by Tony Beshara
The process of doing this is very simple, but the manner in which you do it is sophisticated and takes a lot of courage and practice. The reason it takes courage is because you are running the risk of being rejected within ten seconds. On top of that, you probably are going to have to make about 75 to 100 of these calls before you get an interview. So, you have to expect plenty of rejection before you get positive reinforcement.
Keep in mind that when you do this, you are trying to get an interview regardless of whether or not there is a position open. You are selling an interview, not necessarily selling the idea of getting a job. It is extremely important that you recognize this difference. The purpose of this call is to get in front of a prospective employer so you can sell yourself and your skills. You are purposely going to ask for a meeting with the prospective employer without asking if there indeed is a need. Don’t confuse getting hired with getting an initial interview. All you’re trying to do is sell an audience with that person.
The reason that you are just trying to sell the initial audience, or interview, is that, very often, hiring managers will interview potential employees whether they have an opening or not. As you will see, the phrases to use do not ask if there are any openings; they ask for an appointment, an interview, and do not presume a current or upcoming position opening.
Whom to Call
If you don’t know the name of a hiring manager within a firm when you call an organization, simply ask the name of the manager of the department that you would normally report to. If you are an accountant, call and ask for the name of the controller. If you are a controller, call and ask for the name of the vice president of finance or the chief financial officer (CFO) or, when it comes down to it, anyone who is in charge of the finances for the company. If you are a salesperson, you should call and ask for the sales manager, the regional sales manager, the vice president of sales, and so forth. If you are an administrative support person, then you would ask for the administrative support manager. When you call, ask for the manager of the kind of department that your skills and ability would fit. It is that simple.
In larger organizations, the people who are answering the phone are instructed to not give out that kind of information. They may tell you just that, or they will tell you that they don’t know, or that they don’t have the titles of the people in the company. So, you can do two or three easy things:
You can go online to the company’s website and find the names of the people that are in charge.
You can ask for the customer service department or the person in charge of customer service. They will be quite helpful.
You can ask for the accounts payable department. These people are so used to getting beat up every day by vendors asking for money that when they speak to someone nice, who is just asking them for a name, they are usually so grateful, they will tell you anything, especially something so simple as who the managers are.
Now, if you get “lost” in the voice mail system that only allows you to spell the names of people, you are going to get very frustrated. If you know the name of the person you’re trying to reach, of course, spell their name. Some companies’ voice mail systems purposely don’t include the names of some of the managers. (I know it’s stupid, and it makes absolutely no sense, but I don’t write the rules.)
If you run into this, your goal is to speak to just about anybody. So hit the first letter of any common name like “S” and speak to whoever answers. Ask for the accounting department, sales department, customer service department, and so on. If you don’t know the name of the manager of the department you need to speak with and you get a voice mail from one of the administrative people, you have no choice but to leave a message and ask them to call you back. I would not recommend telling them why you are calling. When they call back, be as nice and cordial as you can. You want to speak to their department manager. Most of the time, administrative types want to help, so they will give you the name of the manager. Try to speak to the manager right then.
If you have skills that can transfer from one industry or profession to another you can cold call just about anybody. For example, any kind of administrative, accounting, bookkeeping, or sales experience can carry over to a lot of different businesses. So, you can cold call from just about any reference book that might provide names of companies and telephone numbers. Don’t overlook the white pages of businesses or the online telephone book itself.
What to Say
You want to get past the initial responder as quickly as possible, so you should start with a direct question:
Hello, who is your __________________ (controller, vice president of sales, information technology (IT) director, CEO, or other title)? Fine, let me speak with ____________________ _______________.
If you are put through to the person you wish to speak with, get right to the point by stating who you are and what you want:
Hello, __________________, my name is ________________, and I am with ________________ and have a great track record of ______________. I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would tomorrow morning at 9 AM be good for you or would tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM be better?
If you get a response like, “I really don’t have any openings,” then your response should be:
I understand and the kind of person that I want to work for probably does not presently have an opening.
I would just like to take fifteen or twenty minutes of your time because I am a top-notch performer. I am the kind of person whom you would want to know to either replace your weakest link or to be aware of my availability when the next opening does occur. Now, would tomorrow morning be good for you or is tomorrow afternoon better?
You will either get the appointment or a more insistent response of, “I really don’t have any openings. There is no reason for us to meet.”
At this point, you have nothing to lose, so you might as well state your case as strongly as you can:
I understand that you don’t have any immediate openings, but I have a great track record of ____________________ ______________________.
I am the kind of professional who is better than 90 percent of the employees you might have now.
It is to you and your company’s best interest that you at least talk to me and be aware of my availability. If not for now, then maybe in the future. My experience has taught me that, often, great talent comes along when you don’t need it. But, it is always a good idea to be aware of talent on a face-to-face basis.
I will only take a few moments of your time and it may wind up being beneficial for all of us. Would tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon be better?
If the response is, “Can you e-mail me a résumé?” your answer is:
I can, but my résumé is only one-dimensional and it is of value for both of us to associate a face and a personality with a résumé. I’d like to bring it by, hand deliver it to you, and spend maybe fifteen minutes of your time so that you know what my accomplishments are and how they can benefit you and your company. Is tomorrow morning good or would tomorrow afternoon be better?
If the response is an emphatic, “Please just e-mail me the résumé!” (just a nice way of saying no), then your response is:
I’ll do that right now. I will call you back tomorrow to be sure you have received it, and then we can set up a visit.
If you get a very emphatic no, and it is clear that you’re not going to get any kind of face-to-face interview, you then need to pause for two or three seconds and say:
Do you know of any other opportunities that might exist in your firm with another manager?
If you get a person’s name, ask:
May I use your name as a reference?
If you get the name of another manager, also ask for his or her phone number.
If the answer is “no” to your question about other opportunities with the company, then ask (after a two- or three-second pause):
Do you know of any other organization that you mi
ght have heard of through the grapevine that might need someone of my experience?
If you get the name of an organization or a person’s name, again be sure to ask:
May I use your name as a reference?
Powerful Phrases for Referrals
If you get a referral to a particular person or organization and the person who referred you said you could use his or her name (this is an indication of how strong the ties are between them), here are the words and phrases to use:
Hello, Mr./Ms. _______________. I was referred to you by ________________________. I am _________________________ with ______________ and a great track record of ________________.
I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would tomorrow morning at 9 AM be good for you or would tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM be better?
You will be amazed at the number of job opportunities you will uncover this way.
Controllers know other controllers. Vice presidents of sales know other vice presidents of sales. Engineering managers know other engineering managers, and so on. It is not uncommon for one type of manager to know a number of other types of managers both within and outside of their own company. Their counterparts in other organizations often ask these managers if they indeed know somebody to fill vacant positions. You may only get a productive response one out of every forty times you try this approach. But don’t be discouraged. The one interview you get as a result of asking that question is worth the forty or fifty times of asking.
Whether you get a referral or not, it is a very good idea to end the conversation with the following:
Thank you for your time, I would at least like to e-mail you my résumé in case something might change with you or someone you know.
Nine out of ten times, the person on the other end of the phone will be willing to receive the résumé. No matter what the person’s response, whether it be positive or not, end the conversation by saying:
I’d like to give you a call back in thirty days or so to see if there might be any openings there or if you might know of any openings with friends of yours.
Again, nine out of ten people will agree to your doing that. To a certain extent, that lets people off the hook for the moment; but they also know, in the back of their minds, that they could easily have a position open up at any time.
Here’s a key point: Cold calling is a numbers game. The more calls you make, the more likely you are to get an interview.
If the hiring manager just plain dismisses you or insists that you deal with the human resources (HR) department, you can say:
My experience with company HR departments, as far as identifying top talent when there isn’t an immediate need, just hasn’t been good. I am sure they are wonderful people; but I need to be talking to decisive managers who can make immediate decisions. Is there any other manager in your firm who has an opening?
HOW TO MAKE COLD CALLING WORK
This is very simple but very strong stuff. The idea is to sell a face-to-face interview whether the hiring manager has a position opening or not. You are not asking if there is a job opening or asking to be hired; you’re simply getting a face-to-face interview. The powerful phrases you use are meant to be forceful and to the point.
There are a few crucial aspects of this approach. First, do not ask the person answering the phone who does the hiring. You’ll probably be relegated to the HR department and that for the most part is a dead end.
Once you get a hiring authority on the phone, you have to provide features, advantages, and benefits as to why you should be interviewed. This is very important! If you simply call and ask for an interview without giving specific reasons in the form of features, advantages, and benefits to the prospective employer, you won’t get to first base. This is, again, simple stuff if you are aware of what you are doing.
Here’s an example:
Hello, Mr. or Ms. ___________. My name is ____________________. I am a solid mechanical engineer (feature). I am registered with fifteen years of very stable engineering experience (feature). I have worked my way up in two organizations from the ground floor to a senior engineer position (feature). The advantage that I bring is stability and performance. The benefit to you and your organization is that you would have a long-term employee with a great track record.
I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM or tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 PM be the best for you?
Another example would be:
Hello, Mr. or Ms. _________. My name is _________ and I am an accomplished IT professional. I have ten solid years of experience, five with a Fortune 500 firm and five with a small $100 million distribution firm (features). I have attained nine IT certifications (advantage) as well as saved each one of the firms I have worked for thousands of IT dollars. I would like to (benefit) continue this kind of a performance with an organization like yours.
I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM or Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 PM work the best for you?
Your Own Statement of Features, Advantages, and Benefits
The purpose of this approach is to briefly and succinctly tell a hiring authority your personal features and advantages so that they can be perceived as benefits to the hiring authority’s company. So, your job now is to come up with a statement of features, advantages, and benefits about yourself. The question is, and always will be, on the part of that hiring authority, “Why should I hire you?” The whole interviewing process centers on this question.
Features, advantages, and benefits regarding you and your possible employment do not have to be mystical, miraculous, or mesmerizing. They can be simple and rather uncomplicated. In fact, simple and uncomplicated reasons for hiring somebody are the best. So, the next exercise is to come up with a features, advantages, and benefits statement about you.
A feature is an aspect of you or your career that makes you unique. It can be the number of years of experience. It can be grades in school. It can be things like hard work, determination, persistence, and dedication. A feature, in a job-seeking situation, is simply a unique aspect about you that is going to be translated into being a good employee.
An advantage is something that the feature does to set you apart from the average. So, if you graduated cum laude from college and worked your way through college with two jobs (features), you have demonstrated hard work and commitment way above the average person (advantage).
A benefit would be the gain that a company would realize from hiring a person who brings unique features and advantages. So, the features of graduating at the top of your class as well as working two jobs demonstrated your advantage to perform on a higher level than average; therefore, you will perform in the same way for whoever you work for and the company will benefit from your work.
So now, write out your own:
Features: _____________________________________________
Advantages: _____________________________________________
Benefits: _____________________________________________
Keeping in mind that you are selling yourself and that you are briefly giving a prospective employer a reason for why he ought to interview you, write a features, advantages, and benefits statement about yourself:
Hello, Mr. or Ms. ________________________. My name is _________________. I am a ______________________. I (features) ______________________________, which are (advantages) ____________________, and, therefore, ____________________ (benefits) you and your firm.
Practice writing this, and in just a few minutes you can write three or four features, advantages, and benefits statements on yourself to fit just about any situation. Remember, the purpose of this statement is to intrigue a hiring authority enough to want to interview you. Do not try to sell the whole idea of hiring you in one phone call. The purpose is to get the interview by giving a hiring authority a brief statement about what you can do for him or her.
Ending the Cold Call
The closing question to use in any cold-calling situation is:
Could I see you tomorrow morning or would tomorrow afternoon be better?
This presents the hiring authority with a minor choice resulting in a major decision, which most salespeople learn in their first training class. This concept is so simple, it is almost too good, and yet a phenomenal number of people will avoid using it because it appears so obviously manipulative.
It definitely is simple, but it also definitely works! At the end of your features, advantages, and benefits statement, ask the minor choice and major decision question. It works. Do not ask questions such as these: “Would you be interested in talking with me?” or “Could I come by and see you?” or “Can we set a date for an interview?” None of these questions are nearly as effective as:
Could I see you tomorrow morning at 9 AM or would tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM be better?”
Please don’t try to be coy or cutesy by making this more complicated than it needs to be. Simply make the features, advantages, and benefits statement and ask the alternative choice question. Then, shut up! Don’t say another word until you have a response.
Now, most people who are not in sales, and even some who are, will have a difficult time using this statement and question, especially in the beginning of their job search. I have been using this format for finding other people jobs since 1973 and it has resulted in more than eighty thousand interviews for my candidates. It works better than anything you can imagine. So please use it if you want to start getting results, or interviews, as fast you can. It works—don’t try to fix it!
