[continued from here]...a) Exploring the current situation and previous experiences
Tony Alessandra, Phil Wexler, and Rick Barrera have developed an approach to exploring a
prospective customer's needs (described in their book Non-Manipulative Selling
and in Alessandra & Barrera's subsequent book Collaborative Selling), most of
which can be applied directly to an employment interview.
The first step is to explore the employer's current situation. Most of the general information
questions you might ask (including the "option 2" questions) can be classified as relating to the
employer's current situation. These can include questions about the employer's customers,
competitors, or management style, for example. We'll come back to these kind of questions in just a
moment (see "General questions to ask the interviewer" below).
In addition to basic fact-finding questions, however, you may also want to find out more about how
the employer is currently handling the specific problems that you see yourself being able to help
them solve. To adopt a self-centred view for a minute, you can think of these questions as "How are
they getting by without me?" (I'm sure I don't need to point out that you would never ask such a
pompous question directly).
If you believe that the employer would benefit by hiring you, it follows that there is something
about their current situation -- or an impending situation -- that you can improve. Since you
probably know relatively little about their current situation, this is your chance to ask.
Asking about their current situation allows you to:
- Confirm your suspicions about how you'd be able to make a contribution.
- Uncover any inaccurate beliefs you may have.
- Probe for any other opportunities that you hadn't thought of previously.
- Find out how the employer feels about their situation.
- Get new information on the organization.
Examples (NOTE: All example questions in this chapter need to be customized
to suit your situation and even then may not be applicable. You'll have to come up with your
questions yourself. I can only help show you the general approach that you can take):
- How are you handling [specific situations/problems] now?
- How has that been going? How do you feel about the results you've been getting?
- So until now you've just had one sales rep and now you want to add two more, is that right?
Along with questions about the current situation, you may also want to ask about their previous
experiences with people who do the kind of work that you do. If they've had bad experiences in the
past, the employer will be even more cautious about hiring someone now.
Good experiences will shape the employer's expectations of what someone who will succeed in the
position is like. They may be trying to duplicate the experience, skills, and personality of someone
who has succeeded in the kind of work you're looking to do.
Examples:
- What has been your experience with people who have done this kind of work before?
What have you liked about the way this work has been done? What would you like to see done
differently?
- Who has been doing this work up until now? What happened to them?
- How long were they in this position? Were they successful?
Continued here: b) Exploring the employer's desired situation
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