Page 174 - 301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, Second Edition

CHAPTER 12

BID-FOR-ACTION
QUESTIONS

TWENTY QUESTIONS THAT
ASK FOR THE JOB

Job interviews are sales calls. The product you are selling is yourself.
Marketing 101 says that every marketing message needs a bid for
action: a clearly worded request for the order. Pick up the phone.
Send in the response card. Click on the link. Give me an opportunity
to prove myself. Hire me.

Each time you meet with HR or a hiring manager, you have an
irreplaceable opportunity to ask for the offer. The wording is dif-
ferent in each case, as we will see, so you need to know whether the
person across the table from you represents HR, who merely recom-
mends, or is someone who has the authority to offer you the job.

The imperative is even more important if you are searching for a
job in any kind of sales. You need to end the interview not just with
a bid for action but with a hard close. Closing the interview requires
that you stop focusing so completely on your own performance and
ask questions that help you discover the needs of your customer/hir-
ing manager. The interviewer needs to see that you know when to
close, what to say, and how to deal with objections or nonanswers.

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