​When you walk through the door of any job interview, you should already have in mind how you can make an impact to your potential employer’s business. If you’re clear about what you can bring to the role, you’ll naturally share that enthusiasm during the interview.

More than ever, interviewers are looking for someone who will make a positive difference to their organisation. This could be through experience, teamworking or soft skills that suit the company’s culture and goals.

Knowing why you should be hired will really help you win at interviews. Read on to find out how to define and communicate your employee value.

Know your own strengths

The whole purpose of an interview is for the hiring team to get to know you and find out if you’re the person they’re looking for. It pays to spend some time developing an “elevator pitch” for yourself. If you’ve been in a sales role previously, as many of our candidates have, you’ll be used to preparing a pitch for a product or for your company. It can be harder to do when you’re talking about yourself.

Our advice is to think about how you differ from other people who might be going for this job. What would you do better? Think about your experience, previous wins, any praise you’ve received.

Make your answer specific to the role and use this as an opportunity to show how passionate you are about the job and the opportunities it offers you and them.

If you have prepared well for this question, you will find yourself highlighting your own strengths throughout the interview, reinforcing them in the interviewer’s mind.

Know the company

An interviewer can’t fail to be impressed by a candidate who shares the fact that they have known the company for a while and have always admired what they do. They will love to hear that it’s been your ambition to be part of the team, so there was no hesitation when it came to applying for this job opportunity.

You should cover three main areas when you respond to questions. Tell them you can provide them with the skills they’ve asked for in the job description (which you will have read and committed to memory!), let them know how you’ll make a difference to their bottom line/growth plans and finally, tell them about your character and the soft skills you’ll bring to the team.

Make sure you have read about the company’s background, mission, goals and recent announcements on their website news page and/or LinkedIn company page.

We’ve found from experience that “Why should I hire you?” is often one of the first questions asked in an interview. The way you respond can make all the difference to how the rest of the meeting goes and your confidence during the interview.

If you’d like to know more about improving your interview technique you might be interested in reading our past articles:

5 Insider Tips to Help You Stand Out at Interview for HVAC Sales Jobs

Revealed: The top soft skills for ambitious industrial engineers

How to answer that all important interview question: “Is there anything you’d like to ask us?”

If you’d like personalised career advice to help you take the next step in HVAC and engineering sales contact us