Why else do think professional sports teams draft players with impressive statistics? Or the top colleges consider grade point averages for admission? Or why smart employers look for and staff their companies with people with a track record of measurable results?

By not doing so they risk allowing intangibles such as style, appearance and the gift of gab – sizzle over substance – to overly influence those important selection decisions. 

In my years as a corporate recruiter, I often encountered salespeople who were able to talk a good game by highlighting their work activities in general, vague terms: “I call on key customers in major markets.” 

What impressed me more and what I was looking to hear were those statements that quantified one’s accomplishments: “I increased sales revenue by 45 percent annually over a three-year period.” 

Whether it’s on your resume or in an interview, look for opportunities to inject numbers that are relevant, substantive and impressive.  And while it should be relatively easy to identify individual accomplishments for those in sales or marketing, those in supporting professions may have to defer to broader organizational metrics to make their points. 

A human resources manager, for example, may wish to cite the impact an employee retention program he initiated had on lowering overall turnover from 34 percent to 18 percent. A finance manager, on the other hand, might highlight how his outsourcing initiative led to annual cost savings of $250,000.

 If your work experience includes employers with large market share, revenues, headcount, transactions, etc., referencing them can infer impressive complexity and scope.  This is particularly true if the employer is not well-known.

While skills, experience and education are also important, your demonstrated ability to get measurable results will add significant credibility to your qualifications.

And that quantification can go a long way.

For anyone who has researched what it takes to find a new job, it’s a sure bet that networking has surfaced as one of the most effective approaches in learning about potential opportunities. After all, networking consists of making contacts and finding out about jobs you otherwise may not have found on your own.

Networking also allows you to tap into the “hidden job market” — jobs that have not been advertised publicly.

Once you’ve mustered the courage to announce you’re on the market for a new job, don’t think you can kick back and wait for the phone calls and e-mails to start rolling in with promising leads. Too often, job seekers make the mistake of reaching out to their friends, family members and former colleagues with the expectation that a single request for assistance will suffice. It often does not.

While your contacts earnestly want to help your job search, it is easy — and understandable — for them to be distracted by the demands of their own responsibilities and forget about you. To stay fresh in their minds, it’s essential you periodically keep them apprised of your efforts, such as upcoming interviews, employers you are pursuing and networking events you will attend.

A good balance between maintaining an informed and active network and becoming a nuisance by overcommunicating is to limit your correspondence to every four weeks.

Remember: As discouraging as a prolonged job search can become, it’s essential you don’t fade away until you’ve landed a new job.

The encounter was memorable not only because it was the first time I met Bill Marriott but also because it was first time I was called upon to literally deliver an elevator speech.  While I recall sharing something fairly relevant about some recent union organizing activity at our newly opened LaGuardia airport hotel, I knew I could have just as easily said something really nonsensical and embarrassing.  After we exited a few a moments later, I took a sigh of relief and committed to myself that I would be much better prepared for any future such encounters with influential people in the company.

Now imagine you are applying for a corporate marketing job with Marriott and you happen to be riding in the same elevator with a department manager who is escorting you to your interview.  If he or she asks, “So what do you do?” how would you respond before the doors opened?  Both of these scenarios illustrate the importance of the concept known as the “elevator speech.”

Of course, elevator speeches are not confined to dialogue that only takes place in elevators.  They are intended for job fairs, networking events and even social activities.  For the purposes of a job search, you should always be prepared to give a 30-second statement that briefly highlights your skills, experience and career interests in favorable, yet not overly boastful, terms. For instance, an effective response to the question asked by the department manager above may go something like:

“I am a brand marketing manager.  While most of my career has been in the consumer products industry with companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, I most recently worked at American Express on a new financial services product they plan to roll out to their premier customers.  Right now, I’m very interested in pursuing opportunities that would leverage my skills and experience in the travel and hospitality industries.”

Regardless of your profession, your elevator speech should showcase your talents and be sufficiently open-ended so as to potentially expand your career opportunities into an appropriately broad range of professions or industries.  If it’s too narrowly focused (e.g., “I’m a hotel sales manager”), you may miss out on opportunities where your skill sets are potentially transferable.  If it’s too broad (e.g., “I’m a people person”), it comes across as too ambiguous or whimsical and risks diminishing your candidacy.

At this time, I recommend you take a moment and grab a blank sheet of paper and draft your 30-second elevator speech.  While it may seem awkward and silly, I also encourage you to practice your speech in front of a mirror or a video camera until you feel comfortable with not only the content of your remarks, but also your delivery style.  As with any step in the job search process, there’s simply no substitute for practice and preparation and that includes your elevator speech.

If you have done that and you are still not getting any leads, you should expand your network (which you should already be doing) and consider broadening your search to include jobs where your experience, skills and interests are easily transferable. 

When applying for jobs online, it may be helpful to know you are essentially dealing with a numbers game.  What I mean is hundreds, if not thousands, of other candidates may have applied for the same job.  With that kind of response rate, there’s a very good chance that despite your interests, qualifications and experience, there may be 10 or 25 other applicants who are even more qualified than you are.  While that may sound discouraging, people do find jobs on internet job boards so don’t give up on them entirely.  

If the employer is identified in the job posting, this is where networking can come in handy.  In addition to submitting your application online, try finding someone inside the organization who will forward your resume directly to the hiring manager.  As this usually prevents your resume from being electronically screened out, you stand a much greater chance of being considered for the job.  Networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and ZoomInfo are great places to search for insiders in virtually any company.  Another approach is to simply call the employer and ask for the department head for the posted position.  While you may get a “gatekeeper” instead (e.g., receptionist, administrative assistant, etc.), ask them for the name and contact information of the hiring manager and try reaching the person directly either before or after regular working hours when there’s less chance someone else will intercept your call.