Marketing From The Heart: Issue # 24

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Marketing From The Heart: Issue # 24
http://www.zerald.com

By Tom St. Louis

"The Shortest Distance Between You And Greater
Profits(tm)"
August 23, 2002
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How To Hire The Perfect Person For Your Project
In Record Time Every Time

When you need a person for a project, or for
permanent employment, one of the things that always
slows you down is the prospect of all those résumés
and calls and faxes you have to sift through. Talk
about discouraging! Who wants to wade through the
lies and exaggerations and half-truths of dozens
of candidates? Not to mention the fatuous cover
letters -- they are so phony! (Why do people think
that the stiffer and less human they are the more
professional they will seem to the prospective
employer!)

I need to hire people for various projects and for
clients quite often and I have evolved a very simple
but powerful system. Perhaps not surprisingly,
it is based on direct response marketing principles.
It's a classic 'two-step'.

Once you understand this system, you will never
hire the same way again. (I really shouldn't give
it to you for free, but you are such a good sport
reading my marketing rants week after week that I
just can't help myself!)

This shortcut to great hiring will save you
countless hours of needless frustration, get you
to your 'short list' in record time, separate the
wheat from the chaff automatically, and allow you
to use your intuition and logic at the highest
level to make the right hire immediately so you
can get going with your important project.

You start by placing a concise, yet intriguing
classified ad. The ad is designed to get a lot
of calls. But you don't care because you won't
have to answer any of them!

You direct the caller to a dedicated voice mail
and disable its ability to take a message. Your
voice message is a detailed description of the
tasks involved in your project and a detailed
description of exactly the kind of person you
want to apply to join your team. The message
explicitly instructs your candidates NOT to send a
resume and not to send a cover page. No phone number
is given and your company name is not mentioned.
All that will come later when you are confident
that you have a suitable candidate to interview.

The prospect is asked to send a one-page letter,
with no cover sheet to the fax number you supply.
I always say the letter should contain the answer
to three questions. The questions are usually as
follows: 1) Why are you the right person for the
position? 2) What are your experiences and attributes
that fit the position 3) What is your expected
compensation?

Then you remind them not to send a resume or
cover sheet, you repeat the fax number and sign off.
What happens next is very exciting.

An instant short list trickles in. Only people with
initiative go to this action stage. When you read
these letters, you are already a little bit
interested. They are able to respond to instructions
or else you'd never hear from them.

If they don't follow the instructions you eliminate
them from contention immediately.

Generally, you get only good to great candidates
and then you can decide who are the very best
candidates to contact. Once you have your short
list, you check résumés, conduct interviews and
check references. But think of all the time you save!

The best part is that when you read their letters,
THE PERSON comes through. Try it a couple of times
and you'll see what I mean. You will be able to see
how that individual responded to your challenge. Are
they authentic? Did they understand the questions?
Are they cooperating fully or sending you a cleverly
disguised résumé? You will get a distinct sense of
each candidate when you use this method. And, you
will not hear from any unqualified people.

Often the first person to respond is just right. Once
I had a candidate who wrote a perfect hand-written
letter and faxed it in right away. I could tell how
quickly and efficiently she worked because
it came in very early in the morning. The letter was
concise, clear and exuded confidence and capability.
There was no doubt that this was an excellent person.

She was a wonderful and highly dedicated person who
worked for me for two years before she went back
to live in Europe. When I think of what most people do,
which is to let the phone ring off the hook and look
at stacks of résumés, or hire an agency to do the same
thing I feel sorry for them.

Just so you fully understand, the following is the
actual text of my most recent ad. This classified
ad (below) ran this week in the Toronto Star, drew
fifteen candidates of which ten were excellent, and
two extraordinary. We immediately hired the best
person and now I also have several highly qualified
people on file who are talented and equipped and want
to provide services from home for between $10 and $15
an hour.

The whole exercise cost $40, which is under $3 a
candidate, and took less than an hour, not counting
interview time with the candidate we chose. There
were 124 calls, no messages and fifteen full
responses.

Here's the ad: Capable, organized person to work
from home on contract basis. Call 416-968-2795
24 hours. (The message is still up there if you
want to listen to it.)

Here's the 24-hour message:
Thank you for responding to our ad for a
work-from-home contractor. Let me tell you about
the opportunity. We require a capable person to
create databases and conduct sequential mailings
on an ongoing basis. If selected, you will be an
independent contractor paid by invoice. The
project involves calling companies in different
markets to confirm their mailing information
along with the right contact person and correct
spellings. (There is no selling involved).

The information will then be entered into a
database and letters will be merged and sent
in sequence. The database will be regularly updated
and maintained by you.

You should have a well-equipped office, with
high-speed Internet, fax, phone and database and
mail merge capabilities. You must be organized and
efficient and have a good phone manner.

If you are interested, I would like you to please
send me an e-mail to the following address:
ad@zerald.com. [In this particular campaign I did
not ask for a fax but an e-mail because I wanted an
Internet savvy person.] Your submission should
answer the following three questions.

Question 1: What are your capabilities to fulfill
the project requirements?
Questions 2: What work experience qualifies you to
do this project?
Question 3: What is your expected hourly compensation?

Please answer those questions ONLY. Please do not
attach a résumé. We will contact the candidates we
wish to interview.

Thank you for calling.

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This Time I REALLY Mean It!
A number of subscribers have offered to participate in
my Golden Rolodex research project. This group will
receive instruction and give feedback on learning to
get more referrals in their business. If you wish to
participate, please let me know right away.
We're starting on Monday, August 26.
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>From The Heart, feel free to FORWARD it to them, as
long as you include the message below.
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