News Release

Click here to go back to main News and Trends page >>

How Career Professionals Get Hired by Corporations: Making a Business Case for Career Interventions

In the ACP International member survey of December 2005, titled Sales Training Needs Analysis, one of the narrative comments read �I need to think like a business owner�. This may be the one distinct mind-set that will define success for the many career professionals who have, over the last 4 years, made a shift from employee-based to independent consultant in the area of career services.

With a full 71% of ACP International members in this survey identifying themselves as independent consultants or small business owners, many comments pointed to the importance of �value-based� selling. In particular this is significant for the 53% of respondents who clearly indicated they sold career services to organizational clients. How do you translate the language of your area of expertise into the realm of value and benefits?

David Rottman, Senior Vice President, Human Resources - JP Morgan Chase in New York, has some first hand advice for career consultants making that approach to corporate clients. Here is the situation.

Imagine that you are a Business Manager or HR Director with tough business goals and you have to make a decision about how to spend your limited budget for career interventions. Two experienced career consultants submit their credentials and business case to you. One is focused on process and the other on benefits. Which one would you choose?

On April 28, 2006 at the ACP International conference in Boston, David Rottman will present a stimulating and well-argued case for an airtight approach to getting hired by corporations in this scenario. http://www.acpinternational.org/conf/index.html

�The most direct approach for selling career-related products and services is to tie the benefits to enhanced revenue or cost savings�; says David Rottman. �If you truly believe that what you have to offer will really help the business of your customers, why not say so? Why not draw a direct line of sight to incremental profit, new business, or savings? Yes, there are difficulties in drawing that line of sight, and I will address those difficulties in this talk, as well as the opportunities created by such an approach.�

If self employed consultants or small business owners of career services are looking for a magic solution to find the right markets or the right people in an organization, there may not be one; but by all accounts David Rottman may at least help you to feel more confident in your next business meeting.