3 Essential Skills for Landing and Retaining Your Next Job: Basic marketing for the jobseeker who is not a marketer.

A few days ago, I received an email from a vendor reminding me of basic marketing concepts. Along with the 4 Ps of marketing – – a concept we have discussed as it relates to job search in a previous post — she also mentioned three other essential ingredients. These ingredients include:
 1. Offering a quality product,

2. Providing value to the customer, and

3. Delivering customer satisfaction.

Jobseekers and employees, I believe should offer all three to their employers and potential employers to be successful.

offer quality service.

As employees, we are providing services to a customer – – our employer. And we have to convince potential employers we will offer quality service. Then, we have to deliver quality service to keep the job, earn raises, and get promoted.

All of us, I believe, strive to offer quality service at our jobs. It is not fun to do a job when the  quality of our work is constantly being questioned by our supervisors, leadership of the organization, and the firm’s customers.

There are, of course, times when we find that we are not offering quality service. Often, it is not our fault – – the issue is related to leadership guidance, training, or the resources allocated to us for the job. There are times though when we have difficulty because we are not a good match for the job. Sometimes we don’t have the right technical skills for the job because the role has changed since we were hired and our employer has not offered the required training or shifted us to a more appropriate assignment. Other times, the issue is related to soft skills, such as communications skills, which do not match the job. That’s an area where career management coaching and assessment may be able to help.

Last week, I saw a situation where a talented employee appeared to be in the wrong job. An assistant cruise director was assigned to host trivia and word games for the cruise ship’s passengers. This is a role that requires command of American English as well as understanding American culture. The staff member tried hard to deliver a quality program but did not understand the language and culture well enough for trivia and word games.

It was not her fault. She was given an assignment that did not match her skills although she did the best she could.

Offer value to the customer.

We need to offer our customer – – the employer or potential employer – – value. That means delivering our services at a price that feels like a bargain to the employer. Marketers, for example, will often advertise that their $50 product is “ a $200 value.”

While we cannot necessarily tell an employer that we are offering them the work they would normally get for $200,000 a year at a salary of only $50,000 per year, we can strive to convince employers that we are better trained, and more experienced than anyone else they could get at the salary level they can offer. In other words, we are a bargain.

Customer satisfaction is the key.

Marketers know that customers come back when they are satisfied with the product or service. That is important because it is cheaper to get a return customer then to recruit a new customer.

As employees, we want our employer to retain us, and to offer us new assignments, better assignments, and more highly compensated projects when they become available. It is less expensive for the employer to select us to do their new product when we already work there than it would be to recruit yet another new employee. So, the concept of delivering customer satisfaction applies to employees also.

Concluding comments

Remember that as a jobseeker and employee, you are offering a valuable service to your potential employer. You need to deliver that value on the job and then ensure that your team continues to be satisfied with your work, so you retain the job and get opportunities for more challenging projects at higher levels of compensation.

Think of your job search as marketing a business service and then delivering that service. It is a different mindset that could yield better results!