Your career is your most valuable financial asset, offering you many financial benefits. You can make the most of it by getting a college degree and managing your career to its full potential. Doing this well can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime.
To help us all make the most of our careers, here's this week's career guidance from David Lorenzo, author of Career Intensity (I loved the book) and blogger at the Career Intensity Blog:
The next step in getting a job interview is making sure your letter gets into the hands of the right person.
You have already identified the correct target of your letter. Your task now is to get a letter into their hands.
This is no small task.
Keep in mind that this letter serves one purpose and one purpose only - to get you a meeting with the decision-maker. That's right. This letter's purpose is to get you a job interview and nothing more. You are not going to get hired based upon this letter. At this point in the process you just want to get in front of the right person.
The look, feel and design of your letter are all critical components of this process. Here are the tips to get a response from any decision-maker:
Tip One: Send multiple letters. Direct mail response rates are ridiculously low. If you send only one letter, you will be fortunate to get a 1% response rate. You must send multiple letters. You will change the wording each time, just in case someone is getting their kicks by reading the content and then disposing of your hard work.
Tip Two: Appearance matters. The first three letters you send can be standard-looking letters on a decent weight paper. We'll cover the content of each letter in our next article. For now, I want to focus on what the letters must look like in order to make sure they get delivered.
If you are targeting just a few positions, I always recommend that you send the letters via express delivery. There is an urgency associated with a FedEx envelope sitting on a desk. You want the decision-maker to feel that sense of urgency. You can choose the three day express saver service to minimize the expense. You just want to make sure that the boss gets a FedEx envelope.
If you are doing a mass mailing, you can use a faux express envelope. Though these envelopes will not have the exact same impact as actually sending the letters via an express delivery service, they will be far more effective than a standard envelope. This type of packaging can also be sent via regular mail - so you will save the express mail fees.
Tip Three: Mail directly to the assistant. The fourth letter (assuming that you have received no response from the first three) should go directly to the decision-maker's assistant. Keep in mind that you will be placing phone calls to follow up on each of these letters - so chances are good that you will have already made contact with the administrative assistant by now. You should know his/her name and you may have even built up some rapport.
At this point in the process, I recommend that you send a professional, hand-written thank you note to the assistant. You are thanking him/her for taking your calls and trying to help you get through to the decision-maker. I know, he/she may not be helping you at all. In fact, he/she may be keeping you from getting to the decision-maker. The idea is to treat the administrative assistant with respect. They are critical to getting you the meeting. Win them over and you will be in the door. I have seen administrative assistants make the case to their boss that persuades him to take a meeting he would otherwise refuse. In fact, I have been the boss who has been persuaded!
Again, follow this mailing up with a phone call directly to the administrative assistant.
Tip Four: Mail a lumpy mailing. The final mailing in your five letter sequence should be a "lumpy mailing". This is a mailing that will be oddly shaped and will definitely get noticed. Sending CDs or DVDs are a good way to go. Take great care to record them with high-quality equipment and professionally label them. Don't just write on them with a marker.
Make your pitch for a meeting on a CD or DVD professional, brief and compelling. No more than three minutes. Here is your format: Have something interesting to say. Say it. Say good bye. Concise, compelling and professional.
Another favorite lumpy mailing I have for a "letter five" is "the garbage can mailing". Order a small (4 inch high) garbage can from a promotional supply company. You then crumple up your letter and place it inside. The letter starts off saying something to the effect "since my last few letters have found the garbage I figured I would save you the trouble".
Be creative with your lumpy mailing. You are only going to send these to people who have not responded to your four previous letters so you really have nothing to lose. I have seen some unusual mailings that have gotten results. I've seen messengers in Gorilla suits deliver letters. I've seen people send carrier pigeons (the letter says something like "please call me to schedule a meeting or throw my friend out the window with a note stating the ideal date and time").
The idea behind the lumpy mailing is to get a response. You want to provoke a reaction. A "NO" is better than no response at all. At least with a "NO" you can cross that person off your list.
Mailing this five letter sequence will definitely get you a higher response rate than just sending one letter. Again, keep in mind that you will be placing follow-up phone calls after each letter is mailed. This takes work. It takes discipline and persistence but in the end it will payoff.
Next Week: What to say in your letters to get you in the door.
Comments