I've been watching candidates interview for years as I would always ask my client to sit in during the conversation. The one thing I've quickly noticed is the candidate’s inability to close the interview. What do I mean by closing the interview; I'm talking about gaining the right to advance through to the next round.

If you ask most people this question, "Are you a Salesperson?" the instant response is "no way" or "I could never do that" or "I can't sell anything." That is simply NOT true! There is no better sales person in the world than YOU who can only sell YOU!

People don't realize that they are always selling themselves within every single conversation. They are selling insight, expertise, trust, credibility and so on. Therefore, during an interview you must with an element of enthusiasm close for the next step; the right to advance!

How do you do that? You begin by taking notes during your conversation with the interviewer. Next during the wrap up you will engage the interviewer by saying; "During our conversation today, you touched on A and B. I want to emphasize that my background lends itself to helping you solve these issues. In other words, I can make an immediate impact on your (completion of the project, increasing your revenues, decreasing your cost, etc). You are going to pay close attention to why the interviewer is talking to you in the first place and with conviction you're going to repeat the phrase above in your own words and finish by saying, “I would like be part of your (project, team, company strategy, future growth, etc)” and let them know when you can start.

I can't tell you how many times candidates simply say, "Thank you for your time, I hope to hear from you." or "When can I expect to hear from you?" These are all useless phrases to entice the interviewer to invite you back for the second round.

The person who will be most remembered 8 out of 10 times will be the person who used powerful closing statements to show they WANT the job.

Good luck and feel free to contact me if you would like to further discuss what I've written.