As an upwardly-mobile executive, you need a really good personal sales representative…one that can be where you can’t be, and sell when you’re not there.
You need a resume.
And it should be as persuasive as you can possibly make it. Indeed, it should be compelling enough to take on the hardest selling challenge of all: to make “cold calls” on complete strangers…and get results.
That’s what a resume has to do as the core of your Communications POWER TOOL, whether you (1) send it to just one individual, or you (2) send out POWER TOOLS by the thousands in a classic direct mail campaign. Your resume arrives uninvited and unexpected. And usually it’s assisted by nothing more than a brief covering letter. If it can convince someone who’s never before met or heard about you to call, email or write you a letter, then surely it can do everything else you could ask a resume to do.
You can trust such a resume to be your spokesperson whenever you can’t be present. Whether you leave it behind after a successful interview, or send it ahead hoping to get an appointment, it will give every recipient the same persuasive, ungarbled message you’d convey in person. Effective all by itself, your resume will also be an indispensable aid to anybody who wants to “sell” you to someone else…from the recruiter telling his client about you, to your potential boss telling her boss, to the CEO informing his Board.
Before we start creating your optimum “Sales Representative” resume, let’s discuss why it’s worth the effort, and dispose of your excuses for not making it.
It’$ your most valuable credential.
How long did you spend in undergraduate college…four years? And maybe in grad school after that…two to five years? And besides the time…the money? And for what?
Alphabet soup. Credentials! Stuff on paper that you hoped—and to some extent you’ve found—could enhance your earning power and career achievement, in addition to culturally enriching your life.
Suppose it takes you a month, at the outside, working every spare moment nights and weekends, to compile a succinct but compellingly information-packed recounting of what you’ve learned and achieved since college…the only things a potential employer really cares about and pays you big money for. The resume you wind up with is the most valuable credential you can have today. Like your diploma(s), it’s merely words on paper, But far more negotiable at the bank!
“I don’t need a resume right now,
since I’m not considering a change.”
Great! Now’s the ideal time to examine your career and demonstrate its value. Now…when you have the leisure and the objectivity to do a really thoughtful, comprehensive job.
Tomorrow’s paper may bring news of an unexpected opening at a leading company in your industry…one that’s likely to be filled from outside, and one where you could easily reach the decision-maker through networking, or maybe just by picking up the phone. He’ll probably ask for your resume. Is it ready?
And shouldn’t you also have your most persuasive possible resume in the hands of your friends at the top retainer search firms? Even if you’re permanently on file electronically, they may be glad to have your “formal” resume handy whenever they’re actually presenting you as a candidate.
The “total immersion” study of your career and its accomplishments that’s necessary to produce the ultimate “sales representative” resume will help—indeed force—you to size up (1) where you stand now relative to your long-range goals, and (2) how special you really are—or aren’t—relative to your peers. Maybe you’re already gaining momentum in the passing lane on the fast track. But maybe you’re just cruising along an access road. There’s no speed limit on your career, so why not step on the gas?
“I don’t need a resume because it’s classier not to have one.”
Well, at least it’s less work.
“I don’t need a resume because I’m not looking.
And when the prestigious retainer recruiter comes after me, he’ll create my resume.”
That’s true; at least so it will seem to his client. Even if you hand him an excellent resume, his assistant will probably word-process it so that it will appear consistent with the papers he presents on his other candidates.
But suppose he’s got a really terrific opportunity for you… and five other people. Do you want to rest your case on what he’ll write from memory after an hour or so of conversation? If you hand him a highly persuasive resume, he won’t make it worse to match the rest. And if he has to write it, chances are he can’t make it good enough to match the best.
“Fortunately, I don’t have to bother writing my own resume; the people who fired me have paid for outplacement services.”
Some things are more important to you and to your future than they are to anyone else. The document that positions you in the employment world is one of them.
Incidentally, a “superior-performance” resume trumps a “superior- education” one. Could that fact help you?
Okay, we’ve got the “whys?” and “why nots?” out of the way. Now let’s talk about your ultimate credential, the true “Sales Representative” resume… strong enough for use in direct mail, and therefore best for every other use, too.
Direct mail selling is the hardest test persuasive writing can be put to. By mailing to large numbers of potential purchasers, it’s possible to blanket so many that you’ll surely hit a few who have a need at the exact moment your envelope arrives. But grabbing attention, engaging interest, and convincing strongly enough to stimulate action…that’s still a lot to ask of mere words on paper. You’d better send something persuasive. It must truly be a Communications POWERTOOL. And its core is your resume, which speaks for you when you can’t be there. Moreover, that’s true regardless of whether your resume:
1. arrives “cold” in the mail, or by accident, or
2. is hand delivered…by you yourself, or by someone who’s met you, and wants another person to know you as fully and favorably as she does.
Indeed, as we shall see, a resume effective enough to perform in those situations will also be effective when
3. you offer it as an orientation aid at an interview.
…And now for the shocker. What’s the number-one principle of direct mail copywriting?
In almost every industry, there’s a bedrock principle discovered years ago… and reconfirmed again and again through the experience of everyone in the field…until it becomes the rule that all know and follow. In real estate, for example, it’s:
“Location is everything.”
Or, stated another way…
“The three principles of real estate are:
(1) Location, (2) location, and (3) location.”
In direct mail copywriting, as in real estate, success or failure is proven in dollars and cents. Before any company sends a mailing to 5 million or 50 million households, several different versions are tested, ranging from short to long copy, and trying new gimmicks, such as envelopes that look like bank statements, bills, newsletters, etc. Objective: to see which variation pulls most orders per thousand dollars of cost.
Some of the new gimmicks test well and are used. Others are forgotten. But, like real estate, direct mail copywriting has one bedrock principle-that everyone respects…proven during seventy years of testing and reconfirmed by test after test today:
“Long copy sells.”
Proof of this honored axiom is delivered to your home every day. If shortness worked, brevity would be in your mailbox. And all the companies now using long-copy direct mail could achieve multi-million dollar savings in paper, printing, and postage…everything that makes several pages more expensive than just one. Those companies aren’t stupid. They test. They don’t spend more money unless the results more than justify the extra cost.
However, this proven axiom might, as advertising guru David Ogilvy pointed out, be more accurately stated:
“Factual copy sells.”
Famous for his “long-copy” ads, Mr. Ogilvy was also a crusader for very clear and succinct writing. He conveyed each fact with arresting clarity and brevity, and then piled up a wealth of these impressive facts to prove his client’s product superior to competitive brands. Master of the concise well-turned phrase, Ogilvy summed up the principle this way: “The more you tell, the more you sell.”
Incidentally, the experts I’ve talked to tell me that the only exceptions to the “long copy sells” rule occur with simple products that every recipient is already thoroughly familiar with before the mailing arrives. In such cases, explanation of the product is unnecessary, because only the briefly stated offer is new.
For example, you can sell someone a cut-price subscription to Forbes or Fortune with a postcard or a little self-mailer envelope, whereas it will take several pages of facts and pictures to persuade the same person to sign up for a “four-months-free, cancel-and-pay-nothing” offer on a new publication.
When you get in touch with a prospective employer, you’re always an unknown new publication. You’re not Business Week, National Geographic, or The Wall Street Journal, and don’t you forget it!
There are always, of course, a few “celebrity” executives in any field who… at least during their heyday…may be able to get by with brevity instead of a convincing dose of selling copy. For example, Steve Jobs before his untimely passing could have sent out multiple copies of the following brief note…and produced a flood of inquiries:
I’ve pretty much finished what
I set out to do at Apple,
Pixar, and Disney.
If you think I could be helpful to your company, please give me a call.
John’s Fire-in-the-Forest Analogy
I had a very successful career as a consumer products marketing executive before I got into executive recruiting decades ago, and I’ve thought many times about the question of why long copy—or as I prefer to describe it, adequately specific copy—invariably sells complicated, expensive items by direct mail much better than short copy does.
The experts either say:
“People need a certain amount of convincing to break down their barriers.”
Or they say:
“Who cares why? Experience proves that long copy works!”
Well, over the years I’ve come up with a little analogy which has helped satisfy my need for a “why,” and it may strike a chord with you, too.
Hitting people “cold” with a written sales pitch and taking them all the way from no-such-thought-anywhere-in-their-heads to the point of grabbing a phone or an ipad and taking action requires quite a process of change to take place step-by-step in their minds.
Think of the process as a chain reaction analogous to building a fire in the forest when you have just one match. Before you strike that match, you must have the entire makings of your fire all laid out. First you find some tinder… maybe an old Kleenex®, or some dry leaves. Then you add dry twigs and small dry sticks. Then some bigger sticks and branches…as dry as you can find. And on top of everything else some big branches and logs…dry, if possible, but if not, the other stuff burning under them will get them ready to burn. What you’ve assembled will keep the fire going all night, or at least long enough for you to round up more fuel.
You wouldn’t dream of wasting your match by starting the chain reaction with only part of your fuel in place. You’d have everything ready. Otherwise, your fire might get off to a promising start…and then go out.
Something similar, I submit, must happen when a mailing convinces its reader to buy a complicated, expensive, seldom-purchased item. The letter must take him from complete unawareness and indifference…to first spark of interest… to casual but somewhat more interested reading…to avid devouring of all the information provided…to contacting the sender. Since we know for a fact that short, sketchy copy doesn’t perform as well as longer, more informative copy, I submit that the reason may be too little fuel.
The reader may have a first flicker of interest…which may grow into casual, and even attentive, reading. He’s not yet convinced to phone or email. But he is willing to read further.
Suddenly the fuel runs out. The reader would have considered more information…but it wasn’t there! And not deeply involved, he doesn’t bother to send out for more facts.
You’ve got just one match. Don’t waste it!
You have your reader’s attention when she first glances at your resume… whether it blows in through the window or it comes in the mail. Your match is lit and burning. It ignites the dried leaves. But if you haven’t laid out enough persuasive factors to fuel the chain reaction, your match is wasted. You’ve sparked attention. But there’s no bonfire. And your phone doesn’t ring.
Q: What happens when you apply direct mail copywriting to your resume?
A: It goes from 2 pages to 3 or 4 pages… and it contains 3 or 5 times as much of the persuasive information employers are interested in.
“Look, John,” I’ll bet you’re saying, “forgetting for the moment the fact that everyone has always told me resumes should be brief, not long…and maybe conceding that the direct mail people do know about stimulating action through a written sales presentation…still I can’t let you get away with saying that doubling the pages from two to four will provide five times as much persuasive information.”
I knew I’d grab you with that idea.
But think about it for a minute. On two pages you’re barely able to list your name, address, phone numbers, email address, college degrees, a couple personal facts, and lay out a reverse-chronological listing of all the companies you’ve worked for and the progression of titles and responsibilities from college to now…all requisites of a good resume (although you’ll drastically condense any early history that merely matches what everyone else does early in a similar career). Certainly you’ll feel squeezed as you create a nice clean layout with lots of white space separating all the elements, so that where you’ve been and what you’ve done is easy to scan…a point we’ll get back to later.
So in two pages, you are able to list the job titles you’ve held and give a skimpy description of responsibilities for the more recent and important ones. Unfortunately, you haven’t got room to say much, if anything, about what you achieved when you held those responsibilities. And achievements proving you’re special are what a prospective employer is looking for.
Everyone has been given responsibility. Only a special few—you among them, I hope—have given back anything really substantial in the way of achievement.
Let’s say that in a nice, open, quick-to-scan layout, with your chronological units floating in a decent amount of white space, you get 400 to 500 words on a page, 800 to 1,000 on two pages…and 75% of them are devoted to covering the mandatory data. That leaves about 200 to 250 words for accomplishments that could make you stand out as interesting—and hopefully special—in the eyes of a potential employer.
Now go from two pages to four. You’ve got room for 1,600 to 2,000 words… 800 to 1,000 more than before. And every additional word can be devoted to achievements, because the basics were already covered in the two-page version. Add your original 200 to 250 words on achievements, and the box score looks like this:
But now let’s go back to the point about everyone telling you to keep your resume brief.
Who told you? And when? And why?
Who and When?
Was it your “Counselor” at the contingency firm that helped you get your first job out of college or graduate school? Was it someone who “worked with” you or “headhunted” you as you moved into middle management with your second or third job?
Face it: in those days you hadn’t done anything really significant yet. At that stage no one has. Or if they have, nobody is prepared to believe they have.
From entry level up through middle management you’re somewhere from a “GI Joe” to a first lieutenant in the army of industry. What an employer wants to know is where you’ve been…how fast you’re moving up…and how closely your experience matches what she wants done. That information fits neatly on one page…certainly no more than two. Indeed, if you’re bright, attractive, and ambitious, it won’t matter if your entire early career has been spent working on a string of corporate flops! You won’t be blamed. You didn’t commit the corporation to those misadventures. And you weren’t so centrally responsible for implementation that anyone will figure you made a good idea fail.
Today, however, you’re in an altogether different situation. You’re at or far beyond $100,000+. Now you’re at least a “field commander.” You legitimately can claim some victories. And you can be held responsible for some defeats. Your resume must deliver more factual information.
Also consider the “why” behind the advice you’re given.
If you’re now way above $100,000+, and “when” you were told to “keep it brief” was yesterday, and “who” told you was a prestigious retainer recruiter…then maybe we should consider “why” he said that.
The most obvious reason is that you only have a fleeting moment of your reader’s time and attention before he’ll give up on your resume as too tedious to figure out, and toss it aside. This reason I totally agree with. However, I don’t agree that the solution to the problem is to strip away your persuasive factual information.
The other reason could be that the retainer recruiter has orally “pre-sold” you to his client, so your resume doesn’t have to be persuasive. My reaction to this reason from your standpoint is “OK…but.” The recruiter is introducing several other candidates besides you, and if you have some impressive achievements, you want them clearly known to the employer as she chooses between you and the others.
Your resume must perform two functions.
Brevity suits one…and defeats the other.
Your resume absolutely must do two things. Unfortunately, while brevity achieves one, it defeats the other. Therefore, unless your exploits were the cover story in Monday’s Fortune, brevity isn’t your answer.
1. Quick Orientation
Your reader will allow your resume only about thirty seconds…no more than a minute…to orient him to who you are, and whether you might be relevant to his needs right now. Certainly that’s true if it arrives “cold” in the mail or is blown in through the window; he’ll spend more time with it, not less, if he’s paid a retainer recruiter over $80,000 to look for it.
Most of the time your resume will reach the reader when he doesn’t need you. Your “one match” will burn less than a minute. By then, if you’ve done a poor orientation job, he’ll have dumped you for being too tedious and confusing. And even if you’ve done a good job, he’ll almost always have dumped you for not being needed right now.
2. Thorough Convincing
But in the rare, rare instance when you do happen to hit a reader at the moment she has a need you might fill, and you quickly orient her to that fact, then she’s willing to extend her attention span a bit further.
She didn’t find you irrelevant. Now she’s looking to find you ordinary. But, wait a minute; you’ve been involved in several things that were impressively successful…another “turn off” bypassed. Okay, but probably these programs were conceived, planned, and strategically implemented by others, and you were merely a supporting player. No, wait another minute; your clear, succinct explanation of the reasons underlying the actions that were taken certainly sounds like you were the strategist, not just the “gofer.” Your reader decides:
“This guy is interesting. I’ll read to the end. And then I’ll go back over this whole thing again. If he still looks okay, maybe I’ll even call him up.”
As you see, a very brief resume could have performed the quick orientation and helped your reader turn off. Unfortunately, it probably couldn’t have turned her on…and on…and on…to the point of picking up the phone and calling you.
Fortunately, a resume written according to the “long copy sells” principle of direct mail copywriting is capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.
Right away you’re probably saying, “I can see, John, where long copy will be great at ‘Thorough Convincing,’ but won’t it interfere with ‘Quick Orientation’?”
No. Not if you’re careful to make your resume visually accessible. Format and layout become extremely important. Just make your resume:
Scannable!
Your reader will glance at 3, 4, 5, or more pages if it’s instantly evident with just one glance what’s on each of those pages. If you arrange your resume right, the recipient will probably glance through all of the pages before reading any of them. That’s everyone’s normal impulse as a reader anyway. You probably flipped through this book before you began reading it page-by-page. Fortunately, with resumes in particular, it’s easy to help that normal human tendency along.
But don’t go crazy! A great many people cannot be trusted with the knowledge that they can have a multiple page resume. They somehow jump to the conclusion that more words on more pages is better. They become legends in their own minds. Their accomplishments only merit two or three pages, and they vomit out words far beyond a tight, succinct telling of their story. If you are merely adding words, rather than exciting and very succinctly stated recent accomplishments, you are going WRONG. Please don’t say that I made you narcissistic and boring!
Don’t you just hate topically-oriented resumes? Don’t you wish everyone did?
I have never yet met anyone who likes to receive a topically-oriented resume.
You know the kind…where practically the whole thing is a list of claimed accomplishments, presented entirely out of context of when they happened… who the executive was working for…what his title, responsibilities, reporting relationships, and staff were…and what the size and nature of the businesses were. Finally, if you’re lucky…and it’s not always there…you find a deliberately sketchy little “Chronology of Employment” buried at the end, from which…if you’re not already too turned off…you try to guess when and for whom and from what position of how much authority those previously claimed management miracles were achieved.
You and I are in the overwhelming majority in disliking topically-oriented resumes (also sometimes euphemistically referred to as “achievement-oriented”). When on the receiving end, virtually everybody prefers the good, honest, comfortable, easy-to-read old-fashioned kind, where name, address, email, and business and home phone are at the top, and work history proceeds backwards from current job on the first page to earliest on the last page.
Everyone’s recognition of…and preference for… the standard-format resume solves your “scannability” problem, without getting you into the brevity trap.
If you don’t go out of your way to confuse your reader, you’ve got the scannability problem solved…no matter how long you choose to make your resume.
Everyone in a position to hire an executive earning over $100k or 300k or 500k has read hundreds of resumes before. If yours is in standard reverse-chronology format, and each employer/time/position copyblock floats in enough white space to make it clear where one segment ends and the earlier one begins, your reader will go on automaticpilot…scanning through any number of pages in just a very few seconds.
One page or five, he quickly sees that you’re not somebody he can use right now. But if by stroke of lightning you happen to have dropped into his hands at precisely the time he does need someone with a background even remotely like yours, he’ll read on…and on. Having your entire “fire” laid out, you’ve got an excellent chance that your reader will proceed all the way from flicker-of-interest to action. Expect a phone call or an email!
Not only does the standard reverse-chronology resume solve the scannability problem; it’s also more convincing, because it’s more straightforward.
Forget about “long copy sells.” Assume that two resumes, one reverse-chronological and the other topical, are the same length…any length.
The one that deliberately strips away the employment context from the claimed accomplishments not only frustrates the reader’s comprehension, it also raises the presumption that there must have been some very good reason for doing so. “This person obviously has something to hide,” thinks the reader. “I wonder what it is.”
Usually it’s too-brief tenure at the latest or two latest jobs…and maybe at lots of jobs along the way. That’s what the reader immediately suspects. And readily confirms, if a truthful “chronology” is included anywhere in the resume. And assumes if it’s not.
Wanting to de-emphasize their latest job and not put it at the top of a reverse-chronological list is overwhelmingly the reason executives turn to a topically-oriented resume…even though when they’re personally hiring, they hate to receive one. That’s a mistake. It’s better to deal with the problem straightforwardly.
Below I’ve shown a successful lead-off entry for a reverse-chronological resume. This person wisely stuck to the traditional format.
2015 (9 months)
FLY-BY-NIGHT SCHLOCK ELECTRONICS CORP.
Vice President - Engineering
After seven years of increasing responsibility at Alcatel-Lucent and predecessor, Bell Labs Div. of AT&T, I was recruited as Chief Engineering Officer of this fast-growing five-year-old maker of video games and electronic gambling devices (2014 sales, $332.5 million), by the Founder/CEO, who’d been his own chief engineer.
Six months later, I still hadn’t received the equity stake which was a primary incentive to join, and still hadn’t been allowed to install any of the operating changes I felt could benefit the company. So I proposed and the Chairman agreed that I should re-distribute my duties to subordinates and seek a situation where I can assume a more assertive role.
2002 - 2015
BELL LABORATORIES DIVISION
(ALCATEL-LUCENT AND PREDECESSOR LUCENT/AT&T)
Group Director - Laser Engineering Department
As you see, by the third paragraph on the top page of his resume, the writer is back to telling the Bell Labs story he loves to tell. Above all, he hasn’t been forced into a topical resume…a cure far worse than his mild disease.
If you’re right, John, that almost everyone prefers to read standard-format resumes, why do people write the other kind? And do the executives who write them also dislike receiving them?
Questions I’ve always been curious about, too. So I’ve checked into them with the people who’ve handed me topical resumes over the past 35 years.
Invariably, once we got down to talking frankly, these people pointed out problems similar to the one I just dealt with, which made me conclude they felt forced to give up the standard reverse-chronological format. I can’t recall a single person maintaining that he went to the topical format because that’s the type he prefers to receive.
And now, maestro…an appropriate drum roll and cymbal crash as we unveil a sample resume written according to the “long copy sells” principle of direct mail copywriting.
It’s from Sam Sage, one of the many executives you’ll meet when you view an executive search through the eyes of a retainer recruiter in Appendix I.
As you look at Sam’s resume…begin by doing what everyone always does with a resume. Scan it for a few seconds.
What function does Sam perform?
Who’s he done it for?
How long has he been at it?
See if Sam’s someone you might need right now. Chances are he’s not. And you’ll see that at a glance.
Next…before you actually read the resume…do me a favor. Ask yourself:
Could a shorter resume have turned you off any faster?
Would Sam be any further ahead if it had?
Having scanned the resume, do me another favor. Change the facts. Pretend that you now have even the slightest…the weakest possible…glimmer of interest in someone even remotely like Sam. For that reason, you’re inclined to begin reading the resume.
Are you interested enough to continue from page 1 to page 2?
From page 2 to 3? All the way to the end?
Face it. If you’re not interested enough to spend the two or three extra minutes it’ll take you to finish reading about Sam, you’re certainly not interested enough to call him up and kill an hour or two meeting him face-to-face.
Finally, after you have read all the way to the end, ask yourself:
Could Sam have “sold” you better with a shorter resume?
Would knowing less about Sam have made you like him more?
What information could he have withheld in order to really turn you on?
And is that information anything that even the briefest one-page resume could conceal?
Note…
The resume we’re developing here is the classic high quality document you should always have ready and up-to-date. It’s your best possible representative, whether delivered by mail or email, or handed over at an interview, or passed along by people wanting others to appreciate you.
SAMUEL P. SAGE
219 Waring Drive
Denton, New Jersey 07299
Home: (201) 719-0932
Office: (212) 121-3000
ssage@aota.com
2010 - Present
FARRINGTON LABORATORIES
(Merged into Pan Global Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in October ’15)
New York, New York
Vice President - Chief Marketing Officer
Recruited to this privately-owned $1.3 billion maker of prescription drugs as Vice President -Chief Marketing Officer by Blair Farrington, Founder/Owner/CEO in 2010, when sales were $592 million.
Mr. Farrington doubled what I’d been making in the same position at the much larger (then $1.2 billion) Swiss-owned Medica Suisse USA Ltd. But the primary incentive was this 72-year-old gentleman’s plan to take the business public with me as his successor, after we worked a few years together to increase volume and improve profitability. Instead, the company has been purchased by…and merged into…Pan Global Pharmaceuticals (October ‘ 15’). With their acquiescence, I’m seeking a new challenge…hopefully a Presidency; otherwise Chief Marketing Officer with early transition to general management.
Following (with Mr. Farrington’s permission) is a summary of the company’s performance since I joined in 2010 and 3 years prior:
The product line was reduced from 618 SKUs in ‘10 to 309 profitable items in ‘13 (expanded with new products to 384 by ‘15). The 109-person sales force was reorganized into 11 regions in ‘10 and expanded to 225 people by ‘15.
Nine profitable new drugs were introduced via cross-licensing agreements with other manufacturers (‘15 sales, $258 million; $62 million pre-tax net), and $23.4 million pretax was generated by granting licenses to other companies.
Physicians’ top-of-mind brand-name awareness of our three largest-selling drugs was raised from 18% in ‘10 to 62% in ‘15 by a massive sampling, detailing, and professional advertising campaign (budget tripled from $18.8 million in ‘10 to $58.2 million in ‘15).
As a result of Farrington Labs’ excellent growth trend and high profitability, Pan Global paid 30 times estimated ‘15 earnings in a 50%-cash/50%-stock transaction.
2007 - 2010
MEDICA SUISSE USA LTD.
Marshall Plains, New Jersey
Vice President - Pharmaceutical Marketing
Rejoined this $3.6 billion Zurich-based maker of prescription drugs, veterinary biologicals, and fine chemicals as Director of Pharmaceutical Marketing, reporting to the Managing Director -USA, and heading all marketing and sales for all North American pharmaceutical lines (total ‘07 sales, $630 million) after a two-year hiatus to aid my family’s automobile business in Ohio.
By 2010 sales were nearly double ($1.2 billion) 2007 volume, and ROI had increased from 17% (‘07) to 24% (‘10). Market share of U.S. prescription tranquilizer market rose from 11.6% in ‘07 to 19.2% in ‘10, and veterinary products gained 1.3 share points to 7.2% in ‘10.
My earlier recommendation (in ‘05) that the company’s consumer pet-health lines be sold to generate cash for acquisition of young growth companies in the higher-margined ethical drug field was implemented while I was away (2006), and I helped identify and purchase in ‘07 and ‘08 three small companies…BioTRITON, Radio-Tra-Chem, and Synestial Laboratories…which have all grown and prospered under Medica Suisse ownership. One of these, BioTRITON, was publicly reported as having worldwide sales of $560 million in ‘14, with the highest ROI of any Medica Suisse business anywhere in the world.
’08 | Vice President - Pharmaceutical Marketing. Promotion in title, no change in duties. |
’07 | Director - Pharmaceutical Marketing. Rejoined Medica Suisse in charge of corporate Marketing, Market Research, Telemarketing, and Sales Promotion departments (total of 41 people); plus two sales forces…Ethical Drug (135-person) and Veterinary (32-person). |
2005 - 2007
SAGE CHRYSLER / TOYOTA, INC.
Kensington, Ohio
Upon my father’s sudden death (2005), I took charge of the family business ($2.8 million sales in ’05, $4.4 million in ’07), holding it together until my younger brother could finish his MBA at Wharton (‘07) and join my mother in running the company.
Increased TV advertising, and diversified by building two Taco Bell fast food franchises (since expanded to seven). Profits nearly doubled in two years.
2003 - 2005
MEDICA SUISSE USA LTD.
Marshall Plains, New Jersey
Group Product Director
Invited to join my client from New World Advertising Agency as Group Product Director (with 4 Product Managers and 5 Assistant PMs), in charge of:
(1) | Marketing existing U.S. lines…$68 million consumer (Krueger’s flea-and-tick collars and home remedies for pets) and $96 million professional ($42 million veterinary and $54 million human prescription drugs); and |
(2) | Introducing new family of prescription tranquilizers (Dopatreem) for Rx sales in the U.S. |
Since introduction of a major new Rx drug is impossible without a large field force (and Medica Suisse had only 22 salesmen carrying both Rx and veterinary lines), I cut off advertising on all lines for 10 months; used the cash flow to build a 100-person field force calling only on MDs; and launched a $20 million sampling and ad campaign for the Dopatreem line.
Result: 14 months after introduction, Dopatreem and Dopatreem X were #2 and #5 tranquilizers in the U.S., with $440 million combined annualized rate of sales. Profit from Rx lines was then temporarily diverted to help rebuild other lines to all-time high share levels.
1999 - 2003
NEW WORLD ADVERTISING AGENCY
New York, New York
Vice President - Account Group Supervisor
Joined as Account Executive on $38 million Whiskers cat food account when the AE on my P&G business moved to New World as Account Supervisor and asked me to join him. Through growth of Whiskers and acquiring new accounts, became VP - Account Group Supervisor in charge of $102 million in billings (4 AEs and 3 Assistant AEs) from Megopolitan Foods ($76 million on Whiskers and Arf! brands) and Medica Suisse ($14 million on consumer items and $12 million on veterinary and Rx human drugs).
As AE in ’99, led the task force that “re-staged” Whiskers brand with CLIO-winning “Caesar-the-Cat” TV commercials and portion-control packaging that doubled Whiskers’ market share from 5% (‘99) to 11.2% (‘03). Factory sales rose from $106 million (‘98) to $298 million (‘02); and advertising rose from $18 million to $52 million. Led successful solicitation of $14 million Arf! dog food account (‘00), which billed $24 million in ’03 (sales rose from $64 million to $158 million). Personally brought in Krueger’s flea-and-tick collars ($8 million in ’01) from Medica Suisse, which consolidated all their North American business with us in ’03.
2001 | Vice President - Account Group Supervisor. A 26% 12-month sales increase in Krueger’s flea collars, etc. from Medica Suisse enabled us to win their veterinary and prescription drug accounts…the first medical advertising handled by New World. Promoted for building of Megopolitan and Medica Suisse accounts. |
’00 | Account Supervisor. Turnaround on Whiskers enabled us to land $14 million Arf! dog food billings (‘00) and Krueger’s consumer pet items (‘01). |
’99 | Account Executive. Entered on the Whiskers account with assignment to stem share decline (averaging 0.9 point per year since ’94). |
PROMOTE & GAMBOL COMPANY
Cincinnati, Ohio
’98 | Assistant Brand Manager. Handled $52 million TV & print media and $16 million sales promotion budget on GLOSS-X floor cleaner. Promoted to head successful test marketing and regional expansion of new GLOSS-O floor wax. |
’96 | Brand Assistant. Traditional P&G home office and field sales training assignments; handled TV copy testing for Soft-Ah! paper products. |
EDUCATION: | MBA, Harvard Business School, 1996 |
PERSONAL: | Born June 1, 1971 |
Editor’s Note…
This model resume by John Lucht in RITES OF PASSAGE has raised the prevailing standards for proving one’s superiority to other candidates for a desirable position. To master these breakthroughs, use pages 41 to 135 in his EXECUTIVE JOB-CHANGING WORKBOOK, which provide (1) “real life examples” and (2) templates for creating your personal job-winning resume.
Could Sam have made you like him better by omitting something you just read?
And if so, could even the shortest one-page resume have concealed that particular “something”?
You scanned Sam’s resume in seconds.
You saw at a glance that he’s a marketing executive. And a very high-level one.
Is there any kind of resume, no matter how brief—or any kind of letter, no matter how vague and misleading—that could have hidden Sam’s basic information from you? And could he have benefited from the concealment, even if it were possible?
I don’t think so.
If you didn’t need what Sam was selling, merely limiting your knowledge couldn’t have increased your need.
But if you’d had even the slightest interest in anyone even remotely like Sam, then seeing how very special he is would have made you more…not less… interested.
Indeed, Sam even managed to tell you that he believes he’s ready to be a president; to imply that he’s recently been functioning almost like one; and to demonstrate over and over that he certainly thinks like one.
You saw, too, that Sam’s been transplanted several times and has succeeded in each new context…even running the family car dealership. He’s versatile. And his sense of loyalty…as extended to his mother and brother…is also admirable.
About the only thing you could imagine Sam wanting to hide is the fact that he’s spent the most-recent and highest-level part of his career marketing drugs…a fact which, if known, might turn off a CEO looking for someone to market anti-aircraft missiles or panty hose.
But Sam can’t even name his employers without letting his “drug experience” out of the bag. And no CEO…indeed, no reader…is going to be turned on by self-praise in mere “percentage” terms by someone who refuses to reveal who he’s worked for until after he’s been granted an interview. Straight to the wastebasket with a letter or resume like that!
After reading Sam’s resume, you and I suspect that he could market just about anything…missiles and stockings included. Nonetheless, no retainer recruiter being paid, let’s say $150,000, to find a “defense” or a “soft goods” person can get by with just offering Sam plus a “he-could-do-it” pitch…even though Sam might make a good “wild card,” tucked in among several “on-target” candidates.
On the other hand, if Sam can somehow get the resume we’ve just read into the hands of the CEO of an armaments or a hosiery company before he’s paying somebody $150,000+ to find exactly what he wants, the CEO may think:
“What the hell? It won’t cost anything just to meet this Sam Sage. He’s done some very impressive things. And frankly, most of the marketing people in our industry don’t impress me at all. Marketing is marketing! A smart outsider like Sage might just show us a few tricks we never thought of.”
Face it. Despite any kooky advice to the contrary, there’s no way Sam can “package” himself differently for different employers. So he’s being straightforward. And he’s right! Just like you and me, others will also admire Sam’s achievements…their diversity…and the thinking behind them. They too will envision him doing an outstanding job, no matter where he ends up.
No question about it. Sam’s taken the best possible approach with his resume. He’s told the truth openly, voluntarily, and impressively.
David Ogilvy knew what he was talking about when he said:
“The more you tell, the more you sell!”
Notice that Sam used narrative paragraphs, rather than “bullets” to tell his story.
There are two common approaches to presenting a work history. One is to use paragraphs, with each job written up as a mini-essay. The other is to use “bullets”…sentence fragments preceded by a raised dot. Commonly used by advertising copywriters, the “bullet” format attempts to make every single point seem like a highlight.
Either style is acceptable. But, for several reasons, I strongly prefer paragraphs…very tightly and specifically written. Sentences in paragraphs are easier for the reader to comprehend and believe, because they closely resemble what he sees in newspapers, magazines, books, memos, and other informational writing. Bullets, on the other hand, resemble advertising copy… subliminally not an aid to believability.
Also, sentences in paragraphs enable you to use transition phrases and conjunctions that connect the various statements in ways that serve your purposes better than a series of unrelated exclamations. It helps to be able to say: “In recognition, I was promoted to…” “When my report was accepted by the Board, I was asked to assemble a team…” “After consolidating these three acquisitions…” You get the idea.
Sam also made his resume factual and concrete…something many people have trouble doing. Here are a few tips:
Orient your reader with specifics.
For each management-level job, orient your reader to the size, nature, and trend of (1) the larger unit in which you participated and (2) the part of it you were responsible for. What was the size of your operation in people, sales, and profit? What was its mandate? The general business climate around it? The problems and opportunities you identified? The strategies you came up with? And the results you achieved?
Use numbers wherever possible.
Focus on quantifiable data. Give dollar figures for sales, profits, ROI, costs, inventories, etc. before and after your programs were implemented. When you use percentages, you’ll usually want to give the base…plus any comparative figures on the rest of the industry or another part of your company that will show your numbers are special.
Avoid empty words and statements.
Omit the self-praising adjectives that losers wallow in…“major,” “significant,” “substantial,” and “outstanding.” Wherever such a word is justified, a number will be far more persuasive. And never make meaningless over-generalized statements like this:
“Responsible for managing the strategic technical issues impacting the company’s ongoing core businesses.”
What does this person do all day? What’s his budget? Whom does he report to and who reports to him? Has his employer gained anything from having him around?
You’ve seen those pictures made out of lots of little colored stones. Imagine that each promotion to a new job, each numerical improvement, each specific point of analysis and strategy is a stone. When put together in the right order, these fragments will be connected by your reader into an image of you. Don’t assert what the shape of it is. Just lay out enough specific facts…stone by stone…so she’ll see for herself the favorable patterns they imply. Let her create her own picture in her own mind.
If you’d like to change industries or career fields, consider making a second version of your resume… but even then, don’t switch to topical organization.
Maybe you’re in a declining field and you’d like to move into a growth industry. Or you’re re-entering the commercial sector after a sojourn in the military, government, or academia. If so, make a special version of your resume that drains off industry-specific buzz-words and explains your exploits in terms everyone can appreciate. But resist the temptation to “go topical” and try to hide “where” while emphasizing “what.”
Your reader will never quite be able to believe your claimed achievements unless he has a mental picture of you located at some specific place and time in the real world actually doing them. Withdraw orientation, and he drops belief…and probably attention, too.
Rather than resort to a topical resume, you should:
1. Write a covering letter that says what specific need your reader may have that you from another field can fill for him in his field. Don’t say, “Here I am; guess what I can do for you.”
2. And be realistic. If you’re stumped when you try to write a persuasive covering letter explaining how you can fill a specific need of an employer in an unrelated field, then stop. Think of someone else in a different field for whom you do have a persuasive message. Don’t pursue a hopeless mismatch. If you’re not persuaded, you can be absolutely certain that no one else will be either.
Should you include a “Career Objective”?
Many resumes begin with a statement of what-kind-of-job-I-want labeled “Career Objective,” or simply “Objective.”
This is a good idea when you’re fresh out of college or grad school and you want to orient the “Counselor” at an employment agency, or the personnel department of a corporation, to what you’re looking for. But it’s seldom necessary after your career is well underway. By then, what you’re prepared to do next should be pretty evident from what you’ve already done.
If you’re retiring from the military or the diplomatic corps, or leaving academia or the priesthood, then maybe your resume should begin with a statement of what you seek in the business world. Otherwise, let your resume be a clear and self-confident statement of where you’ve been and what you’ve achieved. Say what you’re looking for in your covering letter and through personal contact.
Instead of an “Objective,” a very brief summary can be effective. But don’t label it “Summary.” Don’t label it at all!
If you want a very few words of orientation at the top of your resume, make them a strong and succinct statement of what you’ve proven you can do. Now you’re not talking about what you want—a job, of course—but what you deliver that an employer wants. However, if you use a strong assertion as, in effect, the headline of your resume, the rest of your resume had damned well better prove you deliver what you’ve so boldly claimed on top.
Examples: (All are preceded by Name, Address and Contact Info)
1 | CEO with a Track Record of Turn Arounds |
2 | Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer |
3 | Chief Marketing Officer - Consumer Products Company |
4 | Senior Human Resources Executive |
5 | Operations Executive or Chief Information Officer |
6 | Chief Exeutive / Chief Technology Officer |
7 | As General Manager, I’ve just finished saving a failing business. |
8 | As Chief of Corporate Planning, I brought strategic planning to one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies… helping many of its businesses in many ways. |
9 | As Manager of Engineering Departments, |
Those are not hypothetical examples. Each headed the resume of an executive I personally assisted. The prior employer (not the individual) paid 15% of annual compensation ranging from a minimum fee of $50,000 to a maximum (cap) of $75,000. As you can imagine, at those rates I put in lots of effort—often 20 to 30 hours at my computer—helping create a resume that’s (1) 100% true and (2) fully supportive of its bold thematic summary.
Results? Every one of these people got a more attractive job than the one he or she had just left. Number 6, for example, got $175,000 higher base salary than in his prior job and made close to $1.5 million in option profits in his first year. Number 4 went from #2 in HR in a very large company to #1 in an even bigger one. Number 7 sent out 500 letters to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and, just from that mailing, was immediately hired as Chief Technology Officer of one of them. And Number 5 met his goal of moving from consulting to line management at equal or better income without relocating from his medium-sized midwestern city.
The Most Important Ingredients of a Resume: Time and Thought
Above all, you must devote plenty of time and thought to (1) deciding which facts will prove you get great results…and (2) stating those facts in a distilled, clear way. You’ll face competing candidates. To defeat them, you must appear on paper and in interviews to be the one person who can be counted on to turn in the #1 best performance of everyone being considered.
When I provide assistance, the person spends two days one-on-one with me in New York (plus another day with a psychologist if they’re willing). At least 4 hours are my taped interview probing accomplishments, which my staff transcribes. The person then goes home and, using the transcript, works hard on the resume (ideal preparation for future interviews). We continue by phone, and e-mail. Finally the person has done his or her best. Depending on the result, I may still spend further hours polishing to remove excess words and sharpen meaning (see page 69 of my EXECUTIVE JOB-CHANGING WORKBOOK for a before-and-after example). Usually I can cut at least one full page without dropping a single fact. So can you. But only if you work hard to edit what you’ve written. The tightened result is quicker and easier to read…and far more convincing.
Lots of people will tell you that resumes don’t really matter. True! The generic this-could-be-said-about-everyone-in-the-industry resumes those folks would have you write do not matter. But a resume that truthfully shows by past performance that you’re likely to outperform everyone else being considered does matter. If you have the right stuff, be sure to put in sufficient time and effort to display it well.
Reasons for Moving
Your resume may look like you’ve had too many recent jobs to really be a star performer. Yet the opposite may be true. If you joined Company X, made a great impression, and were soon asked to follow your boss to Co. Y, say so! Don’t let having been a star make you look like a dog. And if you were one of 2,000 sluffed off in a merger—or one of 6-out-of-8 senior officers dumped by a new CEO who brought in a team from his former company—why not say so? Don’t be defensive. And don’t give a reason for every move. Then, says Shakespeare, “Me thinks thou doth protest too much!” But if at a few pivotal times you’d otherwise take a bum rap, set the record straight.
Creative Use of Avocational Interests in Your Resume
In general, never mention your hobbies and other outside interests.
If you had time to be assistant pastor of your church, chair the United Fund drive, coach a Little League team, do petit point, build an extension on your home, train for and run a marathon, and groom and show poodles in the U.S. and three foreign countries last year, when did you have time to work?
But if you’re 58 years old, it might be good to mention your marathon running, and the fact that you’re an avid scuba diver and an instructor for Outward Bound. Your stamp collection, of course, will remain in the closet.
And if you’re a paraplegic, your competitive sports car driving and skeet shooting might just be a worthwhile inclusion. So might building that wing on your house, if you’re only missing one arm or one leg.
If you just have a high school diploma, the fact that you’re an amateur writer who’s published stories in Harper’s and The New Yorker…or even a trade journal or the business section of your daily newspaper…could help show you have a mature, cultivated mind others respect. So might your appointment to the Mayor’s Commission for the Arts, your being on the board of the Inner City Improvement District, or your playing duplicate bridge.
And if you’re in a racial or ethnic minority and have the stomach for such a gambit, you may feel like listing your memberships in exclusive social and athletic clubs that haven’t always had people with names or faces like yours. Everyone else should maintain a discreet silence on all clubs.
Now, as we wind up on resumes, let’s look at several other items of purely personal information and how to handle them.
Age
If your age is likely to be viewed favorably, don’t go out of your way to hide it. Don’t, for example, feel you must omit the years of your college degrees so your age can’t be estimated. True, employers can’t ask. But voluntarily including common statistics subliminally shouts “forthright and self-confident,” whereas concealing age just because the law permits you to do so sends out the opposite “vibes”…and might even suggest that you think you may be over the hill.
Incidentally, employers who, in the 1970s, considered 30 to 35 the ideal age now seem to feel that way regarding mid-to-late-40s, and have virtually no qualms about dynamic people in their 50s. They still find a young hotshot attractive. But they no longer—and legally they’d better not— insist on one. I absolutely refuse to discriminate on the basis of age, and have recently had candidates in their late 50s win out over excellent candidates ten and twenty years younger.
Education
List college degrees, with years…highest and latest degree first. Forget about Class President, and Varsity Letters. You’ve moved on to more recent and bigger achievements.
If you have several years but no sheepskin, say: “Completed three years toward B.A. at Syracuse University.” And if you flunked out of several fine schools, say: “Two years of college, intermittently at Carleton, Dartmouth, and the University of Virginia.” With no college, you may want to say, “Self-educated during an uninterrupted career,” and then bail yourself out under the heading “Other Interests,” with some suitably cerebral and cultural avocations.
Marital Status
Say nothing. Or say “Married,” “Divorced,” or “Single,” whichever applies and, if you wish, number of children (not names, ages, or with how many and which mates).
Gender
If you’re a woman with a name like Lindsay or Leslie, or a man with a name like Carroll or Kelley, use a middle name to be more specific…or just let your reader be surprised when he or she meets you.
Height and Weight
Nice to put in, men, if it’s favorable. If not, be silent. Women, of course, will omit height and weight, because it seems inappropriate to raise the subject. If you’re a man, don’t let anyone convince you that voluntarily including favorable height and weight will (“because it facilitates discrimination”) automatically prevent you from being considered for employment. It won’t!
Religion, Politics, and National Origin
Silence! If the reader has a prejudice, you may stimulate it.
Health
Don’t mention. It’s fine, or you should be writing a will instead of a resume.
Picture
Never, NEVER, NEVER! Nobody could possibly be attractive enough to justify the narcissism implied by attaching a picture.
As we proceed to Chapter 13, you’ll see techniques for a typical Direct Mail Campaign that will apply equally well to using your Communications POWER TOOL in a limited distribution of just one— or a few—or a moderate number of—mailings.
I needn’t point out specific opportunities. You’ll recognize them. “Cherry pick” which you’ll use. Indeed, your personal circumstances will prompt you to think of more uses for some of the ideas in this chapter than I could possibly think of for you.
Nothing will please me more than to see you get the results of a massive Direct Mail Campaign (the type we’ll now cover) while—if possible— sending only a few tightly crafted and targeted letters.