I’m working on an advert writing project for a new My Favourite Client, this week.
They see this as an investment that will pay itself off many times. It’s a new evergreen type vacancy - they will continually add to the team as the business grows.
Why spend money on an advert when AI can do for you, eh?
Let’s compare the two approaches.
I’ll anonymise some of what follows.
As a small business, many of their employees were either once customers or recommended by others.
They have a great reputation with their customers, something that increasingly stands out. There are around a billion 5* Trustpilot reviews to back this up.
In a ‘candidate pack’, freely available on their careers pages, they have some great points around how their values are embodied, what customers think of them, and how this ties into how they treat their people.
People who know of them love them. People who don’t wouldn’t know why they might - this is the problem our advert will try and solve.
What they’ve written already is good collateral for AI messaging, and it’s a start for me.
AI written.
I fed the candidate pack and their current advert into Claude, with this prompt:
“Using the two attached documents, please write an anonymous job advert for a Sales Consultant in London. Write it in You language with an emphasis on WIIFM. Make sure to highlight the commission is unlimited and achievable. Remove identifiable characteristics, such as the product.”
The candidate pack serves as an additional prompt, providing additional situational insight.
SALES CONSULTANT OPPORTUNITY - LONDON AREA
EARN UP TO £60,000+ ANNUALLY WITH UNLIMITED COMMISSION POTENTIAL
Are you ready to join one of the UK's most beloved service companies? A company where the entire team understands and is focused on customers' needs? Where your sales talents will be rewarded without caps or limits?
ABOUT THE ROLE
We're an award-winning home improvement company specializing in high-quality bespoke products for discerning homeowners. Started from humble beginnings in a garage, we've grown to a team of 50 passionate individuals - and we're expanding rapidly.
As a Sales Consultant, you'll be:
Meeting clients in their homes to help them achieve their dream look
Earning commission on every sale with UNLIMITED earning potential
Working flexibly - full-time or part-time options available (pro-rata)
Joining a team where 75% of members are former customers or joined through recommendation
WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?
✓ Serious Earning Potential: £60,000+ OTE with absolutely NO COMMISSION CAP - your earning potential is genuinely unlimited
✓ Quality of Life: Create your own schedule with flexible working hours options
✓ Growth & Development: Comprehensive training and personal development in a company obsessed with improvement
✓ Amazing Team Culture: Join a company where 100% of team members would recommend their services to friends and family
✓ Support Package: All the technology, uniform, and tools you need to succeed provided for you
✓ Employee Assistance Program: Comprehensive health and wellbeing support
WHO YOU ARE
Experienced in in-home sales (prior experience necessary)
Confident communicating with customers face-to-face in their homes
Detail-oriented with excellent communication skills
A natural relationship-builder who loves exceeding expectations
Solutions-focused with a can-do attitude
In possession of a full, clean driving license
WHY OUR SALES CONSULTANTS LOVE WORKING HERE
Our team members say:
"They allow you to make your role your own, which I really appreciate."
"Everyone is down to earth and friendly. The bosses are very supportive."
Our customers say:
"No pushy sales people" "What an incredible service" "Excellent from start to finish"
HOW TO APPLY
Send your CV to (email address).
All successful applicants will be subject to Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks.
I haven’t edited it, or tweaked with further prompts.
How does it compare with your adverts?
How would you adjust this content?
What it misses is that these are self-employed vacancies, as is common in their industry.
It misstates certain elements and prioritises on the company, not the reader.
They don’t want out-and-out hungry salespeople gunning for commission - they want mature, professional people who care about good outcomes, and get their commission as a consequence.
It also reads like spammy AI twaddle (I really enjoy that NO COMMISSION CAP is in CAPS).
Greg written -
Okay, so I haven’t written it yet - I kicked off yesterday and the plan is to do so by Wednesday, given my other commitments.
So AI is 1-0 in the game of speed.
Yesterday I had three conversations with the company.
One with their FD, who I’ve collaborated with before - this was a general company catch-up, looking at how the business has changed and their forward plans.
As well as the advert, I’m updating their candidate pack. While it will be a role specific ‘vacancy value proposition’, much of the content will be usable across their recruitment, with minor tweaks.
I also had half hour conversations with three of their current Sales Consultants. One has been with the company for 5 years, one joined a year ago from a direct competitor, and one through word of mouth.
Some snapshots of our conversations
“We’ve recently improved our commission scheme and are looking at ways to make it easier for them to sell.”
“The OTE is what you’d expect for acceptable performance. There’s a lot of scope to exceed it, and commission is paid from the first sale.”
“On paper, the commission scheme is a lower percentage than our competitors, but if you look at the quality of leads and our product pricing, you’d earn more for doing the same amount of work.”
“It’s enjoyable work - we don’t micromanage, we trust people to get on with it, and support them however we can.”
“Our marketing is producing great leads, but we don’t have enough salespeople to service them all.”
“Always happy for people to contact us speculatively. We don’t need a cover letter or updated CV.”
—
“This might sound funny, but I used to have the Monday blues at work, but I never have once since I joined 5 years ago”
“The quality of leads is really good. We typically get 4 a day and expect to convert about half. You occasionally get the odd wrong one, but it’s the exception, not the norm.”
“The Directors are really supportive. They want us to succeed.”
“In my old place, we’d be compared to GaryW who had a 70% conversion rate. “Be like GaryW!” Except when you factored in all his cancellations, then he’d be worse than us. Lots of funny games and dodgy tactics.”
“A lot of their leads were really poor. The quality of their service got worse and worse, and we’d be penalised for mistakes the fitters made.”
“They were cutting corners; they used to be a great business, but it’s gone downhill. So different here - customers are put first, and we make sure to get it right.”
“It’s really flexible here, and we work well together as a team. Self-employment works really well for me.”
“They’ll need a cost-efficient car - a heavy diesel in ULEZ isn’t going to work. Obviously they’ll be happy with travelling locally every day to customer homes.”
“We’re a humble business, great people, very transparent and flexible. Everything is joined up and well communicated.”
“I got my job by emailing them directly. There wasn’t an advert.”
“I got my job because one of my friends had a visit from their sales consultant. He liked their non-salesy style, and we talk as a group. I read their website and love the directors’ story, how humble they are, their staff survey results - I hadn’t seen that before.”
“The Directors are so refreshing. They are receptive to ideas, and we feel valued.”
I said to Dave, when AI takes my job, I’ll be happy to do the Bury patch (I didn’t tell him I’m a misanthrope, but hopefully he won’t read this).
So there’s good stuff in here to write an advert from, though most of it will be in their candidate pack.
I’ll factor in candidate resentment and common issues salespeople will have - overly transactional KPIs, dodgy window salesman style, commission schemes that aren’t achievable.
There’s also an opportunity to sell the notion of self-employment to people who have lost permanent employment.
I think there’s a perception gap, and you’re more likely to see someone take a temporary employed job while waiting for something better, than change employment status. The market for out-of-work over-50 salespeople is a good prospect.
Or with the flexibility they have, what about return-to-work mums who can only work 9.15 to 2.45? It’s the kind of product they might love to buy, made affordable by earning money from selling it.
It’s not just about what we say, but who we say it to, and what they’ll value.
Distilling that in an advert is the challenge.
Much like AI, my words will be parsed from the situational insight I’ve gained. But it’s insight from real conversation that probes blind spots, looks at opportunity from different angles, and feels human.
Not an approximation from the generic words of others, combined with guesstimation of intent from the prompts fed into it.
The irony is that, while I’m working on a day rate on this project, much of the work is what I’d kick off a retained multichannel search project with. Same brief, same insight, same words. It’s great fun!
I suspect that as we abdicate more and more responsibility to automation, the insight edges will get shaved off. There will be a net gain, but with significant losses.
While the proof might not be in what it does, but in how it’s experienced by people who might want to work for you - your readers, potential applicants and candidates.
Something I’ll dig into next time.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Greg
I've had an enraged LinkedIn DM challenging me on the production of a new My Favourite Client. For clarity - the heart only grows bigger for My Favourite Clients, like the Grinch but less Christmassy.