It's time to get a bit emotional!

Earlier in the week I was working with two clients who are in the process of putting together a strategy for a really interesting business venture. During our meeting Ron said, "We've finally managed to articulate our USP but we're still in the process of trying to nail our ESP".

Whilst I have never been a fan of dropping acronyms into conversations, I understood that he and Trudi had come up with their Unique Selling Proposition, but I couldn't grasp what Extrasensory Perception had to do with the business plan - unless of course they were going to engage a tarot card reader or fortune teller to help plot the growth strategy!

It turned out that Ron was referring to the business' Emotional Selling Proposition.

Don't worry ... you are certainly not the only one who may not have heard of this particular piece of marketing speak before. However I am actually going to put this relatively new piece of marketing jargon into a recruitment context for the purposes of this blog posting.

Unfortunately the majority of hiring decisions are based primarily on emotion after which the decision may be backed up with logic. When it comes to helping you get across the line in an interview, your USP will make a potential employer aware of any key strengths and benefits that they may gain through hiring you. But since a recruiter or hiring manager will often make their decision based on emotion, you should also think about coming up with your Emotional Selling Proposition - your emotional lever that will help the person sitting opposite you make their decision. 

Think about the emotion that you want to stir up in your potential employer and use this during your interview. What can you convey to make them feel important in the decision making process? How can you make them feel that they will gain more credibility by having you in their team? How good will they look in the eyes of their boss if they bring you on board ... etc.

It's very subtle - but certainly important. So next time you are revisiting your USPs in preparation for an interview, make sure you also spend some time refining your ESPs too.

Image courtesy of: merveçi