Newsletter Issue 146, April 2008

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 146, April 2008

Hi guys,

We have part three of our job seeker series by Ron McGowan on How to Market Yourself below.

For those of us who have become used to new world wine labels, The Great Wine Match is a great reminder of what wines used to be. 

Autostitch Freeware   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

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How to Market Yourself – Part 3

Now that you know exactly what you have to sell to employers or clients and where you are going to sell it, we come to the final step in the process: How are you going to sell it?

The sales cycle consists of two parts: marketing and selling. So before we go any further, let’s make sure that you understand the difference between them (most people don’t.)

First of all, marketing precedes selling. It refers to a wide range of activities that have as their objective getting the attention of potential buyers of a product or service. These activities can be anything from a sophisticated, expensive television commercial or infomercial to someone walking around a busy shopping area with a sandwich board strapped to them that is promoting a product or service.

Selling is what happens when you get the attention of a prospective buyer and they call you, walk into your store or visit your web site. Many employment seekers don’t understand this and it is the main reason for their lack of success in selling themselves. No professional sales organization is going to let a sales representative get in front of a customer until they have proven that they know the product or service they’re selling inside out and how it can benefit customers.

Employment seekers tend to jump straight into selling before they’re ready to sell, and when that doesn’t work assume that they’re not salespeople and never will be. You need to spend the majority of your time in the marketing phase and only when you have mastered that can you begin the selling phase.

To succeed in selling, you must first succeed in marketing. Parts One and Two were all about marketing and most of this section is about marketing. You’re not ready to sell yourself until you’ve done all the work required in these sections. Your success in selling yourself will be directly related to how hard you work at the marketing phase, how creative you are, and how willing you are to move out of your comfort zone.

As you go through the marketing phase, your self-confidence and eagerness to sell yourself will steadily rise. You are going to be pleasantly surprised at how successful you can be at selling yourself now that you know how the process works. Most employment seekers today use one marketing tool: a traditional resume or CV. It still has a place, if you’re applying for a job, but it’s the wrong tool for marketing yourself to employers or clients when you’re approaching them on speculation that they might benefit from the skills and experience you have to offer.

Today’s tools can include a visume, a two-and-a-half-minute visual resume, a marketing letter, blog, web site, brochure and variations on the traditional resume or CV, which are marketing oriented. The generic, one-size-fits-all resume or CV, or any other such tool is a dinosaur.

You need to tweak your marketing tools to address the needs of the employer or client you’re targeting. You must clearly indicate that you know something about them and imply that the experience and skills you have to offer will benefit them.

You must indicate in your marketing tool that you will promptly follow up with them and make sure you do that. Some employment seekers are reluctant to follow up and that is a major mistake. According to a February 2006 survey by Robert Half International, 86 per cent of Canadian executives said that employment seekers should follow up within a week of submitting an application.

There’s probably no other word that is used more frequently in relation to today’s workplace and that is more abused, misunderstood and overused than “networking.” That’s unfortunate, because if you understand what networking is really all about and you’re prepared to invest the time it takes to put an effective networking strategy together, it is probably the most powerful tool you can use to market yourself and find hidden work opportunities.

You first need to be clear about your motives for networking. Successful networkers are givers, not takers. If you only contact people when you need help, you’re not a networker, you’re a sponge. Successful networkers give generously of their time and expertise to their profession and their community. You will find them serving on the executive and committees of the professional associations they belong to and on the board of at least one non-profit or charitable association in their community.

Many so-called networking events are a waste of time. They attract employment seekers, recruiters who are looking for commission salespeople, personal coaches and the like. If an event is being marketed as a networking event, you probably should avoid it. It is highly unlikely that the people you need to connect with will be there.

You need to determine what activities such as seminars, courses, trade shows and conferences are coming up in the next few months where the people you want to connect with are likely to attend and sign up for them. You need to be patient and not expect immediate results from the networking events that you attend.

If you’re on the executive or committees of the professional associations you belong to, if you are on the board of at least one non-profit or charitable association in your community and your motive for networking is not self-serving, you will have your share of success. Write some articles for the journals or newsletters of the professional associations you belong to, volunteer as a speaker at events where people can benefit from your expertise, or start up a new association or special interest group in your area and you will be on the radar screens of the people you need to connect with.

That concludes this series.

Author Bio: For over a decade, Ron McGowan has helped thousands of US graduates and professionals find work. His book, “How to Find Work in the 21st Century” is currently in use in America in colleges, universities and secondary schools (go to http://www.trafford.com/00-0131).

 

The Great Wine Match

In a recent edition of Cuisine magazine, John Saker adroitly listed how 'new world' wine titles matched with the old French appellation names:

• SAUVIGNON BLANC There are three main French appellations, spread between two very different regions, where Sauvignon Blanc has a traditional presence. They are Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume in the Loire Valley, and Graves, nestling beside the River Gironde in Bordeaux. In Graves, Sauvignon Blanc is usually blended with another white grape, Semillon.
• CHARDONNAY The regional translation for arguably the world's most famous grape is Burgundy. Most white Burgundies are made using only Chardonnay. There are many famous appellations inside the region, including Chablis, Pouilly-Fuisse. Meursault and the Montrachets. Chardonnay is also one of the main varieties used to make Champagne. In Champagne, Chardonnay vinified solo is called Blanc de Blancs.
• PINOT GRIS The original French home for Pinot Gris is Alsace, where for a long time it was called Tokay d'Alsace (the name has been dropped at the behest of the Hungarians, whose ancient Tokaj wine has nothing to do with Pinot Gris).
• RIESLING The French HQ for Riesling is also Alsace, where it was introduced from Germany.
• VIOGNIER You will find in-vogue Viognier all over southern France these days, though it appeared first in the wines of the Condrieu appellation in the northern Rhone. Small amounts of Viognier are blended with Syrah to make many of the wines at neighbouring Cote Rotie.
• PINOT NOIR The region synonymous with Pinot is Burgundy, where the grape is responsible for some of the world's most revered reds. Among the many famous Burgundy estates, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti is the most celebrated. Pinot Noir is also a major contributor to Champagne.
• SYRAH Syrah's strong-hold is the Rhone Valley. Cote Rotie and Hermitage are two northern Rhone appellations that owe their greatness to Syrah. In the southern Rhone it is joined by a host of other varieties to create the famed Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
• CABERNET SAUVIGNON, MERLOT, CABERNET FRANC These three grapes are the mainstays of the famed blended reds of Bordeaux, the wine the English like to call claret. The degree to which each is present in the blend varies according to location. For example, in the Medoc appellation Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant grape; in St-Emilion, Merlot is king.

While I realise that there is a trend for the French to now add the varietal on their bottles (interesting; they prevented our new world vintners putting the appellation on bottles originally, which gave rise to the varietal system that the French are now being forced to adopt!), this wee list certainly demystifies buying French wine.

Autostitch Freeware

For those of you who like taking panoramic shots with their cameras, then this cute little piece of freeware is definitely for you.

Called Autostitch, this little package was developed by two guys from the University of British Columbia in Canada; Matthew Brown and David Lowe.

I downloaded this software to put together some holiday images, and it was fantastic. However, there are some little tricks that I had to nut out to get the application to work properly (the online help is very thin).

Each time you start the software, click on the Edit menu, and select Options.

• Under Output size, set Width & Height to "0" and Scale to 100%.
• Under Other Options, set System Memory to "0.75" and JPEG Quality to 100.
• Click OK and then go to the File menu, and navigate to where your images are, and select them.

The software will pop up a DOS window once it starts processing (just ignore it), then will open your stitched image in your default image editing software. Make your changes to the stitched image & then save it to your desired location.

If you then want to stitch another image, close your image editing software and then go back into the Edit menu, and select Options and reset the Output Size & Other Options again.

To download, go to http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html and click on the "FREE demo version now" link. There is no paid version as yet unless you want to partner with the creators to develop a software solution.

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you:

• OLED, Organic Light Emitting Diode. A display technology, pioneered and patented by Kodak, based on the use of organic polymer material as the semiconductor material in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Said to be the next big thing in 2008.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

Over the next few newsletters, we are going to look at all you can do with Alt and letters. This time it's C:

• Excel "Open the Address Book in the cc box or move the selected field into the Column area; Use within the Pivot Table Wizard" Alt & C
• Outlook "Close print preview or Accept when responding to an E-Mail schedule request" Alt & C
• PowerPoint "Switch to the Contents tab" Alt & C
• Access "Display Contents dialog box; use within Help menu" Alt & C
• IE "Close Print Preview. " Alt & C
• Word "Display Contents dialog box; use within Help menu or open the Address Book while working in the CC field when sending email" Alt & C

Hot Linx

If you need any OECD statistics to support the findings of a report, for analysis or for a business case, go to http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/Default.aspx?usercontext=sourceoecd

Are you someone who loses their keys? Then read this article from Popular Science - your days of worrying might be over, and sooner than you think; http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-03/cyber-goggles-human-tagging

An armchair tourist? Then take a 3D tour around a host of exotic CGI locations at http://www.mypictures3d.com/galleries.html

A robot developed by the Canadian Space Agency, called Dextre, will be heading out into space to join the International Space Station. Check it out at http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/missions/sts-123/default.asp

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here