If you’ve been keeping up with our articles you will know that the job hunt is very similar to sales in general. Part of being successful in both fields is knowing where to look for the highest quality leads as possible. Luckily, because of social media, our reach to employers and clients is farther than ever.

There are no more excuses for serious people looking for jobs because of how easy it is to reach out. In this section, we will go over how to identify and reach out to people who are considered valuable connections.

Working your network

The phrase “working your network” can come off as a bit cynical. But think of it like this: working your network means providing value to as many people as possible. Don’t just send someone a message on LinkedIn introducing yourself and asking for a handout.

The first part of this process is identifying the people you want to connect with. This is easy if you already have an idea of what companies you want to work for. Look for the hiring managers, managers in general, and ever regular employees.

Once you identify people you want to reach out to, figure out ways you can provide them value rather than asking for a handout. Maybe you can send over some leads you have, maybe you can offer some free training in a skill you have an expertise in, at the bare minimum you can offer a free lunch or dinner in order to pick their brain.

After you make real connections, show the individuals that you can consistently provide value. If you establish this kind of relationship, eventually they will be begging you to come work for their company. Working your network has now changed from being a sleazy mass spam project and has become a method of making the people in your networks life better.

Internal Recruiters

To be more specific about targeting, the best people to target are the internal recruiters. These people have goals to hit for filling headcount so when you reach out to them you are already providing value.

Go after the hiring manager you would be working for – (for example mid-market sales director, smb sales manager) – these people have sales goals to hit and are missing out on lost revenue by not filling roles.

Either way, reach out with a personalized message that addresses the pain point of each particular position. Again, think of them as clients. They have pain points just like any potential client does. Once you can figure that you, the whole world will open up to you and you can hand pick the people you want to work for.

Conclusion

Taking your sales career seriously starts before you even have a job. Develop your skills in identifying targets, addressing pain points, and providing value. We are here to help coach you through this process if this task still seems daunting. But if you are reading this, you are already ahead of the game.