How job candidates can use the power of marketing and branding to find their dream job.

1. Matthew S Byrne

2. Branding & Positioning
Why is it that I can arrive at my Hertz
Rental Car with the keys in the
ignition, car running, trunk
conveniently open - in a parking
space with my name on it but it
takes 40 minutes to check into a
hotel?
Do they think we are going to steal the
hotel room?

3. Branding & Positioning
Why is it that Federal Express can
“absolutely, positively” deliver my
package on time.
Operational Excellence
Product Leadership
But my airline manages to lose my
luggage between the plane to the Customer Intimacy
baggage area?
Discipline of Market Leaders: Three Fundamental Business Strategies
from "The Discipline of Market Leaders" by Treacy and Wiersema

4. Branding & Positioning
Why can Casio make a calculator
that costs less than a box of corn
flakes?
Operational Excellence
Product Leadership
Does the cost of silicon cost less then
the price of corn? Customer Intimacy
Discipline of Market Leaders: Three Fundamental Business Strategies
from "The Discipline of Market Leaders" by Treacy and Wiersema

5. OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
(to deliver quality, price and ease of purchase and use)
Processes for end-to-end product
supply and basic service that are
optimized and streamlined to
minimize cost and provide hassle-free
service .
•Operations that are standardized,
simplified, tightly controlled and
centrally planned, leaving few
decisions to rank-and-file employees.
•Management systems that focus on McDonalds
integrated, reliable, high-speed
transactions and compliance to norms.
•A culture that abhors waste and
rewards efficiency.
Discipline of Market Leaders: Three Fundamental Business Strategies
from "The Discipline of Market Leaders" by Treacy and Wiersema

6. PRODUCT LEADERSHIP
(creating the best products or services)
A focus on the core processes of invention,
product development, and market
exploitation.
•A business structure that is loosely knit, ad
hoc, and ever-changing to adjust to
entrepreneurial initiatives and re-
directions that characterize working in
unexplored territory.
•Management systems that are results-
driven, that measure and reward new
product success, and that don't punish the
experimentation needed to get there.
•A culture that encourages individual
3M
imagination, accomplishment, out-of-the-
box thinking, and a mind-set driven by the
desire to create the future.
Discipline of Market Leaders: Three Fundamental Business Strategies
from "The Discipline of Market Leaders" by Treacy and Wiersema

7. CUSTOMER INTIMACY
(delivering what specific customers want)
An obsession with the core processes
of solution development (helping the
customer understand exactly what is
needed), results management
(ensuring the solution gets
implemented properly), and
relationship management.
•A business structure that delegates
decision-making to employees who
are close to the customer.
•Management systems that are geared
towards creating results for carefully
selected and nurtured clients. LL Bean
•A culture that embraces specific
rather than general solutions and
thrives on deep and lasting client
relationships.
Discipline of Market Leaders: Three Fundamental Business Strategies
from "The Discipline of Market Leaders" by Treacy and Wiersema

8. Branding & Positioning
IBM?
Southwest Airlines?
NetFlix?
Operational Excellence
Google?
Product Leadership
Any others?
Customer Intimacy
Discipline of Market Leaders: Three Fundamental Business Strategies
from "The Discipline of Market Leaders" by Treacy and Wiersema

11. Segment
Target Differentiation Benefit Brand
Solutions
Research Relevancy Result

12. Market Segmentation / Targeting
for the job market
 Who is your target audience?
 What industry? What are the SIC codes?
 Are there new industries that might benefit from skills
and talents you’ve cultivated in an old industry?
 How are the organized?
 Where are they headed?
 What are they reading?
 Where do they congregate?
 What are the titles of the decision makers.
 Never take no from someone not authorized to say
yes.

13. KnowYour Audience - Personality
 Customers are not all the same in their looks,
buying decisions, needs, objectives or
problems. So why would you use the same
technique for each?
 If you were a muscian, would you play the
same song for a group of 50 year old
benefactors as you would for a group of 20
year olds?

14. Targeting – KnowYour Audience
• Bull • Owl
• Get to the Point • Analytical, Detail
• Seeks Control • Seeks Logic
• Big Picture • Metrics
B O
L T
• Lamb • Tiger
• Non • Fun Loving
confrontational • Implusive
• Indecisive, • Big Ideas
Nervous

15. Relevancy – Job Market?
 What are their corporate philosophies?
 What matters to them?
 What clutter can I eliminate?
 What are they searching for?
 What are the missing that I provide?
 How can I be relevant?

16. Solutions
for the job market
 You are not a job candidate, you are a
SOLUTION to a problem.
 Find the pain.
 Know your client.
 Why are they hiring.
 What challenges have they faced in the past?
 What are they trying to solve?
 Where do they want to be in 10 years?

17. Solutions
for the job market
 Write down 3 challenges (PAIN) facing your
industry.
 Employee retention?
 Shrinking margins?
 Outsourcing?
 Regulatory?
 Outmoded Technology?
 Shrinkage?
 Aging workforce?
 Rising costs of operations?
 Out dated equipment?

18. Information Overload = Find Relevancy
To read every book published in
1988, it would take constant reading
24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 30
year to get through them all.
People are inundated with
advertising messages. They only
way for your message to stand out is
to make it resonate. To do this, you
must connect with the audience and
a very meaningful and powerful way.

19. 1999

20. 2005

21. 2009

22. Differentiation –Unique Selling
Proposition (USP)
for the job market
 What makes you unique?
 Write down 3 things that make you unique from
all other job candidates.
 If most other candidates can say the same thing,
its not unique.

23. Features versus Benefits
PAIN: Poorly cut lawn, cost of blade sharpening, time to cut lawn
• Our lawn mowers have blades that never
SOTHAT dull.
• So that you can cut your lawn in less time
SOTHAT and never spend time or money sharpening.
• So that you can have great looking lawn and
SOTHAT you spend more time with your family.

24. Features versus Benefits
PAIN: Retention Issues
• My unique methods allowed me to training
SOTHAT talent quicker and retain employees longer
• So that our company was able to save 22% of
SOTHAT hiring expenses in 2010.
• So that we could allocate those savings to
SOTHAT productivity tools that increased profits by 9%.

25. Differentiation
for the job market
 How do you benefit the company?
 Adding to the 3 things that make you unique, to
each add a SO THAT statement to drive to the
benefit and ideally solves the problems of your
industry or target company.

26. Summary
for the job market
 Know Your Audience
 Target industries and positions who have
PAIN, only you can solve.
 Be Relevant,
 Customize every resume to fit the job. Make your
round peg square, every time.
 Differentiate, what is your Unique Selling
Proposition (USP)
 Think benefits, not features. Use the SO THAT
technique.

27. Summary –The Interview
for the job market
Do your homework.
Ask good questions.
Do a lot of listening.
We speak at 600 words per minute and listen at 1200
words a minute. God gave is 2 ears and 1 mouth, act
accordingly.
Asking good questions helps you determine what’s
valuable to them (what’s their pain).
Tell them what they need to hear, not everything
you know.