I recently sat on a webinar hosted by Rebecca Bamman. She’s a career coach out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and the topic of the webinar was “Getting to the Decision Maker.”
If you are out pounding the pavement looking for your next career stop, you know how challenging it can be to have a face to face conversation with the person who holds the key to the position. I have had my share of failures and my share of successes in this situation and I was curious what another career coach had to say on the topic.
The webinar was scheduled for an hour, which is long enough to capture the attention of the audience and offer strong content. The first 10 minutes were spent introducing Rebecca and her guest, as well as providing an overview of the presentation. When the presenters did get into the meat of the call, they brought good energy, yet lacked substance in the content.
One of the gems Rebecca provided is her opinion that your resume ranks toward the bottom of your top 10 sales tools. Those that rank higher include your ‘power statements’ and your testimonials. Her definition of a power statement is, “providing a commercial of your major accomplishments relevant to the position you are competing for.” How you tailor this commercial or tips on how to deliver this message appropriately were not provided. The balance of the call was dedicated to upselling Rebecca’s coaching products, including a home study course, and the final few moments to questions and answers.
Overall, I would grade the presentation as average. If you are suggesting tools or methods, you need to provide examples on how to do it correctly or effectively. With regard to the brief amount of time Rebecca used in talking about the topic, I did agree with most of it. That is:
- Be specific in your target audience.
- Be prepared to explain how you plan to add value to the organization.
- Be sincere in your approach.
I also believe that the resume is going to become obsolete. With the widespread availability of social media and the use of personal blogs, we are moving toward an information age where selling yourself on paper is going to go away. I do not, however, believe that day is today and I would still rate your resume as a top sales tool in selling you. Especially since every employer is trained to request it and use it when comparing candidates.
