Jul, 2014

How to Be Far More Persuasive in Your Next Interview

Interview PersuasionBy Chris Delaney

How do you feel about influencing a job interview? Would you be happy to know that you were only offered the job due to your skills as a manipulator? Does coercing the interviewer give you the right to an increase in salary?

 

The interview is the place for persuasion. To be offered the position, you have to convince the interviewer that you are the best fit for the organization. You have to persuade the interviewer that you can solve problems, increase company profits, and that you, out of all the other applicants, and have that additional selling point, that uniqueness, the key factor that they require.

Experience alone won’t get you job offers. Interviewers will often make decisions based on their gut instinct. This means that you the interviewee need to be seen as confident, knowledgably and likeable. How many times has your lack of rapport resulted in others being offered the position you knew you were more than qualified for?

No matter how you answer the interview questions, your answers and the tone of your voice, the gestures you use and even the clothes you wear influence the employer’s opinion of you. These 3 steps to influence the job interview will guarantee that you influence the interview positively, ensuring a successful career progression.

3 steps to influence the job interview

Step 1—Execute the Perfect Sales Pitch

An interview is a sales pitch. So many job hunters wrongly believe that they can simply discuss the breadth of their experience and this alone will be enough to secure them a job offer. Time and time again the inexperienced are offered jobs over industry experts as the experts fail to incorporate sales techniques into their interviews.

We can learn from practiced sales executives and use their techniques to boost job offers. Remember there are many excellent products on the market, but only a few become mainstream. Popular products become fashionable due to the marketing, brand and sales pitch.

How to execute the perfect sales pitch

1.            Record the 3 key unique selling points that you want the employer to remember about you—This is your brand. Check that your unique selling points match the criteria required by the employer.

2.            Marketing—When answering interview questions, don’t offer up a standard answer. Instead explain how your unique selling point will add value to the organization. Always provide the potential outcome to your actions; this way the employer will understand how your experience is relevant to the business.

3.            Talk with passion—We are all swayed when the sales person is passionate about a product, as their passion rubs off on you. Passion makes the perfect pitch.

Step 2—The Expert Interview

Authority is a key principle when it comes to influence. People trust experts and people in authority. If you can convince your interviewer that you are an expert in your industry, he or she will first listen in depth to what you have to say. Secondly, your interviewer won’t question the content of your answer because we willingly trust experts. Lastly, the interviewer will want to recruit an expert over a general worker.

When buying a product you are more likely to purchase the item if an expert in the product discusses the beneficial features, compared to an ordinary sales person discussing the same product benefits.

How to be Taken as an Expert

1.            Research your industry—Find out everything you can about the history of your sector, lead-ing industry experts, and how technology is currently changing the way businesses operate in this niche. When appropriate, bring up your knowledge throughout the job interview.

2.            Talk the industry talk—In most sectors the industry professional will use sector-known abbreviations, acronyms and jargon. You need to understand these terms and use them throughout the job interview.

3.            Prepare examples of when you have used your expertise to solve workplace problems— This takes your expertise up a notch—not only can you talk the talk you can walk the walk.

Step 3—The Confident Communicator

No matter how well prepared your interview answers are, you will not be given a chance unless your answers are delivered with confidence. Everything about you must ooze confidence; your posture, tone, body language, eye contact and the delivery of your interview answers.

Rarely do you buy an expensive product from someone who seems weak and timid. A confident sales person can easily convince a customer simply through pres-ence that this is a great product. All the great speakers in the world talk with confidence. You have to adopt this same approach to positively impress.

How to Become Confident

1.            Practice, practice and practice—why are good speakers so confident? Because they practice their speech so often that the words just naturally flow out. A practiced orator doesn’t need to think about what they should say next, as the speech becomes a trained reaction. Prepare your interview answers and practice answering them over and over again.

2.            Breath, breath and breath—concentrating on your breathing will help you relax. Take deep breaths and count down from 10-1 in your mind; by the time you reach one your nervousness will have reduced.

3.            Copy, copy and copy—When nervous, think about someone you know who is really confident. Think about how that person walks, talks, how he or she sits. Remember his or her confident postures, the tone of voice he/she uses, and what that person does to seem confident. Act as if you’re this confident person and you too will start to feel confident.

To influence the job interviewer, you need to incorporate all 3 steps—sell yourself, be viewed as an expert, and command confidence. This is the perfect formula to increase likeability while been seen as a profit making machine. No matter what position you are recruited for, the endgame from the employer’s point of view is—if I employ this individual, will I increase my profits?

Confidence will demand respect; expertise will increase desire, and how you frame your answers will increase want. The perfect combination for a winning job interview.


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