes principles and strategies valuable to anyone who wants to be compensated for the value they bring to the organization.
According to Weiss, for a business relationship to be truly successful, the person who received the service has to be able to say: “That was a terrific investment” while the person who provided the service has to be able to says: “And I was fairly paid for my efforts.”
Through my coaching and speaking, I have met countless people who have contributed far more value than they ever received in return. One executive, for example, saved his company more than $5 million over a 16 year career through strategic investments in automation, real estate negotiation, and other initiatives. Many of these accomplishments went well beyond his areas of responsibility and the standard metrics used to evaluate the performance of a person in his position.
For purposes of illustration, we’ll ignore the value he created in other areas and focus exclusively on cost savings as if it were the only measure of success. In this are, he contributed, on average, more than $312,500 annually to the company’s bottom line. Yet during the same period, his average annual compensation was under $140,000. Arguing for performance-based compensation isn’t about being greedy; it’s simply about being rewarded for the legitimate value you contribute. If you can save a firm over $300,000 every year, you are worth a lot more than $140,000. It’s up to you to see that you get it.
If you take the time to quantify your accomplishments and understand the expected value of your efforts, you will be in a far better position to avoid the inequities above—tight labor market or not.
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