Hey everybody, Don Georgevich here with Job Interview Tools. And today, I want to talk about something just a little bit different. I want to ask you if you know what your USP is; your Unique Selling Proposition.
Now, if you’re like most job seekers, you’re probably like, “Don, what he talking about; my USP? I never heard of such a thing”. Well, a USP is a marketing term. And it’s used by companies to distinguish themselves from their competition. It’s what makes a company unique and stand out and how they compete against one of their competitors.
A good example is Domino’s Pizza. You’ve all heard of Domino’s Pizza. And their USP is or at least, it used to be I don’t know if they still do this anymore, but it was very famous and they said, “Your pizzas delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free”; that was their USP. That separated them from the competition. Nobody else did that.
Another example is from a company called Federal Express. We’ve all heard Federal Express; they ship packages. Well, their slogan used to be, “When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight you choose Federal Express” and nobody else had that. That’s when people weren’t even shipping overnight. There was no guarantee you could get a package overnight.
So, what does all this USP stuff have to do with you and interviewing for jobs? Well, I tell you it makes a big difference. You need to know what your USP is. You need to know what makes you unique, what makes you stand out from your competition.
And when you know this, it makes it a lot easier to go into a job interview and present yourself to an employer as a solution as a valid reason to why hire you over someone else.
They’re going to hire you because you can give them more, you can give them something specific, what they’re looking for. I don’t know what they’re looking for. You have to find out what they’re looking for and what’s most important to them, and then you position yourself to offer that whatever that may be.
Now, for me, for example; I used to be in the IT industry and I was a consultant, I was a sales person and I was a project manager, I was also a trainer. And one of the things that I would do is when I would go into a job interview and they were looking for maybe just a sales engineer; someone who could go out and work with sales people and educate clients, and I would position myself as this and I’d also say, “I’m also a certified trainer. I’m also certified to teach engineering courses”.
Now, it wasn’t something that they were actually looking for; it wasn’t in the job description, but it was something that they wanted; kind of like in the back of their minds like, “Yeah, if this guy can teach people how to become engineers, that really separates him from everybody else”.
And it did because all the people that they brought in for job interviews, they were just sales engineers and I was the only one who was a sales engineer, a consultant, a project manager and a trainer; and it made all the difference.
That was my USP; that I could be all of those things and I could do them all with excellence. And that’s what made me stand out from everybody else. And that’s what you need to do. You need to figure out what you can do to be unique.
Now, I don’t know what you can do to be unique. That’s up to you and you need to find out what the company is looking for and only then can you present yourself as a unique solution.
But once you do that; once you figure that out, it’s a no brainer. You make the employer’s job so much easier. You know, when they have 10 candidates and all of them you know all nine of them are very similar. And then there’s that one that does everything these guys can do, plus ‘X’, whatever that is, and that makes you stand out as the clear choice for the job.
So, when they ask, “Why should we hire you?” I say, “Well, because I can do this, this and this” and they’ll be like, “Wow, that’s awesome. That that’s exactly what we’re looking for”.
What you want to do is make it totally irrational for them to hire somebody else; totally irrational to pick somebody else. You need to position yourself as the clear solution– the only solution; and that’s how you win.
And if you don’t do this right, you’re probably not going to get the job, but you’ll have another the next time you go to interview. And I’m not saying you’re going to get this right on the first interview. This is going to take some time, this is going to take some effort, it’s going to take some practice because it’s new to you. You’re not used to positioning yourself and selling yourself against everybody else in a unique way.
Most job seekers haven’t looked at it this way. They don’t look at job interviewing as marketing but you are. I mean, you are marketing yourself to an employer. You are selling yourself to an employer. If you don’t know how to sell yourself to an employer, then you’re going to sit on the sidelines. You’re not going to go anywhere.
So, it’s very important that you understand what your USP is and it’s going to take some time to figure that out. You’re going to have to think about it. You’re going to have to go through a process, you’re going to have to look at everything that you’ve done and what makes you different than other people in your industry. How do you stand out? Why do you stand out? What is it? What’s unique about you?
The easiest way to do this is to figure out what they’re looking for and you figure out what they’re looking for from the job description and by talking to them in the interview.
Simple as that; figure out what they are looking for. And then you simply show them the unique benefit that they’re getting with you than from everybody else. That’s it; two steps right there.
Find out what they’re looking for by talking to them and asking them and looking at the job description. And then show them what they’re getting with you than from everybody else.
That’s it. Hands down, you’re in. You’re a top contender right there. You’ve just eliminated 70 percent of your competition.
Now, the next thing I want you to do when you’re interviewing with them is to treat them as if they are a client. Pretend they are a client of yours and you are actually trying to help them.
Most job seekers don’t think of interviews this way. But I mean, if you think about it, you were trying to sell your stuff; you’re trying to sell your services to them. That’s all a job interview is. You’re saying, “Hey, Mr. Employer, I understand you have these problems. These are some things that I can do to help you solve those problems”. That’s it.
So, you have to look at yourself as a consultant and you have to look at them as a client. Now, like I said, that might be kind of odd for you to think about it that way, but that’s really what a job interview is. You are there trying to help them; simple as that. You are saying, “You know what, Mr. Client, I have all this experience, I have all this expertise, I have all these skills. Let me see if I can understand what you’re looking for. Let me see if I can understand what your problems are” and that’s how you want to look at a job interview. You want to treat them like a client and that you’re trying to help them.
Now, maybe you don’t have all the skills and expertise that they’re looking for. So, being the good consultant that you are, what you should say is, “You know what? I really don’t have what you’re looking for and I can’t really meet your needs and you should bow out”. Otherwise, pushing yourself on that client and trying to sell yourself anyway, even though you can’t do the job, that would be doing them somewhat of a disservice; wouldn’t it?
I mean, you’re out there trying to help them. If you really can’t help them, why would you position yourself as someone who can?
Now, on the flip side, if you can help them, if you know what their problems are and you can be a solution, then you need to push yourself on them. You need to show them that you understand what they’re doing and you understand the problems that they’re facing because you’ve seen all this stuff before, you know how to do this, you can help them with it.
And when you position yourself that way, when you take that style, when you take that path, now they begin to trust you because you’re being honest with them. They can clearly see that you are genuinely trying to help them. And that’s what you want; right?
I mean, that’s what I want. When I when I’m trying to help somebody, I want to be as genuine and honest as I possibly can. All I want to do is help them get from point A to point B to point C. That’s it; that’s my job.
And if I can’t do that I’m going to say, “You know what? This is something I can’t do for you. I’m sorry. I’m out”. But if I can, I’m going to show them how I’m going to do it. And that’s what you need to do.
So, treat the employer like a client and you as a consultant; as someone who is trying to help them solve a problem in whatever that is; whether that’s with a service that you provide; that’s probably the most common way or whether you’re going to be a salesperson or you’re going to help them grow a territory, you’re going to launch a new product, whatever it is. You are a solution to their problems.
Now, the third part to answering this question about, “Why should I hire you?” and your USP; risk reversal. That’s right. Remove some of the risk from hiring you. Most jobseekers don’t know this, but employers choose the candidate who’s the least risky. That’s right; the least risky. So, the person who has the highest probability of success succeeding in the organization and is the least risky hire, that’s the one that they pick.
So, take out the risk for them; take out the risk. If you’re struggling to get some traction in the interview and they have some objections about hiring you, say “You know what? I’ll come in for $10,000 less and I’ll work for $10,000 less for 90 days. That way, you get to try me on sale for less than anybody else and I will show you in 90 days that I will complete these projects, I will grow this territory, I will launch these products, whatever it is”.
Remove the risk from the hire and make it more attractive for them to want to hire you. Make it more attractive than everybody else. None of those other people that they’re interviewing, they’re not going to say, “You know what? Try me out for $10,000 less for 90 days”. Nobody’s going to do that.
Now, that may or may not nudge them, but if they’re on the fence about you and they really don’t want to pay the high price that you’re looking for, take out some of the risk for them. Show them you’ll do it for less.
And you know, sometimes you might even just do it for free. It depends on what you’re looking for. Every situation is unique, but if you’re looking for experience and you’re trying to get it from a company from an entry level position, say, “You know what? I’ll come and work for 30 days for you for free. 30 days for free, you can try me out and see how great I am. And then after that if you’re happy with me, offer me the job”. It’s another solution; remove the risk.
Alright, so you’ve got three things there for answering the question, “Why should we hire you?” You need to factor in that unique selling proposition. You need to understand what they’re looking for. You need to understand their problems so that you can present yourself as a unique solution to those problems.
Two, you need to treat them as a client and that you’re genuinely trying to help them. Otherwise, you need to bow out. If you can’t help them, you need to say, “You know what? I can’t do this”. But if you can, then you need to go in there full force and show them how you can help them. And third, take out the risk. Just remove the risk from the whole thing, whatever their concerns are, whatever their objections are about hiring you, remove that element of risk from the negotiation and that will make you a clear choice. You’ll stand out from everybody else.
Alright, that’s all I have for you today my friend. Good luck on your next interview.
Now, before you before you go on the next interview. I strongly suggest grabbing a copy of The Complete Interview Answer Guide. If you liked what I was talking about today and USP and how to answer that question, I go into detail like that for like 140 other questions that, you’re not going to get asked 140 questions, you’re probably going to get asked maybe a 20 or 30, but I’ve got about 140 in this guide and it’s going to cover most of the questions you are likely to get asked.
I touch on; “Why should we hire you?” “Tell me about yourself”, “What are your weaknesses”, “What are your strengths”, “Tell me about projects you’ve managed”; all that kind of stuff. I cover behavioral questions in great detail in here. I teach you the STAR method, where you get where you’re supposed to talk about the, Situation, Task, Action and Result. I go in a lot of detail on 40 or 50 different behavior questions; anything that you’re looking for, anything that you’re going to face in a job interview, this guide is going to teach you how to do it.
It’s going to teach you how to prepare for a phone interview, which is likely the first thing that you’re going to get, because they’re going to set up a call for you to talk to somebody over Skype or on the phone just to screen you to see if they want to meet you in person. This guide is going to get you ready for that phone interview and it’s going to get you ready for that first in-person interview, second interview and negotiation steps after the fact when they offer you the job.
So, I strongly recommend you grab this guide. You can get it from jobinterviewtools.com. It’s about 50 bucks; easy download PDF. You can also get it in hard copy like this. I’ll ship that out to you. It’s also available in audio and video, where if you’d like to listen to audio tracks, you can download those to your phone or you can watch videos in the member’s area and you can get a lot more insight on how to answer these questions.
So, again before your next interview, grab a copy of this. I guarantee you, it’s going to help you go so much farther. It’s going to bring you a lot closer to the offer.
Alright, it’s all I’ve got for you today. Good luck in your next interview. We’ll see you next time. Bye now.
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