AMAZING NEW JOB SEARCH
TOOL GETS TEN TIMES THE RESPONSE AND A HUNDRED TIMES THE
IMPACT OF EVEN THE BEST COVER LETTER OR RESUME.
This page describes a new "technology" in the job
search and networking. I invented this networking tool in 1987 and when I
have a client who uses it, they always get more interviews.
--The article will explain "Special Reports," and how
they are created.
--The 40+ titles at the end of this article will give
you a good idea of the types of things Special Reports cover.
--Your imagination and writing capability can do the
rest.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE SPECIAL
REPORTS
TO GET IN FRONT OF MORE HIRING
DECISION MAKERS
WE'LL DISCUSS YOUR SITUATION AND SEE
WHETHER
THIS TECHNOLOGY WOULD WORK FOR YOU.
IF IT DOES, YOU CAN
HIRE US TO COACH YOU.
As the ease and convenience and staggering volume of
internet email has risen, résumés and cover letters have steadily declined
in their impact and power.
Yesterday’s résumé: beautiful linen finish paper, typeset with just the
right bold, italic, and underline highlighting to make a great impression
and feature what you want to “sell.”
Today’s résumé: reduced by the internet it to an electronic text file
searchable by keywords! All the layout, wordcrafting, and wordsmithing to
get your point across are discarded & replaced by ten “hottest words of the
week” on a head hunter’s search criteria.
The “Amazing New Job-Search Tool…” title on the cover promises you something
a hundred times better than a sent-by-itself résumé. If you are a job
hunter, it probably got you wondering, “What could be a hundred times better
than a résumé?” and, “Is my résumé and cover letter not good enough? Could
something else really have ten times the impact?”
The claim sounds big – even too big to believe, maybe. But, even if you’re
skeptical, you’re reading this anyway, right? – “just in case.” — you don’t
want to miss anything.
What is this “Amazing new tool”? It is a “Special Report.” A Special
Report is a collection of some common sense ideas put into a few pages that
attract the attention of people who can hire you. While this article is not
exactly a Special Report, it does have some of the elements: Interesting
benefit-oriented title, common sense content, practical application, and
written to entice someone involved in your industry [here it’s career
consultants or anyone using a résumé] to read.
And you are reading, aren’t you! You’re saying to yourself, “Hmm, I’m not
convinced résumés have reduced effectiveness because of the internet, but
maybe I’ll read just a little further to find out more.”
Let’s compare a Special Report with a résumé for a moment.
What if, instead of the title
“Amazing New Job-Search Tool Gets Ten Times the Response, and A Hundred
Times the Impact of Even the Best Cover Letter &/or Résumé,”
I had a résumé type of title like
“Bottom-line results-oriented project manager seeks challenging position
with growing company to increase sales, efficiency, and profitability.”
Blech.
Nobody (probably not even Mr. Results-oriented Manager himself) would be
motivated to read past the first five words. Yet we expect people to read
résumés with that kind of language!
Résumés are basically boring! That’s why they get, on average, only twenty
seconds’ attention.
A résumé is okay to use to answer an ad, apply for a vacancy, or post on the
internet. In fact, a Special Report does not usually replace the résumé for
this function. But when you’re introducing yourself for a networking
relationship, the résumé is a yawner, a ho-hummer, a
here’s-another-job-hunter piece of boredom just like the last one I read.
New Job-Search Technology
Since 1988, many of my clients have experimented using a Special Report to
augment the résumé as a way to introduce themselves on their career
marketing campaign. It doesn’t replace the résumé altogether – only as a
tool for networking introduction. It is an information-based job-search
technology born of the information age. As of 1994, I have used it with
clients about fifty times. (I have a list of some of the best examples
later.) Usually it did better than résumés. Sometimes it didn’t. But the
good news is that a Special Report has never under-performed a résumé.
In other words, it always did as well or better. What does “better” mean?
Better means it got better results. Better is measured by the questions
“Did your contact know who you were?” and “Was your contact receptive to
meeting with you?”
It is remembered a hundred times better than a résumé. For instance, in
your job search, how many times do people initiate a call to you in response
to your having mailed a “networking” letter and résumé? Less than one in
hundred, I bet; probably none at all. Special Reports have generated those
inbound calls! I call that a hundred times better. [This does NOT mean
that you can send them out and wait for the phone to ring – a good job
search is still a pro-active venture.]
What Is a Special Report?
It is a few pages describing some simple but essential how-to information.
Whatever your profession, you have some wisdom about how to make things run
smoother, better, easier, more profitably, etc. Your Special Report shares
that wisdom.
You may be wondering, “How could li’l ol’ me ever come up with a report that
could make employers call me?” We’ll get to that. As a matter of fact, not
everyone can do a Special Report, but if it does fit a client’s situation
it’s not really very hard to come up with the ideas. They can be elementary
and still make a good impression. For example…
You may recall the book: Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Steven
Covey. Very powerful book, but... think about it. How much “rocket
science” does it take to tell people to: 1-Be Proactive; 2-Begin with the
End in Mind,; 3-Put First Things First; 4-Think Win/Win; 5-Seek First to
Understand; Then to Be Understood; 6-Synergize, and 7-Sharpen the Saw? YOU
could have written that book, couldn't you? The ideas there are simple;
they are as old as Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich." Yet this was a
multi-million copy best-seller. That's the power of a Special Report.
Simple ideas that work.
Why Does a Special Report Work?
It works better than a résumé because it
1) emphasizes your contribution better,
2) positions you as an expert,
3) reads easily in a format that holds the recipient’s attention, and
4) has substantive value.
1) Emphasis on Contribution
No matter how well you craft a résumé, if it is sent “solo,” it screams,
“Look at ME, I’ve demonstrated success; I have skills you need; I want a
job!” That’s well and good if you’re applying for a job or mass mailing for
one; that’s exactly what you want it to do!
On the other hand, if you want a networking conversation where there is no
opening [yet], you’ll do better to augment the résumé by emphasizing your
ability to contribute to the contact whether or not s/he has a “job
opening.” Your contacts can read the report without having their attention
distracted by your job-hunting needs. Instead, their attention will focus
on their own businesses and the simple but powerful ideas you present to
help them make or save money. Holding their attention on this leads to #2…
2) Positioning as Expert
Writing a résumé full of achievements gives one kind of credibility as being
an accomplished person, but, many people discount résumés – they “deflate”
the content by 10%. Most hiring decision makers believe that job hunters
inflate position responsibilities, hide failures, touch up results, cover up
employment gaps, and otherwise doctor their résumés to look as flawless as
possible. This is not bad – in fact a good résumé does just that: presents
the best possible side of you. The intention, still, is on presenting how
great an asset you think you are, so the résumé reader uses a magnifying
glass to uncover flaws, gaps, and cover-ups. They read with a skeptical
attitude.
By contrast, a well-thought-out Special Report immediately positions you as
accomplished in a different way. You’re speaking the language of the
industry; you’re communicating information that works to produce results.
The fact that you can even write such a piece gives you more personal
credibility when you add it to your résumé (which, unlike a Special Report,
a résumé service can write for you). Regarding your ideas, you’re an
expert. The reader approaches with a curiosity, open-minded attitude.
Here’s an example of how positioning-in-the-mind as an expert works: If
your accountant shows you one loophole: how, say, by being self-employed as
a Sub-S corporation, you can save $5000 in taxes [by, for instance, hiring
your spouse and than having your company pay 100% of all employees’ (i.e.
your spouse’s) medical premiums (and their families – i.e. you) and medical
expenses pre-tax.]. You automatically assume that s/he knows lots of other
loopholes, too. Knowing a lot about a little implies you know a lot about a
lot!
For example, I had a client who composed a report, “Special Report to
Transportation Industry: A Simple Way to Add a Couple Hundred Thousand
Dollars Right to the Bottom Line: Watch People Who Aren't There, and Make
Sure Nothing Happens.” He worked for Yellow Freight.
His report addressed a common problem in the industry: workers getting back
injuries (or faking back injuries) and taking a “vacation” of sorts by
disability pay. “Watch People Who Aren’t There” gave tips about how to
check up on disabled workers – talk to their doctors directly; look for a
“golf-glove tan” on their hand, and other tips to catch cheaters. “Make
Sure Nothing Happens” gave tips about how to conduct on-the-job safety
training in a way that really worked to prevent injuries.
So, notice: even though my terminal manager’s résumé was well done, and it
extolled all his management capabilities, his scheduling, dispatching,
dock-management, accounting, and other skills, it still made him look a lot
like other successful terminal managers. He didn’t stand apart; regional
managers had little motivation to meet with “another job hunter.” But when
this Special Report showed “street smart” knowledge of one of the many
problems terminal managers face, it positioned the candidate as an
“expert.” By demonstrating in a practical, useable way that he knew the
ins-and-outs of catching disability cheaters, the reader of the Special
Report assumed he was expert in other areas, too. The reader was curious to
meet the “author.”
3) Interesting New Format
When have you ever said to yourself, “Hmmm, I’m bored. I think I’ll read a
résumé?” Let’s face it, unless you have a job opening for which you’re
interviewing candidates, a phone book is more interesting reading than most
résumés.
The Special Report works partly because it’s just plain different and more
interesting. People remember receiving a Special Report. Even if they
don’t read it!
4) Substantive Value
Special Reports give money-making or time-saving information. They don’t
have to be blockbuster ideas. All you need are a few common-sense ideas
that can make or save a bundle of time or money. If readers actually
implement any of the ideas, they’ll be ahead of the game with respect to
improved productivity, service, quality, or some other business-enhancing
results.
A couple of examples follow.
From “31 Ways to Profit from the Coming Boom: the Shift from Sick Care to
Well Care”:
#1 Uncover the real community health needs.
#7 Create visibility for the wellness services you already undertake.
#14 Include a “Better Health” response card with all outgoing mailings.
#29 Sponsor “Healthy Citizen” awards.
From “Little Used Sales Technique…”
•Follow-up Consistency #1: ANSWER THE PHONE (BY A REAL PERSON)
•Follow-up Consistency #2: RETURN PHONE CALLS.
•Follow-up Consistency #3: SEND THE MATERIALS.
Because the reader can actually benefit from the ideas immediately, a
Special Report is better remembered than a résumé. A résumé can focus only
on the individual — what you, the candidate, have done in the past for some
other employer and, by inference, what you can do in the future if they’ll
hire you. A Special Report can focus on the specific benefits the reader
can reap now and forever just by reading and using your ideas – whether or
not they hire you.
Who Can Use a Special Report?
Only those who have several years’ experience in their field generally use
special Reports. If you’ve run an MIS department, a warehouse, or a
restaurant for many years, you know tips and techniques that can make the
difference between success and failure.
With one exception, career-changers can’t use Special Reports. It would,
for instance, be presumptuous for someone changing from teaching to sales to
do a Special Report called “Ten Top Sales Techniques.”
The exception is a Research Report. For example:
I once had a client who wanted to join an outdoor-adventure company with a
personal-growth component. She had no experience in the field and, indeed,
didn’t even know how she’d get a list of companies to approach. So she
approached a new-age magazine and got it to endorse her to research an
article for them.
She called and interviewed people to gather information on these operations,
especially on which marketing techniques they found successful. By the end
of her research she had become an expert in these organizations’ identities
and the “Ten Most Powerful Marketing Techniques for Outdoor-Personal-Growth
Organizations.” She also became well known and highly visible in the
field. Her social-worker résumé would never have had the impact her article
and research did.
What Goes into a Good Special Report?
A Special Report has five main elements:
1) a benefit-oriented title and subtitle,
2) an introduction,
3) quality information beneficial to the reader, usually in the form of
five to twelve “tips” or “mistakes,”
4) author information: name and phone number on each page (footer) and
full information about the author in the back, and
5) a binding of some sort.
• Benefit-oriented Title.
The title of the Special Report should be an advertisement for the Special
Report that states or implies that the reader will get a specific benefit
from reading it. We call that its claim or promise.
By applying the ideas contained in your Special Report, readers should be
enabled to either make money (example: An International Trade Trend Opens a
Brief Window of Opportunity to Double Your Margins and Under price Your
Competition at the Same Time) or avoid losing money (example: A Simple Low
Tech Manufacturing Solution that Saved Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars with
No Increase in Staff or Overhead.).
The Special Report you’re reading now has a title with three interest
grabbers: an “approach” benefit (new job-search tool), an “avoid” benefit
(implies that Cover Letter &/or Résumé is not good enough), and a claim (ten
times the response).
• Introduction
The introduction should emphasize that you are writing this out of your own
experience, and explain that many of the items are common sense, but exactly
the common sense that people ignore, forget, or overlook. It should allude
to your belief that, when the reader implements any of these suggestions,
benefits will result.
• Quality Information
Here’s the guts of the Special Report: interesting information.
Search your experience for the simple principles that make your job or
business successful. Remember, they don’t need to be earth-shattering
revelations; basics are fine. The Bible’s Ten Commandments are a good
example of basics/simplicity. Would you be curious enough to open a report
entitled “Ten Simple Principles of Human Interaction that Can Practically
Guarantee World Peace”?
Couldn’t you write a few words about how easily the world could be a better
place to live if we just went “back to basics” for a while: Thou shalt not
kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery?
You can do this in your career field if you take a moment to think of
principles, rules, mistakes — the basics of making your job work. Formulate
them in four to twelve sentences and you have the outline of your Special
Report.
To flesh them out, talk to a friend about them and tape record what you
say. You can also try using what I call “The P.I.Q. format”: Principle,
Illustration, Question.
•The Principle is a statement of something that is a mistake to avoid or an
activity to undertake. It should be one sentence, two at the most. Just
make a point that is easy to grasp.
•The Illustration is a few paragraphs long. With a story or illustration,
it illustrates how important the Principle is. Use short paragraphs.
Keep the personal tone—you’re writing from your own experience; this is how
it is for you, and readers can make up their own minds about its
applicability.
•The Question asks readers to examine their own behavior around the
Principle. Preferably, it should be a practical question answerable in
measurable terms.
Here is an example from a Special Report quoted
earlier.
Follow-up consistency #1: Answer the phone.
Seems simple, right? But how many places do you call nowadays that have a
human being answer the phone? More likely you’re sent through a maze of
phone numbers extensions, voice mails, fax numbers, “press the pound key…,”
“your call is important to us,” [yeah, sure it is!], etc.
You can double your sales by having a dedicated line that is consistently
answered by a knowledgeable, helpful, cheerful human being. Not every line
needs to be answered this way, but calls from potential customers need this
follow-up consistency. Why is that so important? The key to making sales
is making the customer feel like they’ll be taken care of.
On one of my calls a telephone operator informed me she could not take my
name and address for information – that would have to be handled by a
salesperson. She then informed me that she could not transfer me to a
salesperson because they were all gone for the rest of the day. This call
was made at 11 a.m. E.S.T.!
Question: Have you called your own inquiry number recently to see how well
a prospect is welcomed and well-treated?
• Information about Author
Here’s where your résumé can shine! By adding your résumé in an “about the
author” section, you’ll fill in the “career blanks” in the reader’s mind.
It doesn’t have to be a résumé, either; if a narrative will get across the
salient points of your background, go for it; you’re not confined to a
chronological or functional format. In any case, the author’s name and
phone number is prominent on the cover and each page’s footer.
• Professional Binding
This has a lot to do with being remembered. When clients had pages simply
stapled together, it was not as effective as when it was bound. On the
other hand, this is not to be or look expensive. The idea here is that it
should look and feel like a specially prepared report, not just some papers
stapled together. It should not, though, make it appear that you wasted
money on image making it look fancy (unless the report if for a type of
industry where image is business, like, say, graphic arts.)
• Miscellaneous
How long? Don’t worry about length.
People will tell you, “It’s too long. No one will read all this. Make it
shorter.” They are wrong. Every day, people read hundreds and hundreds of
pages of things that interest them.
Consider the daily paper. For some people the sports section is too
long—they won’t read it. For others it is too short. They not only devour
the whole section, but read Sports Illustrated too! Still others read only
the scores of last night’s game because that’s all they’re interested in.
Each reads as much as they want and no more.
Remember, people will read War and Peace if it captures their interest. Why
wouldn’t they read your report?
Here’s what actually happens when your contacts receive the Special Report.
They read the report's title; within five seconds they decide whether it’s
of interest or not; if it is, they either begin reading it or they put it in
a get-around-to-it pile. [Notice… they don't treat it like a resume and
send it to personnel.]. Whether they read it right away or later, whether
they ever finish it or not, or whether they read a couple pages and then
skip to the back, doesn’t matter. The impression that “you know what you’re
talking about” is firmly set in those five seconds. So you see, it doesn’t
make any difference how long it is.
Make the Special Report as long as you need for providing interesting
infor¬mation. A Special Report is only as long or as short as the reader’s
interest makes it. By that standard, how long is your current résumé?
The End
Following below: About the Author and
Examples of Special Reports.
o - O - o
About the Author
Since 1979, Jack Chapman has been working with people from all walks of life
who want to achieve career satisfaction and success. He is in a private
practice named "Lucrative Careers, Inc." In addition to general career
consulting, since 1996 he has developed a way for practically anyone not
only to have career satisfaction and success, but also to achieve complete
financial independence in 8 years or less in the process. He loves sharing
that information with people – just ask.
Mr. Chapman has worked with thousands of people from all kinds of
professional, technical, and managerial professions and helped them land
exactly the kinds of jobs they want. He is the author of Negotiating Your
Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute, America’s most widely read book on
salary and raise negotiations.
Jack has about 50 reports archived, and a bound book containing the ten best
of the Special Reports available for $19.95 each plus shipping & handling.
Call or email a request for this if you wish. <jkchapman@aol.com>
This Special Report of his is not copyrighted. You may copy and distribute
it to your heart’s content as long as you acknowledge Mr. Chapman as the
author by including the footer information and this About the Author
section.
Jack is also the author of his own Special Report used as an “advertorial”
to generate career consulting and outplacement business, entitled, “Twelve
Biggest Mistakes Job-Hunters and Career-Changers Make and How to Avoid
Them.” He’s happy to share that with you if you think it would be helpful
in your own personal marketing efforts.
Special Note of Interest to the First Time Reader
To evaluate the effectiveness of a Special Report, reflect on your reactions
to this one. The author acknowledges that it is not in the P.I.Q. format,
nor about the “basics” except as “Résumés are usually boring” is a basic
concept. Still, it is a Special Report designed both to inform and also to
give you some sense of the author. Answer these questions:
• Although Jack’s résumé is not in front of you, how well positioned is he
in your mind as an accomplished Career Advisor?
• Do you think this Special Report works as well as, or better than, a
résumé?
• A résumé is one or two pages. This is a dozen-plus pages. Was it too
long?
• If it was too long, did you skip to the back to read this?
• Did it make a favorable impression on you even if you didn’t read it all?
I hope you enjoyed and profited from this Special Report. —Jack
o - O – o
Samples of Actual Reports Available – see below
AVAILABLE SPECIAL REPORTS -- SET OF 10 -- $50.
ORDERING IS **NOT** ONLINE/AUTOMATIC. IT'S "BY
HAND."
SEND AN EMAIL TO JkChapman@aol.com and ask for info
on purchasing the TEN SAMPLES special reports.
SET OF TEN SAMPLES:
Rpt 1 THREE SIMPLE LOW TECH THINGS YOU CAN DO
TOMORROW THAT CAN DOUBLE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR SCHOOL RESOURCE CENTER.
Used by a teacher to switch over to resource center manager (Librarian)
Rpt 2 AN INTERNATIONAL TRADE TREND OPENS A BRIEF WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO...
DOUBLE YOUR MARGINS AND UNDER PRICE YOUR COMPETITION AT THE SAME TIME:
Trading with China
Rpt 3 FOUR SIMPLE KEYS TO BETTER SALES THEY DON'T
TEACH YOU IN SALES TRAINING:
Rpt 4 Four Easy Ways(and 2 Harder Ones) To Find
Enough Hidden Money To Take a Trip Around the World
Rpt 5 How to Uncover Financial and Operational Trouble Before Your P&L
Blows Up…
Rpt 6 Four Keys to Securing Great Event Sponsors and
Four Keys to Great Event Productions
Rpt 7 CUSTOMERS, SUPER GLUE, AND YOU… HOW TO MAKE
SURE YOUR CUSTOMERS STICK WITH YOU FOREVER
Rpt 8 Four Keys to an Excellent Wait-person
Rpt 9 Seven Practical Strategies (There Are More Out
There) That Accelerate The Learning Pace of Students of English As A Second
Language
Rpt 10: 50-Year-Old Marketing Mistakes that Are Still Killing Companies
Today: “Lessons from the Edsel”
2: An International Trade Trend Opens Brief Window of Opportunity to Double
your Margins and Underprice Your Competition at the Same Time (available by
email, too)
4: 54 Ways to Market Career Services (By a college career counselor.)
12: Computer Conversions: Plan It, Move On It, Roll It out! (By a PC
networking specialist.)
13: Ten Ways to Improve Sales (By an envelope salesperson.)
15: A Simple Low Tech Manufacturing Solution that Saved Hundreds of
Thousands of Dollars with No Increase in Staff or Overhead. (By an oil
refinery plant manager.)
18: Special Report to Transportation Industry: A Simple Way to Put a Couple
Hundred Thousand Dollars Right to the Bottom Line: --Watch People Who
Aren't There, and --Make Sure Nothing Happens (By a shipping terminal
manager.)
20: Outdoor Adventures [A Consumer's Guide to Outdoor Adventures with a
Personal Growth Component] (By a social worker who decided to target being
the administrator of an outdoor personal growth company.)
26: Research Reveals Little Used Sales Technique that Can Dramatically
Improve the Sales of Products to the Financial Investment Market (By
salesman in the investment analysis software industry.)
27. Three Simple Low Tech Things You Can Do Tomorrow That Can Double the
Effectiveness of Your School Resource Center (available by email, too)
The following reports are available for $5 each plus postage.
1: Boyles' Practical Manufacturing Tips: Food for Thought for World Class
Manufacturing. (By a manufacturing manager.)
3: Harness your Company's Export Power: Ten Key Factors for Successful
International Sales. (By an international business development
professional.)
5: Ten Ways To Make Your Property Make Money (…that are so basic & simple
you probably forget) (By a residential property manager.)
6: Gaining a Strategic Foot-Hold in Asia: Five Cultural Marketing Realities
to Master (By an advertising executive specializing in Asian marketing.)
7: 31 Ways to Profit from the Coming Boom: The shift from "Sick Care" to
"Well Care" (By a hospital/medical system marketing specialist.)
8: 10 Guidelines for the Design and Maintenance of the Dental Workplace (By
an architect developing a specialty in dental offices.)
9: Marketing Cardiology Services (By a director of a wellness/prevention
cardiology program.)
10: 8 Ways to Systematically Build Customer Loyalty (and therefore more
business) (By a customer service representative.)
11: 10 Easy, Powerful, but Often Neglected Ways to Make the Docket
Department Run Smoothly (By a docket manager in a law firm.)
14: 6 Money Tips for Self-Employed and Small Business Professionals (By an
accountant building a private practice.)
16: Ten Tips for Copy editing (By a copy editor.)
17: Cost Savings Areas (By a high level operations administrator.)
19: Ten Tiny Chinks in Computer Departments that can:--Allow Customer Lists
to Walk Out The Door to Your Competitor--Render Your Systems Useless and
Inaccessible to Users--Cause You to Fail a Data Processing Audit (By a
computer consultant building his private practice.)
21: The Ten Communication Commandments of Information Systems Management (By
an MIS director.)
22: Eight Rules of Construction Management (or…What My Mother Taught Me
about Saving $500,000 on Design/Build Projects) (By a construction
manager.)
23: Eight Biggest Mistakes TQM Programs Make and How to Avoid Them (By an
H.R. professional specializing in Total Quality Management.)
24: Why Irreversible Changes in the Marketplace Virtually Guarantee that a
Well-Trained, Young-in-Mind Sales force Will Out-Perform Their Outmoded
"Heavy Hitter" Counterparts--or--How to Avoid the "Death of a Salesman"
Syndrome in Your Organization (By a sales manager in the printing industry.)
25: Five Reasons Why Things Don't Change Even When the Improvements are
Obvious (By a manufacturing management analyst.)
28. Four Simple Keys to Better Sales They Don't Teach You in Sales Training
(available by email, too)
29. SJ’s 4 Keys to a Successful Waitperson (College student; resume + report
all in one.)
00 And, of course: "Amazing New Job Search Tool Gets 10 Times the Response
and ..." (By Jack Chapman.)
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