Is there something on your CV scaring potential employers away?  I asked my clients what puts them off when they’re hiring – their top 3 reasons are below.

You sound like a zombie

Is your CV full of corporate clichés such as “good team player with the ability to work well alone” or “tenacious new business hunter”?  These statements could well be true but sound incredibly generic and come up time and time again, making your CV blend in with the rest of the drone.  Try to find ways to describe your skills and achievements using your own voice as opposed to the standard spiel.

It’s covered in cobwebs

Lots of people, on deciding they’d like to apply for a new job, simply get out their old CV from god-knows-how many years ago and add an extra bit at the top to describe their current role.  That’s it.  What you should be doing is looking at your CV as a whole and re-shaping it to truly reflect the person you are now.  A lot will have changed since you last wrote your CV and it can end up reading like a CV written by two different people.  Dust the cobwebs off the document as a whole, because employers will certainly be looking at it as a whole.

It’s all Tricks and no Treats

Everyone wants to be able to ‘talk up’ their achievements on their CV in order to impress and this is absolutely fine.  However, when you do so you need to make sure you have a decent story to substantiate it or you risk looking daft.  Saying that you were “Central to the delivery of £45m revenue in pumpkin sales in October for a large supermarket chain” is fine, and is something your potential employer is likely to ask you about.  If they then find out that this was when you had a holiday job shelf-stacking in 2002 they’re probably going to be less than impressed and start to question all the genuinely great stuff on your CV too!

When most of us hear the term ‘ghosted’ we think of online dating gone bad. But ghosting is creeping into the professional world too.

Without a doubt, recruitment is where you can find yourself professionally ghosted the most. It’s not at all uncommon for candidates to accept an offer on the phone then never respond to a single email or phone call.

However, companies can be just as bad – especially when it comes to hiring consultants and contractors. One minute they’re agreeing fees and timescales and then – poof! – you never hear from them again.

So how do you deal with ghosts?

1. Don’t take it personally

Getting ghosted will feel weird and will likely a hurt a little too. But don’t take it personally. For whatever reason, ghosting seems to be becoming the norm. My own opinion is that if that person is too weak to tell you why they don’t want to work with you, you’re better off out of there. Cut your losses!

2. Think long term and stay professional

It might be tempting to start sending the odd snarky email or message when you haven’t heard back for the 78th time, having cleared your schedule for that person or company. But remember you’re (probably) in your career for the long haul so it’s important to keep calm and stay professional.

3. Don’t pick up a bad habit

Just because it seems like everyone else is doing it, don’t start doing it yourself! Remember how much you’ve hated the experience and make a mental note to be clear with others. It will save so much time and energy in the long run.

We justify our emotional decisions to buy with logical reasons.  So why do so many sales people try to sell complex, high-value solutions to C-suite executives almost exclusively on logic and rational arguments?

Telling your customer that you think your product is great is nowhere near enough.  Extolling the virtues, facts, figures, features and functionality of your solution is simply too much to comprehend, too overwhelming.

To win you need to position your solution as customer-centric.  It has to feel ‘real’ for your customer; they need to know that you understand what’s important to them – you must tap into the unconscious need.

That’s how you beat your competition.

Your greatest marketing and sales tool is customer advocacy. Having others talk about your product is important. And getting them selling the virtues of how your solution will benefit like-minded customers with the same need as themselves is everything!

This approach will drive the strongest growth. If you get it right, you’ll also create a strong bond between you and your customer base going forward. I have never found a greater marketing and sales machine than ‘bought into’ customers: where you have a great relationship and they love the brand and solutions you deliver.

The first and the greatest voice of those customers you want on board are the customers that everyone is looking towards to guide the market. These are your innovators.

If you are entering into an existing market with a new product, gather those innovators together that you know already.

If it is a new market, you are going to have to do some work on segmentation. Start building personas as to what an innovator looks like in this new market, and then start to build relationships. You could offer them an incentive to take a look at your new product before anyone else, get them on the pilot providing feedback, or offer them a years free subscription.

Ultimately if you can get the innovators to understand and start talking about the value of the product you are launching into a market, you will move from the innovator to early adopter phase of the maturity model very quickly. Remember, innovators are generally happy to take a risk on a new solution if they feel it gives them a competitive advantage.