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Asking, then Listening

Sometimes that’s all it takes. When offerors talk, they agree with themselves.

Traditional jobseekers don’t know what to say. That rarely stops them.

You can listen to almost anything for a few minutes. So use the candidate can openers to get the offeror talking and you listening attentively.

Just ask what, how, where, when, or why:

What projects are you looking to do?

How are you going to staff the new marketing department?

Where will you be moving?

When are you ordering a new phone system?

Why is the manufacturing outsourced?

Questioning an Objection

Questioning an objection doesn’t work in traditional interviewing because objections are conclusions. The decision has already been made.

Not so with instant interviewing. You control the outcome (Do 92).

The offeror says, “I like you, but you just don’t have experience selling hair products.”

You ask, “That couldn’t prevent you from making me an offer, could it?”

The offeror thinks, “Could it? Would it? Should it?”

Your question caused him to reflect in a much more critical way.

That gets you the offer.

Making Feel-Felt-Found Statements

This is an instant steering mechanism. The offeror says, “I’m just not ready to hire this month because of our cash flow.”

You counter, “I understand how you feel. I felt that way when I was meeting a payroll. But I found that hiring the right accounts receivable person can change ‘cash no’ into ‘cash flow’ very quickly.”

Placing Yourself in Alternative Jobs

Another jolt is to place yourself in an alternative job, then let the offeror decide.

Suppose the offeror wants the product catalog and product brochures redone.

Say, “I can either redo the product catalog or redesign the product brochure. What would you like me to do first?”

Asking the Offeror Why No Offer

Don’t just take procrastination as a reason. If the offeror has not yet extended an offer, it’s a symptom—not a cause.

Lob, “I know we have a great match here, and I could already be making far more money for the company than I’d be paid. Why haven’t you made me an offer?”

These are the 20 jubjungle jolts. Still don’t take more than 15 minutes (Do 1). Jolt then bolt! Successful, high-voltage supershocks!

Do 100: Pursuing Your Passion

“It doesn’t matter how you start, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.”

I’ll tell you who said this shortly. But you should already know.

Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life. Someone who loves what she does is the best at it. The reverse is also true: Someone who’s the best at what she does loves it.

Don’t you agree? You can’t not!

Are you so passionate about your j-o-b that you can’t wait to start? Does time stand still? Do you forget to eat? Develop your bladder control? Are you the one who locks up every night?

Would you pay the one paying you so you could do it? Would you literally give up everything you own and sleep under a bridge if you could just do that one precious, all-consuming, reason-for-being job? With every one of your 2,000 parts?

I remember being on tour in the mid-’80s when I got a call from my publicist. She was jumping up and down because she’d just booked me on AM Chicago, and wanted me to write it into my itinerary.

I didn’t think much about it. Actually, I didn’t think much about anything except my next interview with a newspaper reporter.

Major book touring is like walking through a blizzard in the middle of a marathon. You can barely see, and you rely on the escort to pick you up at the airport, take you to the morning wakeup TV and radio shows, feed you, help you get dressed, run to the one-hour cleaner for you, take you to the noon talkers, check in with the publisher, get you to the newspaper offices in the afternoon, plop you on the evening news set, get you on the phone for some radio talk show in another time zone, then pour you into the last plane out to the next city, where (if you’re lucky) you’re picked up