Job Search Portfolios

I'm reading a book on business-to-business sales called "Why Leave $100,000 On the Table?" by Mark Bonkiewicz. The author lives in Omaha (where I live), and I came across the book a few weeks back on my bookshelf and decided to read it.

He outlines an interesting strategy for sales professionals to transform themselves from "Peddler to Consultant" and outlines a sales funnel not unlike CJ Hayden's Get Clients Now model. As part of the Demonstration Phase, Bonkiewicz talks about the "Demonstration Book":
"This valuable sales tool allows a consultant to deliver a complete company story to any prospect at any time. Photographs will paint the picture clearly. Testimonial letters will prove that customers from a multiplicity of industries were satisfied with my abilities and the performance of my teammates. Performance evaluations on specific projects will display customer answers on all types of criteria."

It brought me back to a presentation by Phyllis Shabad in October 1999 at the NRWA Conference on the subject of career portfolios. This was one of the earliest -- and I still think, the best -- workshops on this topic I've heard.

Phyllis asserted that you can "control 50% of questions in an interview with a portfolio," adding that it "opens the chemistry of the interviews." She called it the client's "secret marketing tool."

She recommended including no more than 25-30 pages of documentation, beginning with the resume and comprised of five sections, linked thematically. It can include things like "Accomplishments," "Projects" "Relationships" "Credentials" and "Media."

She has clients collect items they feel good about, and put them in a storage box. Then, she and the client brainstorm to come up with categories to organize the materials.

It's amazing to me that this was an idea I first learned more about more than eight years ago -- and I still don't think clients (or resume writers) use these to their full advantage. And it's too bad, because I'm guessing we're leaving more than $100,000 on the table.