Job Search and Resume-CV Advantage by Ron Bates

Internet Presence and the People You Don't Know - by Ron Bates

2007-02-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

Your positive Internet presence isn't just about being found in search engine results, or the number of contacts you have on various networking platforms. To a large extent it's about your approach, attitude, and philosophy about networking.

One synonym for the word "presence" is charisma. Ultimately, someone's Internet presence is a transformation of a few basic ingredients: one's openness to new contacts (both with respect to approaching others you don't know, as well as others approaching you who don't know you); a willingness to accept some risk when it comes to helping or connecting with someone; combined with how well you project all of this in a visible way.

Unfortunately, many people - start - networking only when they have a need, and then they - stop - networking when their need has been met. This is only exacerbated by how some online networking platforms are actually set up to work. Unfortunately some networking platforms should be renamed "needworking" platforms. Most successful networkers would probably agree that networking is an ongoing process, and not one that is bound in time by an individual need.

I was introduced to a wonderful quote by a fellow networker the other day that caused me dig a little further to find the complete quote. What I found, in many ways, epitomizes the spirit of networking - and in the 21st Century - especially online networking.

From a Blog post by: John McNally Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University

"Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a person you are unacquainted with."

Paris, April 2, 1777

Sir,-- The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown, to recommend him; and sometimes they recommend one another! As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him, however, to those civilities which every stranger, of whom one knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the favour that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve. I have the honour to be, etc.

Benjamin Franklin

Now that guy had presence.

So what is this supposed to imply in the context of your Internet presence and/or networking charisma? Be open to people who risk reaching out to you. Realize that everyone may not have the same experience and/or optimum polished approach that you do. As Benjamin Franklin's quote above implies - be willing to take a chance on a new point of contact and give people the benefit of the doubt. For all you know, the next person that risks reaching out to you could translate into the beginning of the most fruitful relationship you'll ever develop, but if you aren't willing to take a chance on a new point of contact and give the individual the benefit of the doubt - you'll never know let alone benefit.

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - How to Slash Google Adword Cost By 80% In 3 Months

2006-11-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

Internet Presence - How to Slash Google Adword Cost By 80% In 3 Months

Establishing and/or increasing your visible Internet presence is easier than most SEO experts would want you to believe. Increasing hit traffic to your site and ranking higher in Google also does not have to be a costly endeavor. You also don't need to be a technical wiz-kid to realize the results you're looking to achieve.

I recently read a blog post by Nazir Daud where he discussed how he slashed his Google Adwords cost by 80% in 3 months by taking advantage of some very simply principles.

David implemented the same simply principles that I've discussed in previous Internet presence articles.

He published lots of keyword rich content, containing links back to his homepage, on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content. He also leveraged the ability to post in the site's "marketplace".

As a result, Google indexes all of the content, and links back to his homepage, and drives the ranking of his homepage consistently higher by creating keyword associations with those links.

Note, this is not about simply creating and publishing content anywhere on the Internet.

The key is publishing content on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content. Why? Because Google loves these sites. Content on sites like this consistently rank higher than other content in Google.

More importantly, links to other sites are also indexed by Google, and as a result of being found on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content, the content behind those links are also driven higher in ranking.

After only 3 months of effort in a highly competitive space, Nazir goes on to explain that 80% of his traffic is free and his home page has a Google ranking of 4.

You can read in detail about how to implement these simple principles in my Internet Presence: Case Study - Recipe for Success. This case study discusses how I drove the home page of Search Advantage to the first page of Google in 30 days against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence

The great thing about all of this is you don't have to be a technologist or an SEO expert to implement any of it. Anyone can build a visible Internet presence. These principles are extremely powerful way to drive any content higher in search engine ranking against associated keyword phrases. This applies not only to keyword phrases associated with your business offerings, but it also applies to the very special keyword phrase that is your name.

What's even better is that the cost associated with this is simply the price of membership on a highly trafficed professional networking site that has a lot of constantly changing blog content. Compared to the costs associated with Google Adwords, this is about as close to free as you can get.

Whether you are simply trying to create more visible to for your business, or you are trying to create more visibility for yourself as a business professional, there isn't a business or business professional on the planet that wouldn't benefit from a more visible Internet presence.

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

An Internet presence can help you land a job.

2006-10-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

An Internet presence can help you land a job. By having visible content in your control ranking on the first page of Google when someone does a search on your name, you can absolutely put yourself ahead of anyone else you might be competing with for a job opportunity.

A June 12, 2006 ExecuNet Press Release (Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt) stated:

"According to a recent survey of 100 executive recruiters conducted by ExecuNet, the leading executive job search and recruiting network, 77% use search engines to learn more about candidates. Of those who use sites such as Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO) to check the background of job seekers, 35% have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online - up significantly from 26% just one year ago."

And that's just recruiters. Do you think an executive hiring authority does this during a recruiting process with respect to the candidates they are looking at investing time into interviewing?

The problem that many executives have with their Internet presence is all that surfaces are press release quotes (if they have anything surfacing at all). Press release quotes really don't do anything to showcase your unique executive value proposition or subject matter expertise.

This is easy to fix if you have access to the right tools and are willing to spend a little time writing.

By publishing blogs and articles on high traffic frequently indexed sites like Ecademy, EzineArticles, et al. you can create and drive content in your control showcasing your unique executive value proposition and subject matter expertise. This content will often rise above the press release quotes in Google ranking when someone searches on your name. You can also drive and associate the same content with relevant keyword phrases pertaining to the industry and/or market niches you live in.

To learn more how to take advantage of this powerful capability, dive into "Internet Presence - Case Study: Recipe for Success" and for even more, simply do a Google search on:

Personal Internet Presence Articles

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - First Page of Google in Under 30 Days

2006-09-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

Internet Presence - Case Study: Recipe for Success - First Page of Google in Under 30 Days

Learn how - anyone - can leverage Ecademy and this Case Study to build a visible Internet presence.

I'm publishing this post because I'm constantly amazed at the number of Ecademy members that are unaware of this capability. I recognize there may be members who also don't care about this aspect of Ecademy membership. That's fine. This post is for Ecademy members who care about how they can leverage their membership in an incremental attempt to impact either themselves or their businesses professionally.

In July, I spoke at the San Francisco Chapter meeting of the Marketing Executives Networking Group about leveraging Ecademy to build a visible Internet presence.

Many of the Silicon Valley Marketing Executives in attendance were amazed to learn how powerful Ecademy is to not only build a visible - personal - Internet presence, but they were also amazed to learn how you can leverage the exact same principles to drive a visible - corporate - Internet presence.

I used Ecademy member Fraser Hay as an example of how he's driven his website for his Pocket Mentor program to the first page of Google against the keyword phrase: Personal Success Program.

I decided I needed to build my own Case Study after this presentation. In short, here is what I did:

I drove a website against a keyword phrase to the 1st page of Google in less than 30 days leveraging the power of Ecademy.

And if I can do this (i.e., someone who doesn't know anything about Search Engine Optimization), anyone can do this.

What's the recipe?

Let me first start with the chronology.

I built the website: www.search-advantage.com

I launched www.search-advantage.com July 31, 2006, and leverage Ecademy to promote www.search-advantage.com against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence (approximately 170 million hits)

My Ecademy content started to index quickly (Aug. 4, 2006 screenshot)

www.search-advantage.com started to index quickly hitting the 2nd page of Google (Aug. 8, 2006 screenshot)

www.search-advantage.com makes 1st page of Google 10th hit (Aug. 16, 2006 screenshot)

www.search-advantage.com 1st page of Google 5th hit (Sep. 20, 2006 screenshot)

Less than 60 days after putting effort into raising the ranking of www.search-advantage.com (against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence) Search Advantage consistently ranks in the middle of the first page of hits in Google out of approximately 170 million hits.

You can find the details of how I leveraged Ecademy to drive www.search-advantage.com to the first page of Google here: Case Study: Recipe for Success.

You can apply these - exact - same principles, substituting your name for the keyword phrase, to drive - any content associated with your name - higher in Google as well (Example).

This capability is priceless, and given the cost of a PowerNetworker membership on Ecademy is only about $180 bucks, that's about as close to "free" as you can get.

My hope is that more Ecademy members will be able to take advantage of and benefit from this capability through this example.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
https://www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - When And How To Start Building Yours - by Ron Bates.

2006-09-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

"Internet Presence - When And How To Start Building Yours" - by Ron Bates.

I just put up an article as a result of a number of questions I get from young professionals wondering when and how they should start investing time in building a visible Internet presence in support of their career objectives.

My advice: Start Now!

Today's job environment is far different from when I was starting my career as an engineer +20 years ago. When I was about 3 years into my career, an IBM PC had a whopping 10 MB hard drive, and you could even create a resume on one and print it out. Today, well, let's just say you can do a lot more on a PC.

As an executive recruiter, I'd also say today's job market is even more challenging for a young professional than when I got my start some +20 years ago. Technology is dramatically contributing to this rate of change across all professions.

The Internet is impacting all facets of information research for those who are looking for answers to questions that start with: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Most business professionals get paid to answer questions and solve problems, and the Internet is a likely place people go for answers, or at least to get a running start.

That pretty much translates into being associated with the answers/solutions to the questions/problems as being a good thing from a career visibility/opportunity perspective.

Business professionals who are not leveraging the Internet to create this kind of association/visibility for themselves are doing themselves no favors from a career/opportunity perspective.

Even if it's a late start compared to where you are in your career, now is the time to start.

There's good news: no matter where you are in your career - it's pretty straightforward to do this leveraging Ecademy.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Should you hide your age in a resume?

2006-09-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Should you hide your age in a resume?

In a Netshare "Ask the Coach" webinar this week, I was asked if you should show your entire career in a resume. I get variations of this question all the time from candidates self-conscious/concerned about exposing they are later in their career than other peer level candidates they might be competing with for a job opportunity.

Regardless of age discrimination being against the law in the US, it is human nature some people are concerned about being labeled with euphemisms such as "Over Qualified" or hearing "We want to hire someone - uh - that can grow into the role."

My advice to candidates with more overall career experience than other peer level candidates they might be competing with that are earlier in their careers is - do not - truncate your career experience in your resume in an attempt to disguise your age. It will become obvious you did when you interview.

The most common way I see candidates truncating their career experience in their resumes is to begin their work chronology with their first position where they held an executive title (e.g., Vice President). Obviously, most people don't step into the professional workforce as an Executive.

Other candidates throw out the objection: "Nobody is going to hire me because of what I did in my early career."

That is flat out - not - true.

I coached one individual who received a CEO job offer after I suggested he'd be better off including his early career in his resume given it all was additive to his current executive value proposition. That was true in his situation:

During college and a year after graduating, this candidate manage an evening shift responsible for taking client calls for crashed mainframe computers, and dispatching the appropriate parts from warehouses and labor located around the world to get their client's mainframe up and running ASAP. The board and founders of the company he received his CEO job offer from were extremely interested in this specific experience. Why? Because the company developed software to equipment vendors for supporting service calls and warehouse part and labor dispatch. The candidate's early career work experience was absolutely additive to the candidate's value proposition.

It's simply human nature a hiring authority or recruiter would ask themselves:

"Why isn't the rest of this person's career on their resume?"
"Is it not relevant, how much of their career is not relevant?"
"Why do they think it isn't relevant?"
"I wonder how long ago they stepped into a professional role?"

Or worse: "What is this candidate trying to hide?"

It is much better to be upfront with your career. Anyone that is going to have a problem with "how much experience you have" is going to nuke you in the interview process, and you will have only wasted your time and theirs.

Be proud of the career you've put together, your value career value proposition is typically much greater than a peer level candidate that is "earlier in their career."

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

How to Interview Sales Executives - by Ron Bates

2006-09-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

How to Interview Sales Executives - by Ron Bates

My retained executive search practice revolves 80% around recruiting what I call "Revenue Executives" (i.e., Executives responsible for leading the Sales, Marketing, or Business Development function within their company). My search practice also mirrors my career in that 80% of my career has been in Sales and Sales Executive Management roles at companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Mentor Graphics, Computer Vision and Spherion.

All said, not all executive hiring authorities have a high degree of comfort and/or knowledge about strategic sales process and strategy, and associated sales acumen. As a result, they are less comfortable in their knowledge of how to evaluate candidates for revenue production oriented roles.

I've been asked to provide a number of client executive hiring authorities over the years with examples of the kinds of questions/areas they should focus on in an interview when attempting to evaluate a candidate's revenue production "battlefield acumen."

In an attempt to help executive hiring authorities blow away some of the "smoke and mirrors" sales candidates can throw at them, I recently published an article called:

"How To Interview Sales Candidates - Executive Leaders, Managers, and Individual Contribributors"

On the flip side, candidates that can actually provide substantive direct answers to the interview questions/areas of focus suggested in the above article will leave a much stronger impression with - any - executive hiring authority as a result.

Happy Networking

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
https://www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

How to Interview Well - Both Hiring Authorities and Candidates. - by Ron Bates

2006-09-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

How to Interview Well - Both Hiring Authorities and Candidates. - by Ron Bates

Some hiring authorities have had the good fortune of being trained in various interviewing skills. I know I have, both as an executive hiring authority and as an executive recruiter.

One of the most common interviewing techniques, behavioral interviewing, is designed around the premise of past behaviors being some sort of an indicator of future performance. The problem with behavioral interviewing is it focuses on how someone - behaved - in a given historical situation; it doesn't get into how someone drove an outcome.

Most all professional positions within a corporate hierarchy have a set of business objectives the position is designed to impact or achieve. That set of business objectives logically imply a certain set of capabilities and attributes the individual occupying the position had better possess if they are to have any chance at successfully executing against the business objectives the position is designed to impact or achieve.

What someone has accomplished, or been responsible for, only communicates an individual may or may not possess the requisite scope and scale of experience. It is simply a sanity check to make sure a prospective candidate is not stepping into a role over their head from a scope and scale of responsibility perspective.

Focusing on - how - someone accomplished the business results they have produced tells a hiring authority if the candidate might possess the capabilities and attributes necessary to successfully execute against the business objectives a given position is designed to impact or achieve.

Ultimately, you are hiring - how - someone produces results and - not - what results they have produced.

Example:

Hiring Authority: What - did you produce against your annual quota objective of $100M in revenue?

Candidate: I was able to drive 35% growth and produced $135M in revenue.

Hiring Authority: That is great. That is similar to the growth we believe we can drive (i.e., check in the box). Now tell me, how did you do that?

Candidate: I leveraged my knowledge of strategic sales process and ability to ensure a strategic sales process is implemented an individual contributor level. Specifically, I implemented a standardized strategic sales process, associated process metrics, and deal triage/strategic sales planning process ensuring we were deploying limited resources on opportunities we had the best chance of winning, and cutting bait earlier on those we realized we lacked significant competitive advantage. As a result, we spent more time not losing deals we knew we could win, and less time chasing deals we shouldn't have been chasing to begin with. The outcome also reinforced the whole process with the individual contributors who became much better at assessing our critical qualifying criteria much earlier in the sales process as a result.

Another Candidate could simply have said: By firing the sales people that didn't deliver against their forecasted numbers.

For hiring authorities, getting to - how - someone produced a result can be a challenge. Why? Because we live in a world that rewards results - not capabilities and attributes. As a result, most candidates most likely not thought about, and are not used to answering questions about, what capabilities and attributes they leveraged to produce a given business result. Unfortunately, this translates into a typical response to any question asking a candidate how they accomplished an outcome usually being prefaced with "Um, well let's see, I uh…" with a not well thought out response following.

Candidates desiring to make a better interview impression should spend more time assessing how they actually drove the outcomes they are claiming to have driven. This will not only give a candidate more confidence going into an interview, it will also set them up to interview infinitely better. This level of awareness will also enable a candidate to better assess if an opportunity is going to maximize the leverage of their associated unique capabilities and attributes.

Hiring authorities desiring to make better hires should spend more interview time understanding how someone produced all the great results they claim to have produced. This will also blow away the smoke from candidates that really played no role in the outcomes they are claiming to have driven.

The ability to identify if a candidate possesses the capabilities and attributes necessary to successfully execute against the business objectives a given position is designed to impact will ultimately lead to better hiring decisions.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com
www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - Just Google me. - by Ron Bates

2006-09-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

Internet Presence - Just Google me. - by Ron Bates

The power of a personal Internet presence was the subject of a conversation I had with a colleague the other day. He was trying to understand what the value of a personal Internet presence was to a non-executive.

I asked him if he saw value in other industry colleagues, peers, co-workers, subordinates, superiors, existing or prospective customers, media or trade-show personal, fellow industry association members, et al. being able to learn more about who he is as a person, a professional and/or his subject matter expertise and abilities. Notice I didn't even mention - recruiters.

I then suggested if he believed there to be tangible value in the above, then having the ability to simply say, "If you'd like to know a little more about me, just Google me" is an extremely powerful statement. I also told him he'd really know how powerful this is when after saying this to someone they respond with, "I already Googled you; that's why I contacted you."

In the business world, we are all pressed for time, and most of us have far too many people asking for our time. Not only does having visible information on-line anyone can find by doing a simple "Google me" search help you when deciding whether or not to consent to a meeting with someone else, it can also help those who want to meet with you have a more aligned and productive conversation with you. This says nothing about the increased exposure it gives you in the business world to opportunities to share your subject matter expertise through speaking engagements, publications, forums, etc. Notice I didn't even mention - career opportunities.

The key concept many people fail to understand is the following:

It is one thing to have content floating around the Internet pertaining to you. It is an entirely different thing to have content visible on the first page of hits when someone does Google you.

So how do you go about proactively not only building a personal Internet presence, but also building a visible Internet presence by driving content in your control to the first page of Google? Start writing. It's that simple.

What do you write about? Write about the problems you solve everyday. Write about the systemic problems and/or issues you address everyday and how you address them based on your unique perspective and subject matter expertise. You don't have to give away the farm. Simply speak about situations and solutions in more general terms.

This also begs the question: Where do I publish what I write? There are all kinds of places to publish content, but the media you'll most likely want to publish in are blogs and articles. This content will typically become more visible (i.e., rank higher) in search engines faster than general personal or corporate website content you might publish. That said, all blogs and article sites are not created equal. There are many, many, places to publish content, but you want to publish content in places which will result in high ranking content that will ultimately show up on the first page of Google.

So how do you identify the "right" places to publish your content? Look for sites that have a lot of traffic combined with also having a lot of changing or new content. Sites that have these two elements going for them will typically result in content that ranks higher faster in the search engines. Sites combining a lot of traffic with blogging or article content are typically the best. On-line networking sites such as Ecademy combine a lot of traffic with constantly changing new blogging content. Article sites such as EzineArticles combine a lot of traffic with constantly changing new article content. You can also create even more exposure for the content you create by leveraging sites like ArticleMarketer that broadcast your article content to even more article, blog, newsletter, etc. publishing sites.

Here is the key: the power of leveraging sites such as Ecademy, EzineArticles, et al. comes from using them to point to other web content you've created and/or already exists that you want to drive higher in ranking in the search engines. You benefit from "guilt by association" as a result of hyperlinking to other content. When search engines like Google scan your content on sites like Ecademy and EzineArticles and find hyperlinks to other content, they give preferential ranking to the hyperlinked content.

With a little effort, and by leveraging the power of sites like I've mentioned above, you can build a visible personal Internet presence in as little as a couple of months. You will then be able to benefit from the power of being able to say, "If you'd like to know a little more about me, just Google me."

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com
www.cv-advantage.com

www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, Articles, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - "I am getting …BUSINESS emails!" - by Ron Bates

2006-08-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

Building an Internet presence is something many people have invested a lot of time into - and are absolutely blowing a great opportunity to further their professional objectives. I'm constantly amazed at the number of individuals unfortunately unaware of how simple changes to their networking profiles can turn their networking profiles into powerful tools that actually impact their business objectives.

Granted not everyone joins networking platforms to further their professional objectives, and that is obviously fine. I've personally developed a number of great relationships that have nothing to do with business objectives through on-line networking platforms.

For those that do care about how on-line networking platforms can further their professional objectives, an Internet presence can be developed in a very short amount of time simply through the profile you create on a networking platform such as Ecademy, LinkedIn, et al. Unfortunately the way many people construct their networking profile, it does nothing for them from a business exposure perspective.

Heidi Heyns has been kind enough to let me use her as an example. Heidi and I are connected on LinkedIn and Ecademy. She is a wonderful caring vibrant personality who absolutely excels at her profession of - voice-over actor. When I first saw Heidi was on Ecademy, I Googled her name, and sure enough, this was what I found:

I recommended to Heidi if she cared about actually generating business leads as a result of belonging to Ecademy, as opposed simply enjoy the social aspects of Ecademy, she should make some simple changes to her profile. I explained that once Google grabbed the new more descriptive text from her Ecademy profile it would be more supportive of her business objectives.

She made the recommended changes such that her Ecademy profile hit in Google now looks like this:

Shortly after implementing these changes, Heidi sent me a note that said:

"OH wow! ...Ron! Have you seen my new revised profile??? I am getting completely different kinds of emails…BUSINESS emails!"

In Ecademy, you can actually drive what the descriptive text says in Google given Ecademy basically supplies the first 150 characters of what you type in the "Profile Text:" box when creating your profile. The search engines like Google use this as the descriptive text below the hit link.

Unfortunately, you can't do this on all networking platforms. Some networking platforms only provide the search engines with generic descriptive text you can't control. The search engines then use this generic text below the hit link such as LinkedIn et al.

By simply making a small adjustment to your networking profile content on sites such as Ecademy where you can drive the descriptive hit text, you create a useful hit in Google that actually has a chance of adding to your Internet presence in a way that is supportive of your business objectives.

I also discussed these concepts in more detail in a post last April called: Is your Networking Profile useless?

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com www.job-search-campaign.com https://www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence: Websites versus Blogs - by Ron Bates

2006-08-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

Internet Presence: Websites versus Blogs - by Ron Bates

If you are just starting out, and trying to create an Internet presence for yourself or your business, where do you start? Do you build a website, do you start a blog?

I came across an interesting discussion today in a blog titled Real Lawyers Have Blogs by Kevin O'Keefe. The title of the blog post was Website not best way to maintain Internet presence. Where according to O'Keefe, "The best way to maintain a positive and effective Internet presence is by entering into the Internet discussion to network with others in your target audience. Blogs and RSS are networking tools. A Website is as useless as my running shoes in networking so as to maintain a positive and effective Internet presence."

Even if the author's intent was to attempt to communicate that blogging is interactive where a website is not - I still disagree with his assertion. Why? Because someone can still send you an email based on what they read on your website!

I would respectfully suggest you can create content on any platform, but if it isn't found when someone does relevant key word searches - the effort it took to create the content was most likely wasted.

Blogs and websites are not mutually exclusive platforms for creating a visible Internet presence; indeed - they are complimentary. You simply need to know how to leverage these platforms to create a visible (key word) Internet presence.

You can post all of the blogs you want, and create all the website content you want, but if no one can find the content they are - both - a waste of time.

Search Engine Optimization by itself isn't enough either. It is important to understand the synergy between blogs and website content and how they can influence each others ranking in search engine returns.

For more on the concept of creating a visible Internet presence you can view some of my recent posts:

Websites versus Blogs
Internet Presence
Do you have a positive Internet presence?
Do you exist?
Is your Networking Profile useless?
This is some fun stuff!! - Building a Personal Internet Presence

If you are just starting out, and trying to create an Internet Presence for yourself or your business, there is no better place to start than with Ecademy. You can economically drive more content you create both on and, more importantly, off Ecademy to the first page of a search engine return than via any other mechanism.

If anyone has yet to see it, I can't encourage you enough to view the new Ecademy video overview presentation, and forward it to your colleagues who might benefit.

Just click the button below to view.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates Managing
Principal Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Internet Presence, Job Search Advice, Resume Writing, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Do you have a positive Internet presence? - by Ron Bates

2006-08-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

Do you have a positive Internet presence? - by Ron Bates

Internet Presence: If you have one at all, is it a positive Internet presence, or are you fighting "Digital Dirt"?

See also:

Internet Presence? - by Ron Bates

"Digital Dirt"??? What the heck is that? Read on.

Abridged: ExecuNet.com
---
More than one-third of employers have eliminated a candidate after digging up "digital dirt," according to ExecuNet, an executive job search and recruiting network. In a recent survey of 100 executive recruiters, 35% said they dropped a job candidate because of information uncovered online, up from 26% one year ago. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they use search engines to learn more about prospective employees.

Another study showed that 82% of executives expect companies and recruiters to enter their name into a search engine during the course of their next job search, yet only 33% have ever actually conducted an internet search on themselves. "Conducting searches for your own name is something that should be done on a regular basis," Dave Opton, ExecuNet CEO and founder, said in a prepared statement. "Until you're aware of everything that's connected to your name online, it's impossible to try to overcome any potential employer objections."

The survey also found that 16% of executives said they fear that information found online could eliminate them from consideration for a job opening. Thirteen percent said they have taken steps to add positive personal information online.
---
So what's someone to do if there is content that isn't supporting the impression, brand, image they want people to have of them? How do they drive the article, press release, blog or blog comment they mistakenly posted that is inconsistent with the image they want people developing of them off the radar?

Just as the abridged content above states - take steps to add positive content online. Personal Branding Consultant, Cindy Kraft also talks about this on her blog The CFO Coach, and also commented on this in the Experts Connection Webinar we both spoke at that I discussed in my Do You Exist? blog post.

By creating and driving new positive content above the "Digital Dirt" you are trying to sweep off the search engine radar and associating it with the same key word phrases that hit upon the original "Digital Dirt" in the first place you stand a better chance of pushing any "Digital Dirt" into the noise.

So how do you do this? It's actually pretty straight forward if you are a member of Ecademy. Drive your "Digital Dirt" into the noise by leveraging the same capability that enables you to create an Internet Presence. This is the same capability that causes your Ecademy Profile and blogs to rank on the first page of Google, and more importantly that gives you the ability to drive off-Ecademy content to the first page of Google through cross linking content. You can read more about this in the following blog posts:

Internet Presence

Do you exist?

Is your Networking Profile useless?

This is some fun stuff!! - Building a Personal Internet Presence

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Job Search Advice, Resume Advice, Internet Presence, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Internet Presence - by Ron Bates

2006-07-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

Internet Presence - by Ron Bates

Internet Presence: What is a Visible Internet Presence Worth to You Business and Career Wise?

Also see:

Do you have a positive Internet Presence? - by Ron Bates
Internet Presence? - by Ron Bates

I recently spoke to the San Francisco Chapter of the Marketing Executives Networking Group about how you can leverage the power of the Ecademy platform to Build a Personal Internet Presence. About 65 Marketing Executives had registered for the presentation I gave.

I started the presentation by describing to the Silicon Valley Marketing Executives how I had captured 7-8 of the first 10 hits on Google out of about 5 million hits on the key word phrase - ron bates - (and about the same presence on MSN and Yahoo) simply by leveraging the power of the Ecademy platform.

Many of them were blown away at how you can leverage the power of the Ecademy platform to not only build a personal Internet presence, but also how you can also build an Internet presence for your company and product/service offerings as well.

They were especially intrigued by how you can manipulate the wording in your Ecademy Profile to drive the descriptive text that follows the hit link in Google, MSN and Yahoo turning your Ecademy Profile hit into something that is actually useful (see: Is your Networking Profile Useless?)

They were also amazed the blog I wrote, titled: Do you exist?, after speaking about these same concepts on an Experts Connection Webinar, was the 3rd hit in Google out of 440 million hits on the key word phrase (i.e., do you exist).

I told the group that it's one thing to be able to create content on Ecademy that ranks high in search engine returns. What really got everyone excited was describing the ability to drive non-Ecademy content high in search engine returns by key word phrase linking and cross linking of content.

I used the example of Fraser Hay's Ecademy Profile and how he hyperlinks the keyword phrase Personal Success Program in the first part of his Ecademy Profile and the resulting connection to his non-Ecademy Pocket Mentor program webpage being - the first hit - out of about 200 million hits.

I also used the example of my 1-page bio that sits on my Retained Executive Search Firm's website simply as a hosted document (i.e., it is - not - a link you can navigate to and click on). I showed them how by leveraging the Ecademy platform I was able to drive a document, that is essentially "invisible" on the Internet, to what is typically found as the 2nd hit in Google and the 1st hit on MSN and Yahoo when searching on my name.

I saw a lot of heads nodding in agreement when I closed with the comment:

This is priceless capability, and every business professional, recruiter, and job seeker would benefit from leveraging this capability. Ecademy members are an amazing group of people willing to lend a helping hand whenever they can.

Someone inevitably asked, "So how much is it to join?" When they learned it was only $15 bucks a month for PowerNetworker membership, and I described all the other member capability they had access to, I had a number of Marketing Executives walk up after my presentation asking more questions and telling me they were joining Ecademy right away.

If anyone has yet to see it, I can't encourage you enough to view the new Ecademy video overview presentation, and forward it to your colleagues who might benefit.

Just click the button below to view.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

Job Search Advice, Resume Advice, Internet Presence, network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Do you exist? - by Ron Bates

2006-05-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Internet Presence: Can anyone find you in Google? Are you invisible on the Internet?

Experts Connection webinar discussion titled: Do THEY Know You? Business Networks and Online Presence-Making It Work For You.

I had the good fortune of being one of three guest speakers in a recent 90-minute chaired by Netshare CEO Kathy Simmons this week regarding building an Internet presence.

Jim Fowler was the first speaker. Jim is Founder & CEO of Jigsaw, an innovative contact database with over +3 million contacts at over 351,000 companies. I had also mentioned Jigsaw in a previous blog titled: What's in your networking toolbox? The second speaker was Cindy Kraft, an industry leading personal branding consultant. I was the last speaker.

Jim Fowler spoke about how on-line database such as Jigsaw can help one's networking efforts. Cindy Kraft spoke about the importance of having a branded on line presence.

Cindy started her discussion by raising the question, "If you're not in Google, do you exist?" She also offered up some interesting statistics stating, "In a recent survey by Execunet [a career-services network for executives earning $100,000 a year or more], 63% of recruiters said they Google a candidate's name prior to talking with them, and almost half indicated they eliminate a candidate based on their findings. A recent Harris Poll showed that 23% of individuals Google a colleague prior to meeting with them. Those statistics will continue to grow … and grow rapidly in the next few years."

In a report titled Blog or die?, according to Daiwa securities, Blogging has emerged from obscurity to mainstream phenomenon in around two years. Blogging emerged as a phenomenon in around 2003. By February 2005 Daiwa securities estimated there were around 20 million active blogs with over 500,000 new ones starting every month.

A Google query for the term "blog" returned 254 million results - ahead of MP3, Television and God. The same survey found 27% of American Internet users read blogs, 7% blog regularly themselves, and 12% have posted comments on a blog.

The Fast Company article, Creating a Gem of a Career states, "In the future, [employers] aren't going to advertise job openings anymore," says Warren Bare, CEO and founder of Jobkabob, another job-matching service. "They'll find you." It's a scary prospect for anyone who has ever been out of work. But for the agile, well-presented, ever-learning, constantly networking top performer, it sounds . . . perfect.

ExecuNet, reported in its latest annual survey of the senior-management job market that 70% of human-resources chiefs say they rely heavily on referrals and other networking contacts to find candidates for executive job openings, which are almost never advertised anywhere (on job boards, for instance).

In the FORTUNE article titled: Five months of networking, still no new job - You're doing all the right things to land a great position, but aren't getting anywhere. What's wrong? Senior writer Anne Fisher states, "Doing all the right things,…, puts you out ahead of most of your competition." She then states, "The ExecuNet poll shows that, while 84% of senior managers agree that broad networks of personal and professional contacts are crucial to success, just 19% say their own networks are in "excellent" or "very good" shape."

It's one thing to have a network - it's another thing to have a branded online presence that effectively communicates who you are and what your unique value proposition is.

As Cindy Kraft puts it, "Think of the power your branded online identity brings into that interview. They probably already like you based on the connection they feel - which is based on who they believe you to already be. You want to be visible with a clear and compelling message to the people who need to know about you. You can't compete on being average or a mere commodity. And you can't compete today - and definitely not in the future - if you can't be found."

A number of executives now have their own blogs and dedicated personal websites that attempt to showcase their unique value proposition. You can create all the online content you want, but if it doesn't index high in search returns it really doesn't help you that much.

So by this point, you might be asking, "So how do you start creating a presence that can actually be found on the Internet?"

Ecademy.

You might have guessed what I spent my 30 minutes discussing.

Ecademy is the best way to not only start creating content that will index high in search engine returns (e.g., your Ecademy Profile and blogs). As I've also described in previous blogs (e.g., This is some fun stuff!! - Building a Personal Internet Presence and Is your Networking Profile useless? ) Ecademy is a priceless tool for being able to create a branded online identity by also driving off Ecademy content you've created (e.g., your own dedicated personal website, articles, blogs, etc.) to index higher in search engine returns as well.

I'm always happy to discuss this with anyone that would like to do so.

Happy Networking.

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
http://www.job-search-advantage.com
https://www.thenetworkingedge.com

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Is your Networking Profile useless? - by Ron Bates

2006-04-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

It can be incredibly useful in furthering your objectives of Building a Personal Internet Presence to create a content rich profile on one or more networking platforms (e.g., "Ecademy Profile: John Doe") that search engines index and rank high in search returns.

Uh - or not.

It's another thing for people to know this search engine return hit actually refers to - you - (i.e., it's - your - profile) as opposed to the millions of other John Doe related documents the search engine indexes.

Ecademy is - extremely powerful - as compared to other networking platforms in this regard.

There are some very simply, non-technical, things you can do to optimizing your Ecademy Profile for search engines that will make a strong connection between - you - and your Ecademy Profile.

All search engines display the actual "hit" text differently.

Search on my name - ron bates - (or just click the screen shot links I've provided here) in Google, MSN, and Yahoo, and take note of what each search engine displays as the "hit text" for Ecademy Profile: Ron Bates.

You'll notice that each search engine displays different "hit" text. Yahoo for example displays the first part of your 50 words. That's why I put "Ron Bates - Expert in Mission Critical Retained Search" as the first "word" of my 50 words in my Ecademy Profile.

Why would I care about this?

Just because - I - make the mental connection that Ecademy Profile: Ron Bates actually is referring to me, it doesn't mean other people will know that the - Ron Bates - this hit refers to is actually - me - as opposed to the 1,800,000 other - Ron Bates - hits in Yahoo, the 419,898 hits in MSN, or the 5,030,000 hits in Google.

I want a document that returns high in search engines to be useful to me, not useless, in the context of Building a Personal Internet Presence.

This is - extremely - useful:

This is useless:

I'm the most connected person in the world on www.LinkedIn.com, but I'm invisible on the Internet as far as the value of LinkedIn's recently introduced "public" profiles LinkedIn are concerned.

Google (which is the first search engine an Ecademy Profile typically starts to rank high in) displays the first few lines of the text portion of your profile, as does MSN, but Yahoo actually displays the first part of your 50 words.

It can take about 3-4 weeks typically depending on the spider cycle of the search engine to pick up any changes you make, cache them, and have them actually display in the "hit text", so be patient.

You can obviously leverage this in different ways depending on the objectives behind your profile. If you want to be found by recruiters for example, you might consider using a few "key words" in in the right places in your profile such as:

"Resume - VP Operations", "Semiconductor Industry", "Texas Instruments", etc.

By doing this in key locations within your profile, search engines will index and cache and show this information in the actual "hit text" that is displayed.

I'm not a search engine optimization expert by any means. I do know these simple changes in your Ecademy Profile dramatically increase the value of actually having your Ecademy Profile rank high in search engine returns and further your objectives of Building a Personal Internet Presence.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
www.thenetworkingedge.com

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Ron Bates - Appointment as Ecademy US Country Manager

2006-04-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Community : Welcome Ron Bates - Ecademy US Country Manager
by Glenn Watkins on 30-Mar-06 2:27am

We are delighted to share with you news of our recent appointment of Ron Bates as Ecademy's US Country Manager.

Ron Bates is a retained executive search, coaching and placement consultant and co-founder of Executive Advantage Group, Inc., a successful retained executive search business with offices in Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest, and more importantly has been a compulsive networker for most of his professional life.

In addition to spending the better part of two decades in various engineering, sales, and sales executive roles at Fortune 50 companies, prior to his current firm Ron was a Partner in one of the largest retained executive search firms in the World. In the course of over two decades, he has had the opportunity to work for and provide service to many Fortune 100 technology companies and pre-IPO Venture Capital funded businesses so his business experience speaks for itself.

So why did we choose Ron out of all the highly successful business men and women here in Ecademy?

Ron not only possesses the inherent understanding of the importance of networking, he combines this with running a successful business where networking is an integral part of his daily business activities. Though he does have a substantial network, without understanding how to use it in the business world, he knows on its own it is of little value. It is the manner with Ron has so successfully combined the two that is not common to everyone and Ron can help you master that.

The Ecademy management recognise that this mindset towards effective networking undertaken by Ron is a natural quality required for being an effective US Country Manager and which we believe will help generate the right interest from you all and having a US Country Manager with the right perspective and balance towards Networking whilst also either running your own business or following your particular career path is what sets Ron apart from the rest.

Ron will be working closely with the Ecademy management to develop an infrastructure in as many cities around the States where Ecademists can share local knowledge and contacts with one another at club events run by those wishing to raise their visibility of themselves and their services as club leaders. This activity will also create greater personal brand awareness and attract business towards them but in a social environment. So any of you in the US with aspirations of this nature, you know who to contact.

Please do connect with Ron Bates and welcome him; I know he is very excited about the role and will I know help grow the US membership currently of over 10,300 members to a much bigger number and with it, provide many more opportunities for you all to connect with those in the US and grow their personal network.

Best regards

Glenn

Glenn Watkins
Chief Executive
Ecademy - Connecting Business People

Article: Conducting a Proactive Job Search Campaign (http://www.job-search-campaign.com)

For a special FREE one month Ecademy PowerNetworker subscription go to: PowerNetworker and enter promotion code ERX13.
www.thenetworkingedge.com

This is some fun stuff!!

2006-03-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ecademy Posting:

I recently wrote a short little article for a networking newsletter called The Networking Edge titled:

Building a Personal Internet Presence the Easy Way - by Ron Bates

I've received a lot of positive feedback from those that have taken the time to read it.

What prompted me to write it is that I'm truly amazed at the number of "high profile" executives that I communicate with (especially Marketing Executives) who are "invisible" on the Internet. If you go the extra step and couple the executive's employer's company name with the executive's name when doing a search on the individual in Google you might find them, but if you just search on their name they are no where to be found.

I've been really amazed at what I've been able to accomplish by leveraging the Ecademy platform in a very short amount of time.

Most people know that your Ecademy Profile will be indexed associated with your name along with some of your Ecademy blogs and ranked high when doing a search on your name in Google. That said, I've been - blown away - as to how you can drive the ranking of other - non-Ecademy - webpages just by providing links to them in content created on Ecademy. These links are also indexed - and - associated with your name by search engines.

As just one example, I have a 1-page bio hosted on my executive search firm's website. It isn't something you can navigate to through the website and just click on a link to view. You actually have to know the URL to access it. I simply host it under the domain so when clients ask to know a little more about me, I can just send them the URL rather than send them an MS Word document as an attachment.

My search firm's website is simply on line information for clients who require it. I just point them to the site rather than email them a bunch of attachments. The site isn't really a direct marketing tool such that I'm concerned about it SEO or ranking high in search engines. It's Alexa ranking is about 13 Billion or something insignificant (i.e., it's non-existent).

Prior to joining Ecademy, my 1-page bio was no where to be found when doing a search on my name in Google or MSN.

After joining Ecademy, building a profile and doing some basic blogging, I've been able to drive the ranking of my 1-page bio to rank 3rd or 4th on Google, and pretty consistently it's the 1st on MSN. On MSN it even ranks higher than my Ecademy profile.

This is extremely powerful if you want to establish and maintain a personal internet presence. It isn't necessarily a huge advantage to simply return a hit that says:

Ecademy Profile: Ron Bates

That still isn't obvious it's referring to me.

But a search return on the first page (let alone the 1st - 4th hit) that says:

Ron Bates - Expert in Mission Critical Retained Executive Search

Well, you can't even come close to this kind of exposure via other mechanisms without a awful lot of work/expertise/money.

Because I believe so strongly in how Ecademy can help a proactive job seeker (given most recruiters "Google" executive candidates prior to contacting them) I have also written about it in my article Conducting a Job Search Campaign.

What I've also been amazed at is the number of Ecademy members that aren't aware you can accomplish this via Ecademy.

This is some fun stuff!!

Happy Networking.

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Building a Personal Internet Presence the Easy Way - by Ron Bates

2006-03-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

Building a Personal Internet Presence the Easy Way
Ron Bates, Executive Advantage Group, Inc.

SAN JOSE, CA -- Can anyone find you on the Internet? If someone does a search on your name (e.g., "Ron Bates") in Google, do they find you on the first page of search return hits?

Ecademy is a worldwide Business Network founded in 1998, connecting business people to share knowledge, contacts, support and transactions. Ecademy is growing fast worldwide, the platform offers much more than the other business network websites with a strong emphasis on blogging, doing deals, joining online & offline clubs and connecting directly with other networkers versus needing to navigate a chain of connections.

Want to be on the first page of hits when someone does a Google search on your name? Join Ecademy and in a short amount of time your Ecademy profile (which could be your – entire – resume or more) will be one of the top hits in Google.

How does this work? Sites that are highly trafficed and that have content that is constantly changing are frequently indexed by Google and other site. Here's and example. That site fits the model of a site that is going to be frequently indexed by Google. Ecademy is a highly trafficed site with content that is constantly changing as compared to other networking sites. Google "likes" this, and as a result is indexing the content with high frequency. High traffic + changing content = high ranking in Google. If your content is on a site like Ecademy, it is going to be frequently indexed and rank high in search return hits.

Just Google my name (i.e., Ron Bates) and see how my Ecademy profile ranks on Google. Not only will your Ecademy profile rank high, but also, you can drive the ranking of other webpages and hosted documents just by providing links to them via Ecademy. That's how I was able to get my 1-page bio hosted on my executive search firm's website to rank 2nd or 3rd on Google, and 1st or 2nd on MSN. This is extremely powerful if you want to establish and maintain a personal internet presence. You can’t even come close to this kind of exposure via other mechanisms.

Because I believe so strongly in how Ecademy can help a proactive job seeker, not only have I written about it in my article Conducting a Job Search Campaign, I have negotiated a special FREE one month PowerNetworker subscription so others can benefit and explore the site with full privileges. Simply go to Ecademy and fill in your details making sure to include the promotion code ERX13 & become an Ecademy member now. You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish on Ecademy.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
My Ecademy Profile
My LinkedIn Profile

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

The Death of Cold Calling and Cold Calling is Dead (addendum) - by Ron Bates

2005-12-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

I published this blog on Ecademy today. The Death of Cold Calling and Cold Calling is Dead seem to be the latest sales training gimmick targeting people who lack a fundamental understanding about corporate business prospecting.

I submitted a blog - The Death of Cold Calling. in late November after seeing one advertisement. I did a couple of quick Internet searches on this topic this morning. I found an amazing amount of hype about this topic from people attempting to sell their latest ebook, ezine, or training course.

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally against phone solicitors that ring me up in the middle of the dinner hour trying to sell me on their latest investment portfolio, refinancing my home mortgage, home/auto insurance, etc., or show up on my doorstep trying to sell me a vacuum cleaner, steam clean my carpets, encyclopedia, or magazine subscriptions. Or the recruiter that is being driven to make 100 calls a day to fill a search. I'm not even going there.

So what is "Cold Calling"? Cold calling is simply approaching a targeted prospect - directly - who does not know you. For the purpose of this blog, I'm focusing on "Cold Calling" in the context of approaching corporate business executive in the context of a corporate need.

There are all kinds of books and courses about how to turn a "cold call" into a "warm call", and networking is typically the fastest and best way to do this.

But what do you do when you've exhausted all possible avenues of turning a "cold call" into a "warm call" with a targeted corporate business executive? Do you just give up? Giving up for most people isn't a viable option - at least not one that will insure continuous employment if they are in a role responsible for their company's revenue generation.

Cold Calling on corporate business executives can absolutely be done effectively and professionally way. It is also a critical skill for anyone desiring enduring revenue generation success.

I've successfully "cold called" on CEOs and executives of corporate pre-IPO start-ups all the way to the CEO of a $30 Billion corporation which resulted in a successful meeting with the President of a $3B division of the same corporation. One CEO of a $350M corporation I "cold called" was waving my prospecting letter in the air when I walked into his office saying "This is the absolute best prospecting letter I have ever seen, and it got you this meeting. I just wanted you to know that."

Cold calling has a bad reputation because people equate it to a shot gun "Dialing for Dollars" way of approaching people in a generic untargeted scripted way with the hope that by blindly cold calling enough people the numbers will work out that they will make sales. This is insane, and you might as well shoot yourself in the foot if that actually is your approach to cold calling corporate business executives. Cold calling is simply one form of prospecting. At its fundamental core, cold calling is a way to create opportunity out of nothing.

Effective cold calling is - NOT - a numbers game. Effective cold calling is taking a well rehearsed, researched, and aimed - rifle shot - that compels a targeted corporate executive to meet with you as a result. This is what many of these "Cold Calling is Dead" gimmick sales training books and course are simply trying to sell in many cases. It all is probably good training, but it just isn't new; they are simply repackaging a fundamental sales skill that has been around for decades.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

FREE Industry & Trade Publications - by Ron Bates

2005-12-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting site where you can subscribe online to practically every leading industry and business publication - FOR FREE. For example they listed Chief Executive, CMO, CIO Today, CSO, CRM Magazine, Business Finance, Oracle, and a whole bunch more. For more information or to sign up for complimentary trade magazines, just go to:

http://TheNetworkingEdge.tradepub.com

I believe a number of these subscriptions are "on-line" subscriptions which give you the ability to do research/archive searches.

This is a great resource for anyone seeking to educate themselves on relevant industry/functional issues whether you're looking for a job, doing marketing research, or trying to identify networking opportunities, etc. You sure can't beat free. The advertisers are probably subsidizing this to increase their exposure. Good for them!

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Job search and waiting for the phone to ring. - by Ron Bates

2005-11-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

If you're in a position to be looking for a job (regardless of being currently employed or not), are you actually "looking" or are you sitting around waiting for the phone to ring hoping some recruiter or hiring authority is on the other end?

Looking for a job, especially around the holidays can be one of the most frustrating activities known to man. The only way to combat that frustration is to take the bull by the horns and minimize your anxiety by the knowledge that you are doing every possible thing you can to expose yourself to opportunity. Sitting around and circling Help Wanted Ads in the newspaper, or throwing your resume up on Monster isn't going to cut it.

Be proactive, drive the bus, get aggressive. How aggressive? It depends on your ability to make your next mortgage payment.

Know this: Job search is the mirror image of recruiting.

To maximize your exposure, you need to mirror everything recruiters and hiring authorities do to gain exposure to their openings.

So what does this mean? Let's put it in context with the recruiting process.

The basic recruiting process can be described as follows:

Write the job spec (i.e., market, company, job profile, experience/skill requirements)

Your CV/Resume is the mirror image to the job spec, but with one difference: a poorly written job spec can still attract great candidates. You're CV/resume better be the best it can possibly be.

Defined the Search Universe (i.e., set of industries, markets, and ultimately companies that would precipitate a peer level candidate with experiences and skills in alignment with the job spec)

The mirror equivalent to this would be the Employer Universe of industries, markets, and ultimately companies your experience aligns with.

Identify the candidates -in- the Search Universe (this is where most recruiters and hiring authorities stop the candidate targeting).

Your mirror equivalent would be identifying the hiring authorities, HR contacts, and recruiters that would at some point have needs for someone with a CV/resume like yours within your Employer Universe.

Really good recruiters also identify a Tangential Search Universe (i.e., what set of industries, markets, and ultimately companies might peer level candidates with relevant work experience acquired in the target Search Universe now be working). Often candidates with relevant Search Universe related work experience (e.g., Consumer Products) are now working outside the target Search Universe (e.g., Management Consulting), and they can be even more attractive candidates (e.g., Management Consultant with Consumer Products Industry related prior work experience).

The mirror equivalent of this would be to ask yourself - what is your Tangential Employer Universe (e.g., other industries, markets, and ultimately companies that might be able to leverage your experience and skills)?

So how do recruiters identify candidates?

They typically have access to a proprietary and multiple on-line free/subscription based databases. They also do research combing the internet for tradeshow, conference, press releases, corporate websites, industry publications, and many other sources (like Networking sites - hello!) to identify either candidates directly or people to network with to get to the candidates they are targeting.

The mirror to this question is: So how do you identify the hiring authorities, HR contacts, and recruiters that would at some point have needs for someone with a CV/resume like yours?

Do the exact same thing a recruiter does: research - combing the internet for tradeshow, conference, press releases, corporate websites, industry publications, and many other sources (like Networking sites - hello!) to identify either the individuals directly or people to network with to get to the individuals you are targeting. Even take a look at some of the subscription databases (e.g., www.JigSaw.com, www.Lead411.com, www.SGAExecutiveTracker.com, www.ZoomInfo.com, www.Hoovers.com, et al.) and see if they might accelerate your progress.

Dive into http://www.recruiterlink.com/corporate_recruiter/query.htm will help you identify tons of executive recruiters to send your resume to.

The biggest challenge in identifying candidates in a Tangential Search Universe is they are not obvious by their current position/role within their current employer. It's much easier for you, the job seeker, to identify the hiring authorities, HR contacts, and recruiters in a Tangential Employer Universe.

So how do really good recruiters - and you - identify and get to these people?

The simple answer is - by Networking.

The best recruiters are excellent networkers. You are faced with the same mirror challenge. You need to become an excellent networker if you aren't already.

Recruiters then start reaching out to identified candidates via phone, email, and mail, and network like a madman to get to unidentified candidates.

That means you start reaching out to identified individuals via phone, email, and mail, and network like a madman to identify and get to the individuals you are targeting.

Recruiters, even executive recruiters, also post openings on subscription based executive job/career service sites.

Recruiters can leave about 100 - 30 second voicemails a day - so can you. Recruiters can email hundreds of people individually each day, and can email tens of thousands if they are using an Email/Marketing campaign software tool (e.g., www.Group-Mail.com, et al.) - so can you - just grab a subscription to a database, join all the Networking platforms that look like they might attract either the people you are targeting, or the networking contacts you can go through to get to them. Build your own proprietary database. Learn how to identify/create email addresses. Leverage Resume Distribution services (e.g., www.ResumeRabbit.com, leverage subscription based executive job/career service sites (e.g., www.BlueSteps.com, www.NetShare.com, www.TheLadders.com, et al.).

In short, market yourself like crazy by thinking like a recruiter, and you're phone will ring with opportunity calling.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

25% Discount to Multi-Award Winning GroupMail - by Ron Bates

2005-11-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 28, 2005 – CV Advantage announced today a partnership alliance with Infacta Group-Mail.com and includes a 25% discount code to Infacta’s multi award winning GroupMail range of Email/Marketing Campaign desktop software solutions in the $109.95 www.CV-Advantage.com CV/Resume toolset.

With the Infacta’s multi award winning GroupMail range of products you can take the effort out of your email/marketing campaigns right from your desktop computer. With GroupMail, you can send highly formatted professional messages that are personalized for each recipient, you can manage an unlimited number of fully customizable groups/lists with an unlimited number of recipients in each, and much -much- more. For example:

Fully control and target your mailings with powerful filters, in-line message scripting, reply management controls, customizable headers and in-depth logging & reporting

Run and maintain CAN-SPAM compliant Newsletters with powerful automated subscription, removal and filtering support

Work with existing customer lists, data and information in practically any format (databases, files - including CSV, address books and more)

Do follow-up mailings with precision, resume from failures with complete peace of mind and have access to all send related details in highly defined reports and logs

With the addition of the Group-Mail.com discount, CV Advantage clients are potentially able to save over a $1000 on a job search campaign by acting on the discounts in the $109.95 CV Advantage Toolset:

The CV Advantage Toolset includes discounts codes to additional job search oriented sites such as:

www.Group-Mail.com (multi-award winning desktop Email/Marketing Campaign management software)

www.ResumeRabbit.com (the leading CV/Resume Distribution Service)

www.BlueSteps.com (leading senior executive career management site)

www.NetShare.com (leading 6-figure senior executive career job site)

www.TheLadders.com (leading 6-figure senior executive career job site)

www.SGAExecutiveTracker.com (contact information database - discounted over $1000.00)

www.Lead411.com (contact information database)

www.Jigsaw.com (contact information database)

Example testimonials:

"2005 was the best for me, because I was lucky enough to connect with Ron Bates. His "Ten Commandments" article is just a sample of what he can do for executives. I'm a successful executive. Ron's effective style made me realize how much I'd accomplished in my 21 yr. career. Thanks to the CV Advantage Toolset, my resume, style of presenting myself, and interviewing techniques improved 100%." - Homayoun Razavi (November 17, 2005)

"CV Advantage process is a wonderful and useful tool. The process made me realize, "Wow, I've accomplished a lot and the world doesn't know about any of it." In his book - Only the Paranoid Survives - Andy Grove states we (as individuals) need to "market" ourselves. CV Advantage provides a straight forward process that walks an individual through the elements of personal marketing." - Nadim Maluf (November 1, 2005)

"I'm grateful for Ron pointing me to the www.CV-Advantage.com resume/coaching process. As a result, I've had "1st Class" responses off a resume that is 500% better. I think once someone really understands the quality and format of the resume (especially for an executive) is a strong reflection of their capabilities, they will think about their resume much differently." - Tom Chapman (September 12, 2005)

"I cannot overstate the value of Ron's coaching or the tools he recommends. www.CV-Advantage.com, for example, is a wonderfully simple, yet very powerful approach on how to best present oneself in print and in person. This process helps you identify your unique value, differentiate yourself from others, and gives you the ability to crisply communicate your unique value to others." - Frank Eck (July 20, 2005)

"None of the leading retained executive search firms I've worked with, as a CEO and Senior Executive in both Fortune 100 and pre-IPO corporations, have demonstrated an ability to go beyond basic assessment of executive candidate career accomplishments in order to truly identify how an executive's skills would project success. Ron Bates excels at this." - Joe Kozak (March 22, 2004)

Have the right tools to get right the job.

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
get-a-job.blogsource.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

LinkedInU and LinkedIn Pro - by Ron Bates

2005-11-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Want to get more out of your LinkedIn Membership?

Check out LinkedIn University (http://LinkedInU.com ) and LinkedIn Pro ( http://LinkedInPro.com).

LinkedIn University (http://LinkedInU.com ) and LinkedIn Pro ( http://LinkedInPro.com) are independent and complementary resources for Linkers both new and experienced. The services are provided by The DallasBlue Business Network and master LinkedIn networker Marc Freedman.

LinkedIn U offers 8 low priced teleseminar classes scheduled monthly. You can register and participate from anywhere in the world via the web or phone. The classes range from getting started on LinkedIn to intermediate classes for Jobseekers, Recruiters, and Salespeople to advanced courses on branding and creating your own business. If you prefer to read, the LinkedIn Pro directory contains hundreds of links to LinkedIn and networking articles, interviews, blogs, forums, tools, software, stationery, and tips.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

The Death of Cold Calling - by Ron Bates

2005-11-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

I saw an advertisement for a sales training course recently stating boldly that in the new information age - cold calling is dead.

I don't think so.

Anyone that thinks "cold calling" as a business tool is dead is only trying to sell you an alternative way to - cold call. The Internet has made cold calling more challenging, that is for certain, but it is far from being dead as a way to engage a prospect.

When I was a sales executive I used to ask sales reps the following question:

"Do you like prospecting?"

There are two kinds of sales reps: Those that hate cold call prospecting, and liars.

Prospecting is a critical sales skill. This is also a foundation skill critical for networking. Can you reach out to someone you don't know - proactively? Cold calling is -not- about being able to pick up the phone and mindlessly start "dialing for dollars". Cold calling doesn't even have to involve a phone, letter, email or fax. Cold calling is not "a numbers game".

Cold calling is about one thing: gaining access to a targeted individual.

You can strive to be 100% effective in your cold calling efforts. With out exception, anyone successful in selling or networking is adept at cold calling.

Whether you're approaching someone as part of a sales process, job search campaign, or you're simply trying to develop a critical networking contact, the key to successful cold calling is to do everything you can to turn the "cold" call into a "warm" call before you make the call. You want to be able to do the same thing when making contact for the first time with someone you want to network with.

How do you do this? It's really simple. Do your homework. What does that mean?

Find out everything you can about the individual you are attempting to prospect (or network) with before attempting contact. Understand their current business situation in as much detail as you can get your hands on (e.g., market, competitor, technology, product, finance issues/challenges and associated critical success factors, etc.), and if it applies, relevant personal details as well (e.g., you both go to the same church, his kids play soccer too, your spouses went to the same school, you both like skeet shooting, etc.).

A master at this is Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive : Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition

Harvey Mackay epitomizes the concept of knowing your prospect with his 66-question customer profile.

How do you find out all of this information? The Internet is a good place to start. You can identify a ton of current business intelligence via the Internet.

Even better, you can discover most of this information, and the most important aspects of this information by -networking- with people that know the individual you want to approach! Hey, one of those individuals might even provide you with an introduction to the individual you are targeting.

Prospecting is a skill-set (emphasis on the word "set"). This implies there are different tools to leverage, which in turn implies that there are proficiency levels associated with the various tools.

Read as many books on Cold Calling and Prospecting as you can stand. Why? Because not all techniques work in all situations, and you want the techniques to become integrated into your personal style of communicating - not change your style of communication to conform to one technique.

At a minimum read:

The Power to Get In: A step-by-Step System to Get in Anyone's Door So you Have the Chance to…Make the Sale…Get the Job… Present Your Ideas - by Michael A. Boylan

and

Selling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) by Anthony Parinello

These are without a doubt the best two books I've ever come across for how to approach new prospects in a deliberate targeted way. These principles can be extended to many forms of cold calling and prospecting, and they can most certainly be extended to cover networking objectives. But don't stop with these two. There are many, many, more worth reading.

The key to getting good at cold calling - is to do it. The additional success you realize will take the sting out of the process.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV

Job Search and Recruiting Seasonality – by Ron Bates

2005-11-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

If you're either looking for a job, or looking to hire employees, have you ever thought about the reality that recruiting is a seasonal sport? I'm constantly amazed at the number of not just candidates, but also employers that either aren't aware of this or don't integrate this reality into their search strategies.

Most corporations start the year with a new recruiting budget. The busiest time of year is typically the first quarter as far as recruiting activity is concerned. The second quarter of the year is almost as busy as the first quarter. The third quarter of the year is typically much slower than the first two quarters for a number of reasons but mainly: summer holidays/vacations, and most of the hiring for the year has been done. The fourth quarter of the year typically starts to pick up with companies trying to capture new employees that can be on board by the start of the upcoming year, and realizing that if they don't spend any remaining recruiting budget they will probably lose it for the following year.

So what?

If you are a job seeker, you need to realize what part of the year you're in to manage your own expectations consistent with the number of opportunities that are probably available, and construct a job search campaign strategy aligned with your objectives and the present seasonal recruiting reality.

If you are an employer, you need to realize what part of the year you're in to manage your own expectations consistent with the number of opportunities probably available and competing for the same candidates you're trying to recruit, and construct a search campaign strategy aligned with your recruiting objectives and the present seasonal recruiting reality.

Regardless of being a job seeker or an employer, remember that industry average time to fill a position is between 90 - 120 days. Networking - is the best way to shorten that time.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

www.cv-advantage.com
www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

network, networking, sales, selling, relationships, job, search, career, resume, CV