My sister-in-law and her family visited my family over a weekend last month and we had a good time catching up. Her son, Ryan, is 11 years-old this year and although I have known him since his birth and have even taken care of him for a short spell 4 years ago, he is growing up to be his own man and, entering his teenage years, he now tends not to enjoy adult conversation nor company.

Ryan spent most of the entire visit glued to my laptop computer that was in the living room where everyone was. I would peek at what he was doing occasionally (mainly to ensure he was not messing up my files) and found him on the Apple Computer website.

Specifically, he was on the iPhone pages of the Apple website.

Before I knew it, he interrupted the adults who were happily chatting away over coffee.

“Mom, look! The iPhone 3GS is so thin and it’s so cool!”

Three minutes later, he shouted again, “Mom, the 3GS can take videos and upload them to YouTube! Isn’t that something?”

Another 5 minutes later, he exclaimed, “Mom, there is voice command for the 3GS! Wow!”

This time, his mother responded, “Ryan, you don’t need an iPhone. I’m not buying one for you. You already have a mobile phone.”

It turned out that Ryan had been bugging his mother over the past week to get him the latest iPhone 3GS. And when I asked him why he needed an iPhone, he said, “Everyone in school has one and it’s really cool” to which I responsed, “Ryan, the iPhone cannot make you cool. Only you can.”

Of course, Ryan didn’t understand what I meant and he also didn’t get the iPhone 3GS he coveted.

From this little episode, it reminded me of the way most of us try to persuade, influence and convince others of something – in other words, our “selling” strategy.

And guess what? Job-hunting is a “selling” process whether you like it or not.

Most people think that the best way to sell is to do what Ryan did – promote the features of the product or service: The iPhone is thin, it can take videos, access the internet, and issue commands via voice, etc.

In job-hunting terms, most people promote ONLY their features thinking that those will sell: Their degree(s), work experience, internship experience, special skills, awards, extra-curricular activities, community service, professional memberships, etc.

Just like Ryan’s mother, the features of the iPhone 3GS meant nothing to her. They may be cool to Ryan but they do not appeal to his mother at all. In fact, an iPhone is expensive to buy and to maintain, especially for an 11 year-old.

Remember: To an employer, you are always on the right-hand end of this simple equation:

Profit = Revenue – Cost

To make business sense, you will only be hired IF:

1. You are affordable (i.e. low cost), and
2. You can generate sufficient value (or revenue) to cover the cost of employing you (i.e. high benefits).

And so, your features may be cool to you, but they will only be cool to the employer IF and ONLY IF they can generate benefits to the employer.

In order to sell successfully to employers, you must approach from the BENEFIT angle: How exactly will the employer benefit from having you on the team? What value can you bring.

No doubt, features can be part of the selling process to provide support for the benefits but features should never be the main focus.

Remember: We don’t buy features. We buy only benefits.

When Ryan understands this, he will be in time to get an iPhone 3GS for Christmas.