The Second Interview - The Presentation!

If you had a typical CV-based first interview it’s likely that the second interview will move into more behavioural or stress questioning (see first interview for more info on these interview styles).

Additionally, many second interviews will involve some kind of presentation to be delivered to a number of hiring managers (for example the classified manager, ad manager and publisher) often on one of the following topics:

• Your action plan for the first 1/3/6 months of the job
• A role play presentation of their media to a potential client
• A presentation of your suitability for the role

Presentation Tips

1. Tell them what you are going to tell them
2. Tell them
3. Tell them what you’ve told them

Ideally you should produce slides to back up what you say - people have different learning styles or preferences (often refered to as visual, auditory and kinesthetic) and you will create a much stronger impression if you accomodate them all.

You should be guided by the interviewer as to the technology and media to use, but in any event concentrate on the content rather than the bells and whistles. A flip pad should be sufficient and if using PowerPoint take printouts with you in case your file corrupts.

A clear series of bullet points will be acceptable for most situations so only complicate slides with more colour or visuals etc where it will definitely enable you to get your message across, don't get hung up on 'prettifying' - you could end up creating a visual distraction rather than a visual support.

You should be mindful of the pressure of time and ensure your presentation is compact, impactful, concise and efficient in the way you put your ideas across.

Aim for 5-7 bullet points per section of the plan (for example a 3 month plan could be presented as three 5-7 point sections).  Each action point with outcomes and reasoning explained.

For more tips on presenting and an insight into how your presentation will be marked, have a look here.

To further assist you, here is a detailed breakdown of a possible presentation for 'Plans for the first 1/3/6 months of the job'... use it to help you focus but remember that you must still engage brain and make it your own!

There a four main content areas that the interviewer will evaluate you on:

Knowledge of the product, target market and company processes

What do and don’t you know? Prepare a plan for the first week to identify the knowledge you need to gain, and suggest some possible sources (such as colleagues, industry websites/reports, media information etc…)

• What will you need to learn about the product to be able to sell it?
• Where will you get this information from?
• Who will you be selling to and why should they buy?
• What’s the booking process (when you’ve sold the space how do you confirm the order – the interviewer will like hearing this as you are there to make sales!)
• General housekeeping – email address and phone number set up, training on their CRM or record keeping system etc
• What other departments will you be working with, who should you meet in the first couple of weeks?

Understanding of the objectives of the role

As a bare minimum you must know if this is a new business role, account management or a mixture of the two.

Your objectives (and your specific activities) will vary depending on this split, so if you are unclear on what the role involves make sure you find out either before or during the first interview.

For new business, you’ll need to get a grip of how your territory is defined and build up a list of leads or suspects. The next section will describe your action plan to turn these suspects into prospects, and in turn into clients.

If the job involves managing existing clients, what is the history of each customer and what are your plans are to develop these accounts?

Understanding of the activities that will deliver these results

The original job description should help you complete this section, but there’s nothing wrong with asking the employer if they mind you phoning one of the sales team to find out a bit more about the job.

Every company works in a slightly different way – finding out their way of working shows a willingness to learn and the ability to work out how to fill any gaps in your knowledge.

If they would rather you didn’t speak to the team at this stage you will have at least showed initiative and enthusiasm.

• Is this a phone based role or will you be going out to meet clients face to face?
• Are there Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or agreed activity targets for this position?
• How quickly do you aim to reach the revenue targets this position requires you to hit?
• What percentage of your time will you give to new business or account management?

ESSENTIAL: Include some way of measuring your activity against what is required through a regular review with your manager.  A good suggestion would be a monthly meeting to review your progress and make sure you’re on track.

Original thinking

This type of presentation is a great way for your potential employer to get some fresh ideas, but remember they are hiring you to do a job rather than come up with madcap schemes.

Have a think about potential development areas in your territory:

• What sectors aren’t currently advertising but should be?
• Why should they want to reach your audience?
• Can you find any companies that are advertising with competitors but not their media?
• What products could be developed to make additional revenue/extend the brand?

Summary

Close positively with a summary of these headings, show your enthusiasm to get up to speed as quickly as possible, and the flexibility to fit into their plans to get you up to speed.