978-1259573200 Chapter 17 Lecture Note

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CHAPTER 17

MANAGING YOUR CAREER

1. Understanding Your Needs

2. Understanding What You Have to Offer

3. When to Ask These Questions

B. Understanding the Company

1. What the Company Has to Offer

2. What the Company Needs

1. Applicant Information Sources

B. Selling Your Capabilities

1. Preparing the Resume

2. Gaining the Interview

3. Writing the Cover Letter

4. The Interview

a. Preparing for the Interview

b. During the Interview

i. The Approach

ii. Needs Identification

iii. Presentation

iv. Gaining Commitment

5. Special Types of Interviews

6. Follow-up

7. Interviewing Never Ends

IV. Managing Your Career Goals

A. Making the Transition From College to Career

B. Dual Career Path

C. Continue to Develop Your KSAS

1. Sources of improvement

2. Learn Your Current Job

3. Learn the Job You Want Next

D. Managing Stress

1. Situational Stress

2. Felt Stress

V. Selling Yourself

Teaching Suggestions

1. Students need to shop for jobs (although the interview isn’t the best time for that), which

means looking at a lot of different opportunities, trying them on, and seeing if they fit. One

method we have found to be useful in introducing students to various types of sales

positions is to invite several salespeople to speak about their typical day. We try to have

one from consumer package goods, one who sells directly to consumers, an industrial or

medical equipment rep, and a pharmaceutical rep. At a previous institution, we did this in

the evening and put the students in charge of getting the speakers. At another, we use the

“Activity Hour,” an hour in which no classes are scheduled so that events like this can be

held. With students in charge (and of course we help out), it puts them in direct contact

with potential employers which is good. Also by having it at night, we get Principles of

Marketing students to attend which recruits students to the sales class. Note, we treat this

differently from a career fair. Ask the speakers to, in 10 minutes:

a) describe a typical day

b) what they like about their job

c) what they dislike about it

d) how they got the job

e) what it takes to be successful in that job.

We’ve been under a lot of pressure from companies to also hold a career fair. So in the

spring, we substitute the above experience with a career fair. However, we tell the

recruiting companies that a lot of the recruiting they will do is to the sales class (in our

case, to the sales major) and to the profession. There will be many underclassmen with the

questions about a-e (above) and we tell the recruiters that spending time answering those

questions will pay off later with candidates who are choosing the job because it fits, not

because it is available.

2. Students in search of a career are a paradox. Either they put too much pressure on

themselves to find the perfect job the first time out or they are so laid back that they don’t

begin looking for a career until it is too late. And some put so much pressure on themselves

5. If a student really wants that job, he or she will have to be exceptional. The competition

for jobs isn’t just the other 13 signed up for that day, but students and others from all

quits, and moves on. Use Exhibit 17-1 to illustrate this point, as it describes a good match

between the individual and the organization.

3. The Sales Professional’s Survival Guide (by Gene Garofalo and Gary Drummond,

Prentice Hall 1987) is grossly out of date but still provides a great list of advantages and

disadvantages of working for large or for small companies. You may want to ask the

students to come up with a list first, then compare it to the one from that book.

4. Ask students how the interview differs from a sales call. Questions 1 and 4 from the end of

the chapter are good starters for this discussion. What is the probability that using some

5. A sales manager once told us to keep an I Love You file, a file for thank you notes for a job

well done, memos of appreciation, etc. These letters and notes can be used as proof

6. Question 1 is a good starter for integrating material concerning personality styles with

interviewing. Assign this question ahead of time so that their responses will be thought out.

7. Ask students who have gone through job interviews to list some of the unusual questions

they have gotten and questions that they have gotten repeatedly. Compare this list with the

one in Exhibit 17-6. Then put up (Exhibit 17-7), which illustrates legal and illegal

questions. Ask your students how they would respond to these questions.

8. Learning corporate culture is important to early success in a career. You may want to read

the Thinking it Through from the chapter that asks how students learned the school’s

9. One speaker at a conference said that stress was an excuse – when someone says he or she

is stressed, they are using it as an excuse to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do. For

example, stress is used as an excuse to lose one’s temper, to take a day off, to ignore

activities that need to be done, and similar tactics. That doesn’t mean that people don’t

cause of stress? Ask students how they handle the stress of final exams. Then ask which

strategies reduce the feelings of stress and which strategies reduce the cause of stress. Then

ask what causes stress in a sales job. Can all stress be eliminated? Of course, the answer is

no. So the question then becomes of identifying stressors, eliminating when possible, and

to develop healthy strategies for managing the stress that can’t be eliminated.

This is another good time to bring up role stress. Remember the discussion from the last

chapter about who a salesperson represents (see teaching suggestion #1)? You may want to

link that discussion into one on role stress and how to manage stress. This is also a good

time to re-emphasize the importance of internal partnering.

Suggested Answers to Ethics Problems

1. You are interviewing for your dream job. Suddenly the interviewer notices your wedding

ring and compliments you on it. But then he says, “You know, this job requires a lot of

travel. What is your spouse going to say to that?” You answer the question, and he

replies, “That’s great, now, when you don’t have kids. You don’t have kids, do you?

Because it is tough to be successful if you don’t get the travel done.” What do you do?

The interviewer has just asked a series of illegal questions. While his intentions are

probably honorable and he may be genuinely concerned about your ability to balance

family life and travel, he should not have asked the question. You can try deflecting it by

2. Some people recommend signing up for as many interviews as possible, reasoning that

the experience will be helpful when you find a company with a job you really want. (And

who knows? You might find a job you like.) Is this practice ethical? Why or why not?

Many people will say this is ethical. Others will say the practice is unethical, that students

Suggested Answers to Questions and Problems

1. What would you do differently if being interviewed by an amiable, a driver, an

analytical, or an expressive?

Students should plan for different personality styles by mentally role playing what they

would do if faced with different personality styles. An analytical will want support

What about a panel interview with one driver and one amiable? One analytical and one

expressive?

When faced with panel interviews consisting of interviewers with differing social styles,

interviewer’s reactions to the interview.

2. Reread the opening profile by Scott Thatcher. He didn’t start out in sales. What was it

about his jobs that led him to sales, and what is it about Scott that makes him

successful? What is it about sales in general that gives someone like Scott a second

chance for success? After all, he was not a stellar student.

The enjoyment and satisfaction he had working with clients led him to sales. But what

made him successful was that, with maturation, he invested heavily in his own personal

3. Look at Exhibit 17.2. As the text says, this study is now about 20 years old, and it

mentions another study. Rate yourself along those dimensions—which traits do you score

high in? How would you prove that you have those traits? Based on the things you’ve

learned about sales this semester, what are some behavioral patterns or behavioral

characteristics that are also important for success in sales?

While anyone could find a place somewhere in sales, each student’s answer should vary

depending on interests and skills. Some students feel that they are not assertive enough for

sales yet, some sales positions involving repeat sales may be very appropriate for them.

Others feel that that they are not responsive enough. Sales situations with high rates of

rejection may suit them.

4. Looking at question 3 and reflecting on the opening profiles of all 17 chapters, which

person do you think has a sales job you might want to do, and would do well? Why?

Answers will vary by student, but the real question is why the student thinks s/he would

do well. Another thing to ask in class is why that job stuck out – why did they remember

it?

5. Some interviews are conducted over the phone or by video-conference. What do you

think is important and different about these types of interviews compared to face-to-face

interviews?

As with phone or video-conference sales calls, reading non-verbals becomes a challenge.

Phone calls require that you smile all the time (it comes through in your voice), practice

Do you think these differences carry over into selling by phone versus in person? Would

you consider an inside sales position? Why or why not?

Many students may think of inside sales as only those annoying telemarketers that call

6. Reread Building Partnerships 17.1. If a potential employer asked you today to describe

your brand, what would it be? How do you make yourself memorable? What changes do

you need to make to your social media presence to prepare for transitioning to a

professional career and to build your personal brand?

This question gets at the topic of reputation and how a personal brand reflects your

reputation. Answers as to what makes someone memorable will vary greatly.

7. Answer the questions in Exhibit 17.6 as you would in a sales job interview.

The answers will depend on the student.

8. Your summer internship in a sales job was a bad experience. Your biggest complaint was

that the sales manager seemed incompetent. In spite of this negative experience, you like

sales, so you are interviewing for a sales position. What would you say if asked why you

do not seek full-time employment with the summer internship firm?

You could be totally honest, saying that you were asked to hardsell and that is not right for

you. This answer would be appreciated by someone looking for a non-manipulative

9. One recruiter called a professor to check on a student that the professor referred. The

recruiter said, “You gave this student my name last Wednesday and it is now Tuesday.

Does this delay signal a lack of interest?” How would you answer that if the recruiter

was asking you the question and you were the student? Why would a recruiter comment

on the time it took to call?

This, like many of the situations we ask about, actually happened. That recruiter chose not

to interview the student, because the business required that salespeople follow up on leads

quickly. The recruiter interpreted the student’s slow response as an indication of work ethic

10. You are in an interview and you think this is your dream job. How would you secure

commitment? What would say different in the first interview if it is a screening interview

on campus versus the fourth interview at company headquarters?

Good ways to secure commitment are to state one’s sincere interest in the position and ask

“Do you have any reservations about my candidacy?” If the answer is yes, then the

objections can be handled. If no, then ask what the next step is and when that will take

Is securing commitment more or less important for sales positions than other types of

positions?

11. Most students who take this class are juniors or seniors. What things about school

stresses you out now? How do you deal with stress – both in healthy and maybe

unhealthy ways? What would you say to a high school senior about to enter college to

help manage stress in college?

Obviously, students’ answers will vary greatly. Stressors they are likely to have will be

listed in terms of direct causes. The challenge in class or when grading is to consider what

form of stressors they face. For example, is it situational stress or role stress?