“Why should we hire you?” This question is one of those dreaded interview questions that everyone who interviews is either asking or thinking about asking.

The answer the interviewer is really looking for is: What is special about you? How can I remember you? Can I really see you as the ideal candidate? And if you can answer this question in the way that I will demonstrate below you will absolutely be the standout candidate.

In my 10 + years of recruiting, I have interviewed hundreds and hundreds of candidates at all levels and I know that this is the one question that basically most fall at during the interview. So I thought that I would share with you a helpful tip, a really super easy technique to explain the question “Why should we hire you?” because if you don’t have a good answer to this you are going to look just like everyone else. You need an easy to remember, fast and compelling way to explain why they should hire you, so hence you become the standout candidate for the interviewer.

The Positioning Statement
This is almost like a client’s PR or brand statement, positioning you compared to all the other candidates and it’s a powerful thing to have in your interview skill set. These are its main points:

•   Makes you memorable 
• Makes you stand-out from the other candidates
• Answers the question “Why should we hire you” in a really irresistible way
• Gives you interview confidence because you know that you are ready to nail this question and make it a success.

So here is the formula to make you stand out:

• List a problem you have solved (think also globally)
• The solution that you have provided (how you have gone about solving this problem)
• The results for the company
• You now can create a brief, compelling, easy to remember positioning statement.

So now let me give you an example of how this works. Let’s do this on a Sales Executive/Director/Manager profile. The client who is interviewing is looking for the right person to manage a team and hence increase sales revenue.

Stand out example

• Problem: Increase sales, thus increase revenue
• Your unique solution: Can get key decisions makers to say 'Yes' quickly
• Result: More sales faster, thus creating more revenue.

 Now we need to take those three answers that you have come up with and craft a Positioning Statement. So below is one example of how easily you can create a very powerful, memorable statement to the question of why they should hire you.

“I am a Sales Executive (Director / Manager) who can get key decision makers to say ‘Yes’ quickly so the company makes more sales and makes them faster”.

Now this is memorable and the kind of statement that will set you apart from the other candidates. Remember it needs to be simple, easy to remember, but factual and part of something that you have achieved in your career, so you are also able to demonstrate this should the next question be “Tell me a time you have put this into practice”.

I hope you have found this tip helpful, have a go at creating a Positioning Statement that works for you so the next time you attend an interview you will be that Stand Out candidate.

Good Luck

Vanessa Barnes –Insight Executive Search Consultant