When Cold Calling Can Be the Right Call
Published: May 27, 2010
I bring all this up not to tell you that Gary, the guy who oversaw the room of telemarketers from aged 16 to 60, would allow anyone to leave for the day who was lucky enough to score three leads (a feat I never was able to accomplish), but to tell you about this extremely interesting and helpful blog posting entitled "Cold Calling For Your Job Search" from Caroline Ceniza-Levine on Vault's blog Inside Career Advice From SixFigureStart. Here is just one of the many passages I think may be helpful and encouraging to job seekers in the current market (not to mention may keep them from having to ask people when the last time their furnaces had been cleaned):
Your cold call to the hiring manager needs to demonstrate that you are that right person for their job. A lot of jobseekers focus their pitch on who they are – where they worked, what they did. The prospective employer cares about how their new hire will work for them and what they will do for them. Frame everything you did in terms of benefit to the hiring manager. It’s not just about having done extensive market research for Old Company A. It’s about being able to research this Market-You-Care-About for Target Company B. This means you need to know your target intimately – what they are working on, what keeps them up at night – so you can position yourself as the answer to their prayers.