Page 152 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

CHAPTER 12

BID-FOR-ACTION

QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS THAT CLINCH THE OFFER

Jobs interviews are sales calls. The product you are selling is yourself.
Marketing 101 says that every marketing message needs a bid for ac-
tion: a clearly worded request for the order. Pick up the phone. Send in
the response card. Click on the link. Give me an offer.
So it is with each job interview. Each time you meet with a hiring
manager, you have an irreplaceable opportunity to ask for the offer.
“When I’m interviewing a candidate for a sales position, I want them
to close me,” says Bob Conlin, VP of Incentive Systems in Bedford,
Massachusetts. “If they give me a soft close, or, worse, no close at all,
I get concerned.” Here’s an example of what Conlin considers to be a
hard close:

Bob, every year I’m going to be your number-one guy. Every year I’m
going to beat quota. I’m your candidate.When can I start?
“I know I’m being closed here,” he says. “The candidate is speaking my
language. His confidence is infectious.”
But Conlin also wants to see evidence that the candidate is mindful of
the organization’s goals, not just the salesperson’s goals. The following
question is even more thoughtful because it demonstrates that the can-
didate is already thinking as a member of a team:

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