If you’re struggling to get noticed…

…you may want to try a different language.

I received a call from a woman who had forwarded her resume to me.  She asked “What can I do to make my resume more powerful?”  A few days later, a business owner told me that he was expanding his market and wanted some thoughts on how to craft his message for that market.

My answer to both was exactly the same, “Talk about the results you’ve gotten.”  When I see a resume that doesn’t highlight results, I question whether or not the person has produced any.  When I see marketing materials or a website that talks about what the business does I can’t help but wonder “What did the customer get?”

While both of the examples above relate to business, the universal language of results applies to all aspects of our lives.  If someone offers you child-rearing tips, advice on how to bring romance back into your life or ways improve your health, you’re going to discount that advice unless the person can demonstrate that he or she has gotten results.  And you should, after all it’s the result you’re after.  As the old adage says “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do.”  But we’re not interested in any road, we want to reach a specific destination – to get a specific result.

It’s a natural human tendency to want to talk about what we do.  That’s the way we’re wried.  Unfortunately, it’s not what potential employers and prospective customers want to hear.  They want to know, “Can you produce the result?”

It’s counter-intuitive, but if your message isn’t helping you get noticed, your probably speaking the wrong language.  You’re speaking the language of process instead of the language of results.  Whenever you’re asked “What do you do?”, pause a moment and think about the language you’re about to use.  If it’s the language of process, shelve that commentary.  Shift gears and tell that prospective employer or customer what results you can produce for them.  That’s how you stand out from the crowd.  That’s how you get noticed.  That’s how you get hired.

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 4, Seeing Similarities, to determine that the employment situation and the shift in market focus were exactly the same situation.  Then I used, Step 1, Contributory Negligence, to determine what these folks were doing that caused them not to gain the interest they desired.  Finally, I used Step 5, Contrarian Mindset, to demonstrate that results is a universal language.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

Good news – My latest book, Pricing for Profit, was released 9.9.09 in the United States, Canada, U.K., Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands.  It’s available in all the major bookstores – Borders, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.