I think one of the most frustrating aspects of looking for a new job is answering the questions: “How do I get the attention of the hiring manager?” and “How do I let him know that I have the skills, background and experience he is looking for?”.
This is particularly
important if you are in the networking phase of your search and you are writing
letters to companies
that you know are hiring. It is also vital if you are writing a letter to
a company in response to information about a particular position they have that
you believe you are qualified for, and are interested in.
So, how do you let the
hiring manager know you have the skills, background and experience, and do it
so that when he spends 10 – 30 seconds reviewing your letter, he gets an
effective snapshot of you? And more important, how can you give him the
immediate impression that you are the person for the job?
One very effective way, that
has been proven successful, is to include a “Needs/ Contribution Statement”.
This is a two-column, one page listing of the typical needs of a particular
corporate function, be it Sales & Marketing, Production Management, Human
Resources, Finance, Quality Control, or some other business function.
For a Marketing
Manager,
for instance, the left hand column, labeled “NEEDS” might include the
following:
- Effective Leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Business Development
- Sales Growth
- Profitability Improvement
- Cost Management
- Product Innovation
The right hand column,
labeled “CONTRIBUTION” includes a short paragraph for each of the NEEDS that
describes how you, the candidate, have met the stated needs during your
career. This is done with a general statement or the description of a
specific achievement or activity that allowed you to meet the stated need.
Here are the CONTRIBUTIONS
for the Marketing Manager example we have been discussing:
Effective
Leadership
Over 26
years of successful demonstrated leadership and management experience, drawing
on strengths in team building, problem solving and strong customer orientation
to drive the development and implementation of programs that contribute to
corporate growth.
Strategic
Planning
Directed
the development and supervised the implementation of detailed sales plans and
market development plans for several products and product lines which resulted
in establishing leadership, both in the total market and in strategic segments.
Business
Development
Acquired exclusive
rights to the distribution of a strategically important HVAC product, by
negotiating a supply agreement with a manufacturer, which allowed participation
in a profitable new $2.5 million market niche.
Sales Growth
Drove the
effort to increase the number of markets and applications for which key
products were sold. As a result, sales grew by more than 19.1% over the
previous year.
Profitability
Improvement
Drove the
effort to increase profitability of key products through increased sales and
improved pricing and reduced product costs, resulting in an improvement of more
than 28%.
Supervised
the activities of a product quality council for a key product which
successfully improved the quality of the products while decreasing the cost by
more than 4.2%, and reduced the customer complaint
frequency to less than 0.1%.
Product
Innovation
Directed
the development and market introduction of a new product, which redefined
acceptable performance in its target market. Sales for this product
increased to $5.7 million by the end of the first year, with profits of $1.6
million, or 15.4% of all product line profit.
These needs listed here are
targeted for a marketing position. However, there is a similar list of
needs that would apply to any function in a company or corporation. If
you are an accountant, engineer, human resources professional, or research
scientist, or any other professional, there is a list of needs that you can
create. You can then list your own contributions that correspond with
each listed need, and create a very useful sales tool for your job search.
Remember,
the objective is to call attention to your ability to contribute to the growth
and success of target companies, and to sell yourself as the best
candidate. For this reason, the Needs/ Contribution Statement can be a
very effective tool in your search.
Include a Needs/
Contribution Statement with your next networking letters. Try to cater
the content of the Needs/ Contribution Statement to the needs of the company
you are writing to. You will be pleasantly surprised, I think, by the
favorable response you get from prospective employers.
