Cold Call Letters that Work: Here's how...
by Ross Macpherson, President, Career Quest
Traditionally, sending your resume and cover letter cold to a company,
when there is no available or listed opening, tends to yield very poor
results. Direct marketers who practice this marketing approach, those
that often send you the flyers you receive in the mail, generally accept
that a good response is only 0.5-1.0%. That's right - if they hear back
from less than 1%, they consider that a decent response rate (that's why
they blast these flyers to tens of thousands of people - it's the only
way it works).
Same thing applies to blasting your resume to companies cold - it's a
low yield strategy. So, is there a way to contact a company when there's
no position and almost guarantee a response? Yes there is, and that's
the powerful job search strategy I want to tell you about.
While blasting your resume and cover letter out to companies is a low effort-low yield strategy, there is a way to contact companies cold and compel them to call you, and it doesn't even necessarily require your resume (at least not at first).
In his book Don't Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to
Help Land a Great Job, Jeffrey Fox leverages his ad agency experience
and shows you a great strategy for getting in the door and creating opportunities
for yourself.
A QUICK NOTE: This approach requires agood deal of upfront work, but the
results can be spectacular! Where the "random blasting" technique
I mentioned above is low effort-low yield, this approach is definitely
high effort-high yield. It's not necessarily for everyone, but boy can
it ever work if you can get it working for you. Here's how it goes…
Step 1:
Find a company you are interested in working for - obviously, this takes some time, some digging, and some serious thought, but identify a good candidate company and prepare to go to Step 2.
Step 2:
Learn everything you can about that company, particularly as it would relate to your area of expertise. So, for example, if you are in sales and marketing, call and get copies of their company materials, investigate their marketing plans and results, go to their retail stores or distributors, talk to customers and competitors, and gather valuable information into their strategies, their efforts, their successes, their gaps, and their opportunities. In other words, conduct some serious market research.
Step 3:
Now that you have some valuable insight into the firm, specifically as it relates to your area of expertise, determine what YOU have to offer to improve it, enhance it, or correct it. You want to try to be specific here - you're looking for specific reasons why they might need you, and then you're going to offer yourself as the solution!
Step 4:
Write a powerful "impact letter" that grabs their attention, addresses your findings, and presents yourself as the solution. Here's how one might look for our sales and marketing person:
Dear _______,
I have spent some time researching your company, and I'm very impressed.
However, based upon my research, which includes observing your products
in use by your customers, I have identified four things that would further
improve your profitability.
1. I visited 20 stores that specialize in your type of product, but
Product A was available in only 14 of those stores. The other stores are
good target accounts as they move considerable volume. I can get your
product on their shelves.
2. In addition, only 2 of those 14 stores were using your display
materials, and they were getting good results. We could take the experience
of those 2 stores and educate every customer to the sales-generating potential
of the displays.
3. One customer said she would be willing to stock all of you SKU's,
but she can't find anyone to show her how to merchandise the line. Her
concern might represent an opportunity for a national planogram promotion.
4. Your competitor is test marketing a new product on the East Coast.
I have some comments from the retailers and a few of their customers as
to how the new product is doing. We could discuss some ideas I have on
what you might do in response.
I would like to make these ideas a reality for you. I can be reached
at _______. If I don't hear from you, I will follow up within the next
few days.
Sincerely,
Jane Success
P.S. There is a new channel of distribution available to you which could add an additional 5% volume to your top line. We could discuss this, too.
The idea behind this approach is to do serious, value-added research,
find how you can benefit the company or area or department, and offer
enough of a solution in your letter to entice them to contact you. To
them, you've shown initiative, intelligence, and the ability to help make
their company stronger. Similar techniques have worked for years in the
sales and marketing world - and that's just the world we want to tap into
during our job search.
If you are trying to generate opportunities for yourself at a target
company, particularly where there may not be any currently posted position,
you need to make your specific value as clear as possible. This approach
works, BUT your offer has got to be specific, got to be essential
to their line of business, and your value proposition has got to be irresistible.
Sound like a lot of work? Yup, it is. But let's look at this in the proper
light. Is this project any different that any other tough, do-or-die project
you've done at work? When you've absolutely had to get it done, you got
it done! This is just another project like that. And, you're only doing
it with one of two target companies, not hundreds. A big project, yes,
but one you can do and one that could pay off big time for
you!
If you are confident in your abilities, can articulate your value, and
are willing to put in the work, this is one of the most powerful strategies
you can have in your job search arsenal.
To your success!!
© 2003 Ross Macpherson
About the Author
Ross Macpherson is the President of Career Quest, a Certified Professional Resume Writer, and a Career Success Coach who has helped thousands of motivated professionals advance their careers. To receive more valuable career advice, sign up to join his monthly newsletter "Career Quest Café" by visiting www.yourcareerquest.com.
NOTE: You're more than welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains intact and unaltered (including the "About the Author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to ross@yourcareerquest.com
