LITTLE HAPPENS IN the professional world without conversations taking place; in job searches, neither interviews get scheduled nor job offers made without them. That’s why the focus of your job search is always to get into conversations as quickly and as often as possible with the people who can hire you.
Despite everything you’ve done up to now, nothing is going to happen without you getting into conversations with these people. You can wait for these conversations to happen or you can make them happen.
You’ve posted your resume on resume banks and as your social networking profile on LinkedIn.com and other sites, and you’ve sent it in response to company and headhunter job postings. Every one of these resumes acts like a baited fish hook, but while positioning your resume where it can be seen is a sensible marketing tactic, just sitting back and waiting for a bite isn’t the best way to land your next job.
Jobs in sales exist to generate revenue by getting into conversations with customers and selling them the product, because marketing alone is never enough for profitability.
MeInc., too, needs a sales operation to get into the conversations that lead to meetings, then negotiations, contracts, and the sale. Your successful job search, like any sales campaign, depends on you getting into conversations as quickly and as often as possible with the people/job titles who can make the decision to hire you.
Your identified target market should include every company within the geographic boundaries of your job search who could possibly hire someone like you. But companies aren’t enough; you need to find people within those companies to talk to.
Getting into conversations with the people who have the authority to hire you is the central goal of all your job search strategies and tactics. It is the most effective way to get job offers and the activity that all job hunters most want to ignore, because talking to strangers on the telephone suddenly seems like a scary thing to do. It’s not scary; you do it all the time.
Before you get into a conversation, you have to identify whom you want to talk to and how to find them. The people you want to reach as quickly, directly, and often as possible are people holding those titles most likely to have the authority to offer you a job: Typically these high-value target hiring titles are one to three levels above your own and in the same department or functional area. The primary goal of your job search every day is to identify and get into a conversation with anyone who holds any of these target titles at any and every company in your target location.
• Corporate recruiters; because they are involved in the recruitment and selection cycle, they have a direct relationship with the hiring manager and a stake in completing searches in a timely and efficient manner.
• Titles one to three levels above your own in departments that have ongoing activities with your department. These people are the peers of the titles that will hire you and because of their continuing relations with your department are both likely to know of needs and able to make referrals.
• Titles similar to and one to three levels below your own because these people either have jobs in the departments where you might like to work, or are looking for jobs in the same general area themselves.
• Titles of people in other departments or at other companies that had ongoing communication with you and your title.
Put these titles together and you have a hotlist of at least ten high-value job titles that represent the people who have the greatest odds of knowing about suitable jobs for you, being able to make the right introductions, and/or of hiring you. These are the people you want to get into conversation with as quickly and as often as possible.
The previous titles represent the people you want to develop networking relationships with; they also represent the titles of job postings you’ll stumble across and should snag.
Cross-reference target companies with the members of your social networks to get referrals and introductions. Look for these employers and for your identified high-value networking titles in the special-interest groups you belong to on social networking sites and use the common interest shared by the group to make an initial connection.
You can find a wide array of online search tools to find people, by name, job title, company, industry, and location at www.knockemdead.com. Go to the Career Advice pages, then click on Secrets & Strategies where you will find the Internet Resources link.
You can also use search engines to find job titles and names, as we discussed in the last chapter.
While any name and conversation that gets you closer to an interview is valuable, the most valuable job titles to target in your networking are one to three levels above your own.
In doing searches of news media that involve the names of your target companies, you will find names and titles plus information that you can use as an icebreaker in your emails, letters, or conversations. Copy an interesting, relevant article and attach it in an email. With a traditional letter, enclose a copy of the article. In both, your letter will open with mention of the media coverage, and this guarantees the rest of your message will be read. It is even more effective when you use it to open a telephone conversation: “I’ve been meaning to call you ever since I saw the article in . . . ”
When you know who you want to talk to and why, and you know the job and possess the skills that will contribute to the relationship, your irrational fears of talking to strangers on the phone should begin to evaporate.
Capture the information you gather so that you can access and use it in this job search, and perhaps for other job searches down the road. If you stay in this profession and location, most of these companies are still going to be there, and many of the people you find will be too; and these companies and these people are still going to be hiring people like you. Capturing the information is another way in which you become knowledgeable about your profession and connected to the other players.
As you build these dossiers of information about individual companies in your target area, one or more of them will emerge as dream employers. Beware of applying for jobs at these “super-desirable” employers right at the start of your search. Most likely your resume and interviewing skills are not up to speed at the beginning of your search. The last thing you need to do is fumble an opportunity to join the company of your dreams. It is better to hold off until you know that your resume is fine-tuned and that you won’t swallow your tongue in the first few minutes of the interview. Do this and then, when you feel confident, use network contacts to get insider information and referrals, and your approach to that dream employer is likely to be a smoother experience.
How many emails and letters to send out every week is a difficult question to answer. Two contacts a week is the behavior of the long-term unemployed. Mass emailing 700 employers with one resume isn’t the smartest answer either, because you can’t ID the right people to reach, personalize the pitches, or be able to follow up in a timely manner.
Every job search is unique; nevertheless, your campaign needs strategy. You should maintain a balance between the number of written pitches you send out on a weekly basis and the types of people to whom they are sent. Start off with a balanced email and mailing campaign, and your phone follow-ups can maintain equilibrium too.
The key is to organize and balance your job search activities so that you send as many resumes as possible directly to people by name in a volume that will allow you to make follow-up calls to those people. Start out with modest goals: Try to send between two and ten emails and letters each day addressed to someone by name and spread across each of the following areas:
• In response to job postings
• To the contacts you identify within target companies
• To headhunters
• To miscellaneous networking contacts
Will you need to create and use more than one type of letter in your search? Of course you will, because you will be approaching different types of people for different reasons. However, you don’t have to craft every written communication entirely from scratch. You can create great letters quickly from the templates in Knock ’em Dead Cover Letters, where you will find letters for just about every job search scenario.
The key is to do each variation once and do it right, then save copies of these letters in folders within your career management database so you can access them at any time.
KNOCK ’EM DEAD TIP
Every name and contact you develop should go into a career management database with all relevant information. These contacts can be nurtured and developed over the years.
You will sometimes find it valuable to make a number of contacts within a given company, especially the larger ones, to ensure that all the important players know of your existence. You’ll remember the example from the last chapter of the engineer who wants to work for Last Chance Electronics, and the people such an engineer could send a resume to: the company president, the vice president of engineering, the chief engineer, the engineering manager, the vice president for human resources, the technical recruitment manager, and the technical recruiter, to name a few.
You wouldn’t necessarily send all these communications out at once but might rather spread them over a period of time. Keep a log of your email (and mail) contacts so you will know when to follow up with a phone call—usually about two days after an email and five days after a traditional letter; exclude Monday mornings from this count, as everyone is busy getting up to speed for the week.
Keep track of these contacts beyond the initial follow-up period. Resumes do get misplaced, and employment needs change. You can comfortably resend emails and traditional mail to everyone on your list every couple of months; when you do this, it isn’t necessary to remind them of earlier submissions. Most recipients won’t register that they heard from you, and of those who do, most won’t take offense. Any who might get upset are people who have no need for your professional skill set and whom you are therefore unlikely to run into anytime soon . . . so who cares.
An organized campaign will proceed on two fronts:
Front One: A carpet-bombing approach to every relevant management title within all the target companies in your location.
Front Two: A carefully targeted approach to a select group of companies. You may choose to hold back on contacting these special employers until comfortable with your developing job search skills—no point in getting into a conversation with a dream employer until you know how to handle that conversation.
You will continue to add to these lists of companies as you unearth fresh opportunities in your day-to-day research efforts, and as you identify new management titles within those companies.
In both these approaches, you respond to job postings and upload your resume to their corporate databases in the standard way. Then as your direct research and networking identifies specific individuals within these companies, you begin email/mailing one or two contacts within the company. Repeat the emails/traditional letters to other contacts when your follow-up calls to these people result in referrals or dead ends. Remember, just because Harry in engineering says there are no openings in the company, that doesn’t make it so. Any one of the additional contacts you make within that company could be the person who is the person or who knows the person with the perfect job for you. Even when a company states it has a hiring freeze, there are always, always exceptions.
The more ways you approach your target companies and hiring managers, the faster you will get into conversations with the people who can and will hire you. Let’s say you respond to a job posting by uploading your resume; that gives you one chance of getting an interview.
You can quadruple your chances of an interview if you also:
• Identify a potential hiring manager and email your resume directly to that manager by name with a personalized cover letter. This doubles your chances of an interview.
• Send a resume and personalized cover letter to that same manager by traditional mail, and you will triple your chances of an interview. Don’t smirk at the idea of traditional mail. We all like a break from the computer screen, so delivering your sales message and resume this way can be very effective. When you do this, note in the cover letter that you sent the resume by email and that this additional approach is because you are really interested in the company and “wanted to increase my chances of getting your attention.” Doing this demonstrates that you are creative, and not a technological Neanderthal.
• Make a follow-up telephone call to that manager, first thing in the morning, at lunchtime, or at 5 P.M. (when he is most likely to be available and picking up his own phone) and you will quadruple your chances of an interview.
Remember, a successful job search is all about getting into conversations as often as possible with people in a position to hire you. The more frequently you approach and get into conversation with managers whose job titles signify that they have the authority to hire you, the faster you will land that new position, because you have skipped right over the hurdle of being pulled from the commercial resume database, you have sidestepped the corporate recruiter’s evaluation process, and as a result you have the attention of the actual decision maker and the chance to have a conversation, to make a direct and personal pitch.
Getting a resume to someone by name with a personalized pitch gives you a distinct advantage, which is never more important than when the economy is down or in recovery. At such times your competition is fierce and employers actually do recognize and appreciate the initiative and motivation you display by doing these things, especially picking up the phone and calling: All these approaches act as differentiating factors in your candidacy.
Once your campaign starts to gain traction and you begin to schedule interviews from your calls, your emphasis will change, and you’ll spend time preparing for interviews and following up after them.
This is the point at which most job searches stall. We get so excited about an interview and convince ourselves, “This will be the offer.” As a result, our job search activities slow to a halt. Here’s an unsettling fact of life: The offer that can’t fail usually does fail, and you are left depressed and without anything happening in your job search.
You must keep your job search pump primed with ongoing activity to generate interviews. Apart from this approach helping you get that next job most efficiently, it keeps your psychological pump primed too.
The more direct contacts you make through email and regular mail, the more follow-up calls you can make to pitch your candidacy, schedule interviews, and get leads for more openings. Don’t ignore sending letters through the mail; email has drastically reduced the amount of business mail, so a resume sent this way is going to stand out.
Phone conversations are more powerful than resumes, emails, and letters, and they are essential to getting you interviews. Talking with high-value titles who haven’t seen your resume and following up on resumes you send out with a phone call are the best ways to get the interviews that lead to job offers.
At the same time as you are uploading to resume databases and emailing and traditional mailing your resume to high-value contacts and hiring managers you identified today, pick up the phone and introduce yourself to the ones you identified and approached with a resume a day or two ago. Make as many of these calls as you send emails and traditional letters pitching your resume. The more often these conversations happen, the quicker your search will end in success.
Don’t deceive yourself by thinking this part of the search is not possible because you are terrified of picking up the phone to call strangers. We all talk on the phone every day—these are just calls with a distinct purpose. It is something you can learn to do successfully, and whatever small pain it causes is far outweighed by what you gain: a new job and a fresh start on managing your career more successfully.
In a past professional incarnation as a headhunter, I spent every day on the telephone talking to strangers. Even though I developed a global reputation, I was also always absolutely terrified making calls, which of course no one at the time ever knew ;-) The adrenaline rush we associate with fear is usual for anyone engaged in a critical performance. In fact it is a very natural reaction; success comes from harnessing the adrenaline rush you feel at times like these.
I’d be surprised if you, too, weren’t a little leery at the prospect of actually calling prospective employers. Three pieces of advice helped me in my hour of abject terror:
• I knew that I would never meet these people unless they were interested in what I had to offer, in which case they’d be happy I called.
• Because I was on the phone, no one would know who I was or how scared I felt and looked.
• The third thing that helped was learning how to make almost every call successful. As outrageous as that sounds, it really is pretty easy.
If you have just a single goal when you pick up the phone—get an interview—you have just one chance of success but many more for failure. But if you have multiple goals for your call, you have multiple chances for success. When headhunters make sales/marketing calls, they usually have five goals in mind, so I have adapted the headhunter’s goals to fit your needs:
1. I will arrange an interview date and time.
2. If my contact is busy, I will arrange another time to talk.
3. I will develop leads on promising job openings elsewhere in this and other companies.
4. I will leave the door open to talk with this person again in the future.
5. I will send a resume for subsequent follow-up.
Keep these goals in mind every time you talk with someone during your job search, because every conversation holds the potential to turn into an interview or lead you toward another conversation that will generate first a phone conversation and then a face-to-face meeting.
You might worry about calling people directly because you are concerned that they will be annoyed by the perceived intrusion. This is a misconception: The first job of any manager is to get work done through others, so every smart manager is always on the lookout for talent, and if not for today, then for tomorrow. If that isn’t enough to allay your fears, keep in mind that the person on the other end of the line has very possibly been in your position and is sensitive to your situation. If you can be concise and professional, you’ll find that the great majority of people you contact will try to be helpful.
The secret is being succinct. With an initial introduction and presentation that comes in at well under a minute, you won’t be construed as wasting anybody’s time.
Your aim is to paint a representation of your skills with the widest appeal, keeping it brief out of courtesy, while avoiding giving information that might rule you out.
KNOCK ’EM DEAD TIP
Writing out something you’re going to say aloud is very different from writing something for someone else to read. Speech is more casually structured than the written word. You’ll get the best results if you write down the bullet points you want to make rather than full sentences. Once you have written it out, speak it aloud a few times until it sounds conversational and relaxed. Then practice it with a friend or record yourself for critique until it sounds polished and professional.
Give the employer a snapshot of who you are and what you do. The intent is to give that person a reason to stay on the phone. You may sometimes have an introduction from a colleague, in which case you will build a bridge with that:
“Miss Shepburn? Good morning, my name is Martin Yate, and our mutual friend Greg Spencer suggested I call . . . ”
Or you may have gotten the name and contact information from, for example, a professional association database, in which case you will use that as a bridge:
“Miss Shepburn? My name is Martin Yate. We haven’t spoken before, but as we are both members of the _________________ Association, I hoped I might get a couple of minutes of your time for some advice . . . ”
Never ask if you have caught someone at a bad time because that’s offering your contact an excuse to say she is busy. On the other hand, asking whether you have caught someone at a good time will usually get you a positive response, or just pausing after stating the reason of your call, as I did previously, will work. Then you can go into the rest of your presentation. If at any point your contact says or implies that she is harried, immediately ask when would be a good time to call back.
Now we come to the meat of your presentation. Grab the listener’s attention now and you are off to a good start. You want to capture a complete picture of the professional you in less than one minute, ideally less than forty-five seconds, and the good news is that you already have the text for what you need to say.
In creating your resume you completed TJD exercises that helped you prioritize employers’ needs for your job title. When you wrote the Performance Profile for your resume, which introduced the professional you succinctly, you condensed the leading employer priorities into three to six short sentences. So you already know what aspects of your experience have widest and most relevant appeal, and we just have to retool them for speaking rather than reading; that’s easy. After your introduction:
“Miss Shepburn? My name is Martin Yate. We haven’t spoken before, but as we are both members of the _________________ Association, I hoped I might get a couple of minutes of your time for some advice . . . ”
You pause for agreement, and having taken the opening line from your resume’s Performance Profile:
“Ten years’ experience in office technology sales, including a successful track record selling B-to-B, including corporations, institutions, and small business.” You just make it a little less formal and less specific:
“ . . . I’m in office technology sales, with a successful track record selling B-to-B: corporations, institutions, and small business . . . ”
Then complete the spoken version of your Performance Profile. To create a spoken version, take the sentences and turn them into bullet points so that you can’t recite the sentences word for word and sound like you are reading a script.
Once you have your script down, practice speaking it aloud until it sounds conversational and relaxed. Then practice it with a friend or record yourself for critique. Do it in a normal speaking voice until you are comfortable with the content and the rhythm; you’ll also know how long it takes. To keep it under the one-minute mark, remember that the idea is just to whet the listener’s appetite to know more. You might take out some information—for example describing yourself as experienced, rather than identifying a specific number of years in your field. This encourages the listener to qualify your statement with a question: “How much experience do you have?” Any question denotes a level of interest and might well mean a job exists or is about to exist.
Keeping your presentation short and to the point makes Step #2 optional, depending on the time you have available and on whether you have something impressive to say about your achievements. If you can cover your Performance Profile points and still have a little time left over, add an example of what you can achieve:
“As the number three salesperson in my company, I increased sales in my territory fifteen percent, to over one million dollars. In the last six months, I won three major accounts from my competitors—a hospital, a bank, and a technology start-up.”
Note that you always talk about what you can do, but never how you do it.
Having introduced yourself professionally and succinctly, get to the reason for your call and move the conversation forward.
“The reason I’m calling is that I’m looking for a new challenge, and as I know a little about your company, I felt we might have some areas of common interest. Are these the types of skills and accomplishments you look for in your sales associates?”
Notice that your presentation finishes not with “Have you got a job? Can you hire me?” but with a question that encourages a positive response and opens the possibility of conversation.
When you make your presentation for real, there will likely be a silence on the other end of the line. Be patient, as the employer may need a few seconds to digest your words.
When the employer does respond, it will either be with a question, denoting interest, or with an objection.
Whatever the voice on the other end of the line says next, try to give short, reasonable answers and finish your reply, when it makes sense to do so, with a question. If a job exists, in answer to your questions the interviewer will tell you a little about that job. This will define what skills and qualities are important to this employer and help you customize your answers with your most relevant skills and experiences.
Conversation is a two-way street, and you are most likely to win an interview when you take responsibility for your half. Just as the employer’s questions show interest in you, your questions should show your interest in the work done at the company. By asking questions of your own in the normal course of conversation—questions usually tagged on to the end of one of your answers—you will forward the conversation.
Here’s an example of how such a conversation might proceed. Because you and I come from different backgrounds, we will never talk alike, so with the following sample questions and answers, just capture the essence so that you can tailor them to your own speech patterns.
“The reason I’m calling is that I’m looking for a new challenge, and as I know and respect your product line, I felt we might have areas for discussion. Are these the types of skills and accomplishments you look for in your staff?”
[Pause]
Miss Shepburn: “Yes, they are. What type of equipment have you been selling?” [Buy signal!]
You: “A comprehensive range from work stations, through routers, modems to printers and ink . . . and all the peripherals you would expect; I sell according to my customers’ needs and the capabilities of the technology. I have been noticing a considerable interest in _________________ recently. Has that been your experience?”
Miss Shepburn: “Yes, I have actually.” [Useful information for you.] “Do you have a degree?” [Buy signal!]
You: “Yes, I do.” [Just enough information to keep the company interested.] “I understand your company prefers degreed salespeople to deal with its more sophisticated clients.” [Your research is paying off.]
Miss Shepburn: “Our customer base is very sophisticated, and they expect a certain professionalism and competence from us.” [An inkling of the kind of person the company wants to hire.]“How much experience do you have?” [Buy signal!]
You: “Well, I’ve worked in both operations and sales, so I understand sales and fulfillment processes, and my customers benefit from not having to deal with false expectations because I understand how to work cooperatively with fulfillment.” [General but thorough.]“How many years of experience are you looking for?” [Turning it around, but furthering the conversation.]
Miss Shepburn: “Ideally, four or five for the position I have in mind.” [More good information.]“How many do you have?” [Buy signal!]
You: “I have two with this company, and one and a half before that, so I fit right in with your needs.”
Miss Shepburn: “Uh-huh . . . What’s your territory?” [Buy signal!]
You: “I cover the metropolitan area. Miss Shepburn, it sounds as if we might have something to talk about.” [Remember, your first goal is the face-to-face interview.] “I am planning to take personal time off next Thursday or Friday. Can we meet then? Which would be best for you?” [Encourage Miss Shepburn to decide which day she can see you, rather than whether she will see you.]
Miss Shepburn: “How about Friday morning?”
Your questions show interest, carry the conversation forward, and teach you more about the company’s needs. By the end of the conversation you have an interview arranged and several key areas you should write down while they are fresh. You can do further research on these areas of interest prior to the interview:
• The company sees growth in _________________, so be sure you research what is going on in this particular area.
• They want both professional and personal sophistication.
• They ideally want four or five years’ experience.
• They are interested in your metropolitan contacts.
Let’s look at the building blocks again before moving on to getting live leads from dead ends:
Step One. Give the employer a succinct verbal snapshot of who you are and what you bring to the table (your Performance Profile).
Step Two. Finish your introduction off with an example of professional achievements.
Step Three. Move the conversation forward by explaining the reason for your call and finishing with a question that elicits a positive response.
At this point, the employer will respond with a question or an objection. If it’s a question, it shows that the listener is interested. Among the buy signals that often come up are the following:
• “How much experience do you have?” Too much or too little experience could easily rule you out. Be careful how you answer this question and try to gain time. It is a vague question, and you have a right to ask for qualifications. Employers typically define jobs by years’ experience. At the same time there is currently a major move away from simple chronological experience toward the more important concern about what you can deliver on the job. Managers and HR pros are now more open to thinking in terms of “performance requirements” and “deliverables” than ever before.
Here are a couple of ways to handle it:
“I have _________________ years’ chronological experience, but if you could you give me a brief outline of the performance requirements I can give you a more accurate answer.” Then with the information you might be able to answer, “I am comfortable with all aspects of the pre-sales, sales, and post-sales process and have considerable experience, comfort, and contacts throughout the B-to-B community here in Pittsburgh, including public corporations, institutions, and start-ups.”
Or:
“Could you help me with that question? If you give me a brief outline of the performance requirements, I can give you a more accurate answer.” Or, “I have _________________ years’ experience, but they aren’t necessarily typical. If you’d give me a few details on the performance requirements I’d be able to give you a more accurate answer.”
The employer’s response, while gaining you time, tells you what it takes to do the job and therefore what aspects of your experience are most relevant. Take mental notes as the employer talks—you can even write them down if you have time. Then give an appropriate response.
You can move the conversation forward by asking a follow-up question of your own. For example: “The areas of expertise you require sound like a match to my experience, and it sounds as if you have some exciting projects at hand. What projects would I be involved with in the first few months?”
• “Do you have a degree?” An easy question if you have one. If not, qualify your answer and point the way forward: “My education was cut short by the necessity of earning a living. However, I’m currently enrolled in classes to complete my degree.”
• Buy Signal: “How much are you making/do you want?”
This is a direct question looking for a direct answer, yet it is a knockout question, so you should proceed warily. Earning either too little or too much could ruin your chances before you’re given the opportunity to shine in person. There are a number of options that could serve you better than a direct answer. First, you must understand that questions about money at this point in the conversation are being used to screen you in or screen you out. The answers you give now should be geared toward getting you in the door and into a face-to-face meeting. (Handling the serious salary negotiations that are attached to a job offer are covered in Chapter 27, “Negotiating the Job Offer.”)
For now, your main options are as follows:
• Direct answer: If you know the salary range for the position and there is a fit, give a straightforward answer.
• Indirect answer: “In the 50s.” Or “in the 120s.”
• Put yourself above the money: “I’m looking for an opportunity to make a difference with my efforts. If I am the right person for the job, I’m sure you’ll make me a fair offer. By the way, what is the salary range for this position?”
• Give a range. Come up with two figures: a fair offer considering your experience and job location, and a great offer considering your experience and job location, “Hopefully between $x and $y. What’s most important is an opportunity to make a difference. If I am the right person for the job, I’m sure you’ll make me a fair offer. By the way, what is the salary range for this position?”
When you give a salary range rather than a single figure, you have more flexibility and a greater chance of “clicking” with the employer’s approved range for the position.
When you are pressed a second time for an exact dollar figure, be as honest and forthright as circumstances permit. If you have the skills for the job and you are concerned that your current low salary will eliminate you before you have the chance to show your worth, you might add, “I realize this is well below industry norms, but it does not reflect on my expertise or experience in any way. It speaks of the need for me to make a strategic career move to where I can be compensated competitively and based on my skills.”
If your current earnings are higher than the approved range, you could say, “Mr. Smith, my current employers feel I am well worth the money I earn due to my skills, dedication, and honesty. When we meet, I’m sure I can convince you of my ability to contribute to your department. A meeting would provide an opportunity to make that evaluation, wouldn’t it?”
By no means will every presentation call you make be met with a few simple questions and then an invitation to interview. Sometimes the silence will be broken with an objection. This usually comes in the form of a statement, not a question: “Send me a resume,” or “I don’t have time to see you,” or “You are earning too much,” or “You’ll have to talk to personnel,” or “I don’t need anyone like you right now.” These seem like brush-off lines, but they can be turned into interviews, and when that isn’t possible, they can almost always be parlayed into leads elsewhere.
Notice that all the following suggested response models end with a question, one that helps you learn more about the reason for the objection, perhaps to overcome it and lead the conversation toward a meeting.
In dealing with objections, nothing is gained by confrontation, while much can be gained by an appreciation of the other’s viewpoint. Consequently, most objections you hear are best handled by first demonstrating your understanding of the other’s viewpoint. Start your responses with phrases like “I understand,” or “I can appreciate your position,” or “I see your point,” or “Of course.” Follow up with statements like “However,” or “Also consider,” or a similar line that allows the opportunity for rebuttal and to gather further information.
It’s not necessary to memorize these responses verbatim, only to understand the underlying concept and then put together responses in words that are natural to your character and style of speech.
The employer may be genuinely interested in seeing your resume as a first step in the interview cycle, or it may be a polite way of getting you off the phone. You should identify the real reason without causing antagonism, and at the same time open up the conversation. A good reply would be, “Of course, Mr. Grant. Would you give me your exact title and your email address? Thank you. So that I can be sure that my qualifications fit your needs, what skills are you looking for in this position?” or “What specific job title and opening should I refer to when I send it?”
Notice the steps:
• Agreement with the prospective employer
• A demonstration of understanding
• A question to further the conversation (in this instance to confirm that an opening actually exists)
Answering in this fashion will open up the conversation. Mr. Grant will relay the aspects of the job that are important to him, and you can use the additional information to move the conversation forward again or to draw attention to relevant skills in:
• Your executive briefing or cover letter
• A customized resume
• Your face-to-face meeting
Following Mr. Grant’s response, you can recap the match between his needs and your skills:
“Assuming my resume matches your needs, as I think we are both confident that it will, could we pencil in a date and time for an interview next week? I am available next Thursday and Friday; which would be preferable to you?”
A penciled-in date and time for an interview very rarely gets canceled, because they don’t actually get “penciled in”—in this electronic age, they immediately take up a time slot in the schedule.
If the employer is too busy to see you, it indicates that he or she has work pressures, and by recognizing that, you can show yourself as the one to alleviate some of those pressures through your problem-solving skills. You should avoid confrontation, however; it is important that you demonstrate empathy for the person with whom you are speaking. Agree, empathize, and ask a question that moves the conversation forward:
“I understand how busy you must be; it sounds like a competent, dedicated, and efficient professional [Whatever your title is] could be of some assistance. Perhaps I could call you back at a better time to discuss how I might make a contribution in easing the pressure at peak times. When are you least busy, in the morning or afternoon?”
The company representative will either make time to talk now or will arrange a better time for the two of you to talk further.
You could also try, “Since you are so busy, what is the best time of day for you? First thing in the morning, or is the afternoon a quieter time?” Or you could suggest, “If you would like to see my resume, you could study my background at your leisure. What’s your email address? Thanks, what would be a good time of day to follow up on this?”
Don’t give up immediately; follow the process through: “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that—what is the range for that position?” Depending on the degree of salary discrepancy, you might reiterate your interest. You can also refer to Chapter 27, “Negotiating the Job Offer,” where you will find further advice on dealing with this issue.
If the job really doesn’t pay enough—and there will be openings for which you are earning too much—you’ve gotten “close, but no cigar!” Just a bit further on, I’ll tell you how to make a success of this seeming dead end by asking a couple of questions as you wrap up the conversation.
Your response could be, “[smiling] Your development of employees is a major reason I want to get in! I am bright, conscientious, and motivated. When you do hire from the outside, and it must happen on occasion, what do you look for?” or “How do I get into consideration for such opportunities?”
The response finishes with a question designed to carry the conversation forward and to give you a new opportunity to sell yourself. Notice that the response logically presupposes that the company does hire from the outside, as all companies obviously do, despite your being told otherwise.
In this case, you reply, “Of course, Mr. Grant. Whom should I speak to in HR, and what specific position should I mention?”
You cover a good deal of ground with that response. You establish whether there is a job there or whether you are being fobbed off on HR to waste their time and your own. Also, you move the conversation forward again while modifying it to your advantage. Develop a specific job-related question to ask while the employer is answering the first question. It can open a fruitful line for you to pursue. If you receive a nonspecific reply, probe a little deeper. A simple phrase like, “That’s interesting. Please tell me more,” or “Why’s that?” will usually do the trick.
Or you can ask, “When I speak to HR, will it be about a specific job you have, or is it to see whether I might fill a position elsewhere in the company?”
Armed with the resulting information, you can talk to HR about your conversation with Mr. Grant. Remember to get the name of a specific person in HR with whom to speak, and quote this prior contact by name in any email or verbal contact.
“Good morning, Ms. Johnson. Cary Grant, over in marketing, suggested we should speak to arrange an interview for the open sales associate requisition.”
This way you show HR that you are not a time waster, because you have already spoken to the person for whom the requisition is open.
Don’t look at the HR department as a roadblock. It may contain a host of opportunities for you. In many companies different departments could use your talents, and HR is probably the only department that knows all the openings. With larger companies you might be able to arrange interviews for two or three different positions!
You should have learned the proper response to “Do you have a degree?” But in case you were abducted by aliens a few pages ago, you could respond by saying, “Mr. Smith, I appreciate your viewpoint. It was necessary that I start earning a living early in life. If we meet, I am certain you would recognize the value of my additional practical experience.” If you have been smart enough to enroll in a course or two in order to pursue that always-important degree, you should add, “I am currently enrolled in courses to complete my degree, which should demonstrate my professional commitment, and perhaps that makes a difference?” In a world of ongoing education it usually will.
You might then ask what the company policy is for support and encouragement of employees continuing their education. Your response will end with, “If we were to meet, I am certain you would recognize the value of my practical experience, in addition to my ongoing professional commitment. I am going to be interviewing at the end of next week, and I know you will find the time to meet well spent. Is there a day and time that would be best for you?”
Short of suggesting that the employer fire someone to make room for you (which, believe it or not, has been done successfully on a few occasions), the chances of getting an interview with this company are slim. With the right questions, however, your contact will give you a personal introduction to someone else who could use your talents.
By no means will every hiring manager you call have a job opening that fits your skills, but you can still turn calls that don’t result in interviews into successes. Just a couple of pages back we established that your calls have multiple goals: to arrange an interview, to arrange another time for a conversation, to send a resume for future follow-up, and to develop leads on job openings elsewhere. If there isn’t a need for someone like you right now, you can ask:
• “When do you anticipate new needs in your area?”
• “May I send you my resume and keep in touch for when the situation changes?”
• “Who else in the company might have a need for someone with my background and skills?”
• “What other companies might have a need for someone with my background?”
If the response is positive:
• “Thanks, I appreciate the help. Do you know who I should speak to?”
If the response to that is positive:
• “May I mention your name?”
Mentioning a company you plan to call:
• “Do you know anyone I could speak to at ________________?”
If you ask just this sequence of questions you will get leads and introductions, and this enables you to open that next call with:
“Hello, Mr. Jones? My name is Martin Yate, Chuck Harris gave me your name and said to tell you hello . . . ”
But if you don’t ask you can never expect to receive. Your call has been entirely professional, and you haven’t wasted anyone’s time, because the person has either been in your situation or knows it could well happen. You will find the overwhelming majority of people will try to be helpful if you show them a way to do so.
By adding these questions and others in the same vein, you will achieve a measure of success from the call, leaving you energized and with a feeling of achievement after every conversation.
Here are six categories of questions that can lead to job openings, interviews, and offers. Read through them and then develop specific questions you can ask in each area:
1. Leads in department
2. Leads in company
3. Leads in other divisions of company
4. Leads to other companies
5. Contacts in other companies
6. Open door to keep in touch
Remember: Networking and marketing are continuous activities.
When you are making marketing and networking calls, an overly officious clerical assistant will sometimes try to thwart you in your efforts to present your credentials directly to a potential employer—at least it might appear that way.
In fact, it is very rare that these “corporate gatekeepers,” as they are known, are directed to screen calls from professionals seeking employment, as to do so only increases employment costs to the company. What they are there to do is to screen nuisance calls from salespeople and the like.
However, to arm you for the occasional objectionable gatekeeper standing between you and making a living, you might try the following techniques used by investigative reporters, private eyes, and headhunters.
Most gatekeepers are trained at most to find out your name and the nature of your business. But when they are asking the questions, they control the conversation. You can remain in control by preempting their standard script: “Good morning. I’m Mr. Yate. I need to speak to Nikki Jones about an accounting matter. Is she there?” Should a truly obnoxious gatekeeper ask snidely, “Perhaps I can help you?” you can effectively use any of the following options: “Thank you, but I’d rather discuss it with Ms. Jones.” “It’s personal.” “It’s a professional matter.” Or you can blind them with science: “Yes, if you can talk to me about the finer points of [some esoteric aspect of your profession] 10K reporting.” They invariably can’t, so you’re in like Flynn.
Diction, tone of voice, confidence, and clarity are all-important when dealing with clerical staff. They are trained to respect and respond to polite authority, so always demonstrate self-confidence in your manner. When you are clear about whom you want to speak to and can predict possible screening devices, you usually get through. With such gatekeepers you should also avoid using your first name in your introduction, as in “Martin Carlucci”; instead, try “Mr. Carlucci” or “Ms. Carlucci,” which is always more authoritative.
When you have been given a name by a networking contact, you can use that introduction to get past corporate gatekeepers: “Tell him Bill Edwards asked me to call.”
If you can’t get through to the person you want to speak to, say the accounting manager, instead of wasting the call you can go up the ladder to the controller or the vice president of finance; remember that one, two, and three management titles above you are all likely to be involved in some degree with selection of candidates like you.
Interestingly, the higher you go, the more accessible people are. In this instance, the senior manager may well not schedule an interview with you but instead refer you back down to the appropriate level. Sometimes that VP will switch you directly to the person with whom you want to speak; even if that doesn’t happen, the next time you call you have a nice, hefty name to drop when dealing with the pesky gatekeeper: “Your divisional vice president of finance, Mr. Craig Wilde, asked me to call Mr. Jones. Is he there?” Even if you didn’t speak directly to that VP up the corporate ladder, and the VP’s secretary referred you back down the ladder, you can now say with all honesty, “Mr. [VP’s ] office recommended . . . ” Then the conversation with your target can begin with your standard introduction, but be sure to mention first the name of the person who referred you.
If you haven’t yet gleaned any names from a particular company through your networking activities and are being thwarted by a gatekeeper, try these approaches:
• Over time you will develop a list of companies where you have no contacts. You can refer to this list when you run into a brick wall on either a networking or marketing call. “Jack, I was planning to contact _______________, Inc. Would you happen to know anyone there who could give me a heads-up?” Or “Jack, do you know anyone at _______________ or _______________ that I could speak to? Any lead would be most appreciated.”
• Check your association membership databases and your online networks and look for members who work or have worked at a target company. Regardless of their titles, these people can bring you one step closer to the right hiring authority contact.
• Visit the company’s website and look for names there. Don’t forget to read the media clippings that always get posted, since they invariably contain a quote or two from company representatives. You should also do Google News searches for media coverage of the company and its executives.
• For especially desirable companies, check back with those people who know you well and respect your work: your references. They might know or be able to find out the names of people working within your target.
When none of your research, networking, or marketing activities has presented you with a name, try these techniques:
• There is usually more than one person worth speaking to at any company, so whomever you speak to, ask for more than one name and title. For example, in the finance area (depending on your level), any or all of the following could provide useful contacts: accounting supervisor, accounting manager, assistant controller, controller, vice president of finance, chief financial officer, executive vice president, president, chief operating officer, chief executive officer, chairman. The last eight of these can usually be found on the company website or in reference databases and directories.
Anyone who gives you one name will invariably give you more than one. Some years ago in Colorado I sat with a job searcher who used these techniques to gather 142 names from receptionists in one hour!
• In some companies where security is at a premium, gatekeepers are expressly forbidden to give out names and titles. In this case, you can use some side-door techniques: There are certain people in every company who by the very nature of their jobs have contact with people at all levels of the company and who are not given the responsibility to screen calls. These include people in the mailroom, maintenance, shipping and receiving, second-, third-, and fourth-shift employees, new or temporary employees, advertising and public relations people, sales and marketing people, travel center, Q/A, and customer service employees.
Another approach for getting by pesky gatekeepers is to vary the times when you call a target company. Try before 9 A.M., immediately after 5 P.M., and during lunch hours. Managers often pick up their own lines at these times.
Voice mail is on the increase. Rather than treating it as a dead end, turn it into a useful means of getting through to your target contact.
When you have an introduction, you can use it to navigate voice mail systems and to leave as a teaser on your voice mail message: “Good morning, my name is William Powell. Ms. Loy suggested I give you a call. She thought we might have something to talk about. I’ll try you later.”
Don’t leave long messages; be brief and get on with your job search and make another call. In cases where you don’t get a response and need to call back again, do so, but if the person doesn’t pick up and you get routed to the voice mail again, hang up and move on to your next call. If you leave countless voice mail messages, it will make you look needy.
When you lack a name, check to see if the system has a directory, and if it does, take note of as many names and extensions as you can. If there is no directory, and the voice mail system tells you to enter an extension key, keep keying until you hit one that results in a human voice. It doesn’t matter who answers as long as someone does. The conversation goes something like this:
“Jack speaking.”
“Jack, this is Martin Yate. I’m calling from outside and I’m lost on this darned telephone system.” [This usually gets a smile.] “I’m trying to get hold of [Whatever the title is]. Could you check who that would be for me?”
Develop a written list, and keep one on your desktop and one taped by your telephone.
The adrenaline rush you experience when picking up the phone to make the first of these calls is something we associate with fear, and is normal for anyone engaged in a critical performance activity. It is a very natural reaction, but because you:
• Know the product you are selling inside out
• Know (from your TJD exercises) exactly what you are going to say and how you are going to say it
• Know it will have the greatest relevance and therefore interest to the listener you will be able to harness the adrenaline rush and channel it into peak performance.
It is trite but true that you have never failed until you quit trying. Job searches will always take longer during economic downturns and will take longer the less professionally you approach them. Nevertheless, we have a huge economy, and even in the worst times people are landing new jobs. It’s just that they’re the ones who are working smarter and harder than everyone else.
If you are in the midst of a long job search, try to keep things in perspective. Although your 224th contact may not have an opening for you, ask questions and you may well discover that he or she has the good lead you need. Don’t ask the questions and you’ll never know.
In a job search there are only two “yeses”: the employer’s “we want you to work for us” and your “I can start on Monday.” Every other conversation is, in reality, a “no” that brings you closer to the big “yes.” Never take rejections of your resume or your phone call as rejections of you. There is a great opportunity right around the corner, so long as you keep turning that corner to maintain your forward momentum.
We all have 168 hours a week to become bagmen or billionaires and to make our lives as fulfilling as they can be. For some of us this means a better job; for others it means getting back to work to keep a roof over our heads. How we manage these hours will determine our success. These job search commandments will see you successfully through the job change and career transition process:
• Start conversations. It has been said that in order to gain that next job it takes on average twenty-five conversations with men or women who have the authority to hire you. What do we learn from this? Make every effort to get into conversations with decision makers with hiring authority and sooner or later you will get that job offer. It doesn’t matter if it takes 25 or 125 such conversations, the essential truth still holds: Get into conversations with enough hiring authorities and you will get that desired job offer. Getting into those critical conversations isn’t easy; it might take you hundreds of contacts, but if you make the commitment every day of your job search, you will succeed, and you will succeed more quickly than your peers.
• Work at getting a new job. Work forty hours per week at it. Divide your time equally between all the intelligent job search approaches. No one knows which tactic is the one that will work for you, but this integrated approach gives you the shortest odds.
• Research the companies you contact. In a tightly run job race, the candidate who is most knowledgeable and intelligently enthusiastic about the employer has a distinct advantage.
• Follow up on the resumes you send out with phone calls. Resubmit your resume to identified openings after six or seven weeks. Change the format of your resume and submit it again. (See Knock ’em Dead Resumes for specific ideas on how to do this.)
• Stay in telephone contact with your job leads. Call them back on a regular basis to maintain top-of-the-mind awareness. If you find yourself needing to call existing contacts more than once every couple of months, you should be putting more emphasis on building your networks and doing direct research.
• Develop examples of your professional profile that make you special—and rehearse building these examples into your interview responses. More on this later.
• Send follow-up notes with relevant news clippings, cartoons, and so on to those in your networks. It’s a light touch that helps people keep you in mind. You’ll find lots of ideas for follow-up in Chapter 26.
• Work on your self-image. Use this time to get physically fit. Studies show that unfit, overweight people take longer to find suitable work.
• Maintain a professional demeanor during the workweek (clothing, posture, personal hygiene).
• Use regular business hours for making contacts. Use the early morning, lunchtime, after 5 P.M., and Saturday for doing the ongoing research and writing projects that maintain momentum.
• Take off the blinders. We all have two specific skills: our professional/technical skills—for example, computer programming; and our industry skills—for example, banking. Professional/technical skills can be transferable to other industries, and industry skills can open other opportunities in your industry. For example, that programmer, given decent communication skills, could become a technical trainer and/or writer for programmers or technophobes.
• Don’t feel guilty about taking time off from your job search. Just do it responsibly. If you regularly spend Saturday morning in the library doing research, you can take Wednesday afternoon off to go to the driving range once in a while.
• Never stop the research and job search process until you have a written job offer in hand and you have accepted that job in writing with an agreed-upon start date. Even then, continue with any ongoing interview cycles.
• Remember: It’s all up to you. There are many excuses not to make calls or send resumes on any given day. There are many excuses to get up later or knock off earlier. There are many excuses to back off because this one’s in the bag. But there are no real reasons. There are no jobs out there for those who won’t look, while there are plenty of opportunities for those who work at it.
• The more you do today, the better you will feel about yourself.
In theory, the perfect emails you send cold or as a result of phone calls will receive a response rate of 100 percent. Unfortunately, there is no perfect letter, email, or call in this less-than-perfect world. If you sit waiting for the world to beat a path to your door, you may wait a long time.
An IT executive of my acquaintance once advertised for an analyst. By Wednesday of the following week he had over 100 responses. Ten days later he was still plowing through them when he received a follow-up call (the only one he received) from one of the respondents. The job hunter was in the office that afternoon, returned the following morning, and was hired before lunchtime.
What’s the take-away? The candidate’s resume was still sitting in the database, waiting to be discovered. The follow-up phone call got it discovered. The IT executive just wanted to get on with his work, and the job hunter in question made it possible by putting himself on the employer’s radar. Follow-up calls do work.
Make phone calls to initiate contact, and you’ll get requests for resumes and requests to come right on over for an interview. Make follow-up calls on mailed and emailed resumes and you will generate further interviews.
No one is ever hired without passing through one or a series of formal interviews, and that is where Knock ’em Dead is headed next: how to turn interviews into job offers.