Guerrilla Marking for Job Hunters 2.0 - Jay Conrad Levinson [105]
Or:
Good afternoon, David. I just got off the phone with your partner Anita and I have a question. If you would, please call me back this morning [phone no.] before 11 AM?
The last tactic makes use of what’s called an associate reference. You infer a discussion with a colleague of the employer. The employer is definitely curious as to what his partner, Anita, might be up to. She’s very competitive, you know.
Your goal in eliciting curiosity is to engage the prospective employer. Freese’s book offers examples for using these strategies in a sales situation. With a little work on your end, you’ll easily be able to adopt it for your job hunt.
➤ Strategy 4: Momentum Helps Reduce the Mismatching Instinct
We’ve already recognized that hiring managers are at risk when they hire someone. A poor hire might cost the employer money or the hiring managers their job. By using Freese’s Herd Theory, you leverage both the employer’s need to limit risk and to appear savvy. You highlight and emphasize what everyone else is doing. In the following message, the job hunter discretely educates an employer about the direction taken by other companies (competitors), motivating the employer to follow the herd or risk being left out:
Hello, Mr. Perry, my name is Daniel Houle. You may recall that a few weeks back I sent you a series of white papers I authored on the impact of the software-as-a-service-delivery model on traditional software vendors. As I indicated in the accompanying letter, I plan to release some complementary information to these white papers in the next 7 to 10 days. Frankly, several companies have already asked for the follow-up documentation as well as an interview: ABC Company and DEF Inc., to name just a couple. I am following up because I have not received word from your company, and I wanted to make sure that you didn’t get left out.
The last sentence of this voice mail will elicit the following reaction from the employer:
Left out of what . . . ? I better call him back if ABC Company is interviewing him already.
This is an especially effective strategy for setting meetings with senior executives. However, it will require you to actually have written the white papers and done the research work. A guerrilla would simply recycle previous work whenever possible.
The strategy comes with caveats; you’ll need to have established some credibility with the prospective employer if this voice mail is to have the desired impact. Creating a bidding war without having other bidders lined up is gutsy at best and could be disastrous if you’re discovered. It is best to use this tactic as part of a well-planned campaign where you have at least one initial interview scheduled.
GUERRILLA TIP
Run through a few practice drills on undesirable companies in preparation for the big game.
GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE
Stay Away from the Human Resources Department
Daniel Houle
Your dream job is probably the most gratifying “sale” you will ever close in your life. As in any sale, selling yourself will have nothing to do with telling them why they should hire you; remember, selling is not telling. Once you’re in the interview, ask more questions and make fewer statements.
To avoid mismatching, engage the employer with:
• Intriguing questions (voice mails) to elicit curiosity
• Concise diagnostic questions to establish your credibility
• Slightly negative questions to obtain factual and accurate information
• The Herd Theory to convince prospective employers that they could ultimately be left out
Stay away from the human resources department because they are paid to mismatch. Human resource people have a role similar to that of your body’s natural immune system—essentially keeping out germs (bad employees) that could make the company sick. By nature, they are risk-averse, err