Hi:
Wherever I go, my standards for work quality and quantity seem too HIGH.
I’ve mostly worked on the client side, but have some entrepreneurial and agency experience, in which my clients and managers have been impressed.
Don’t be fooled by my degrees – -I have real marcom skills.
Is there a place for me somewhere?
Probably, but not here.
The Wellesley Hills Group is hiring! We have a few open positions, including a Marketing and Consulting Associate. The above is the complete cover letter (sans signature) of a recent applicant.
The Buyer: Wellesley Hills Group has a need, a budget and a timeframe, and we’re looking to make a very important long-term financial and business commitment – hiring a new member of the team.
The Seller: Anyone who applies for the position.
Over-and-above the specific criteria for the position, we’re looking for someone who:
- Fits our values. The person above does an OK job with straightforwardness, but not a particularly good job at commitment, like submitting a cover letter as required – what you see above was what we got. This person also doesn’t do a particularly good job of commitment to success of others like doing any research on us and including it in the cover letter, such as it is.
- Can help our clients be more successful. I’m not so sure I want cryptic and flip emails such as this one headed out to my clients, or headed out to the world on behalf of my clients. Clients: if you’re reading the blog, we’re keeping people like this out. I promise.
- Goes the extra mile in research and preparedness. For this position we’re not necessarily looking for someone with extensive experience. We need someone who works hard, thinks clearly, analyzes situations and problems well, and writes well. This applicant, and practically everyone else who applies, does zero homework on our company. We have articles, we have a blog, we have case studies, we have information on the company, and we have much more on our website. Similar to business development for professional services, too few people read. Too few people customize. Too few people make the extra effort. More should.
It’s hard work like this that gives us the indication that you’d be willing to go this far for our clients. You have to care to work here. And you can show me that you care right from the get-go in the cover letter.
Back to the buyer / seller scenario. By posting this position, we as the buyer have basically put out an RFP. You can respond, and your response – if well crafted – will get you in the door. If you actually go the extra mile and follow up (gasp!) then you might even find yourself at the top of the heap.
Since you’re the seller, you may have been told by a career expert of your career counseling office that you need a unique point of differentiation (see #4) to make the sale (i.e. land the job). I’m sure this person was trying to stand out. And they did. They made it to the blog, didn’t they?
You don’t need differentiation per se, you just need to be very good. So few people are.
In our What’s Working in Lead Generation benchmark report on RainToday.com, we asked over 700 buyers of professional services what types of content are most effective for lead generation. The top most effective content type is “Content 100% focused on individual prospect’s specific situation.” Meaning, if you do your homework and you customize your marketing communication tactics (like your cover letter and resume) to the prospect’s specific situation (like the needs of the job and the company), then they’ll work better.
The candidates that customize their applications specifically for us demonstrate passion, commitment, and an overall desire to work with a company with a culture and values such as ours. Research and customization demonstrate good marketing and lead generation instincts – qualities which we need to help our clients succeed.
If you’re applying for a position here at the Wellesley Hills Group, feel free to follow the advice in this blog post. If you read the post, you have an advantage! If you didn’t, you probably didn’t do enough homework to get the job anyway.
I’m a big fan of selling, and I truly enjoy speaking with sales people when they call me. The enjoyment isn’t always long-lived, though. Perhaps because I study selling somewhat academically, I’m constantly disappointed with the lack of understanding from the sellers regarding how to connect with buyers on the phone.
One way sellers could make better connections with me is to have something worthwhile to tell me when they call. I got a call from a sales representative who I’ve been working with for quite some time. My company has a particular need and we might purchase something from this sales reps’ company. We’re just not sure when.
The call went something like this:
Sales rep: Hi Mike, it’s John Smith calling from ABC Company.
Me: Hi John. How goes it?
Sales rep: Going pretty well. And you?
Me: Just ducky, thanks.
Sales rep: I’m just calling to follow up.
Me with my “silent” voice: Ugh. Can’t you do any better than that?
Me with my “out loud” voice: Thanks for calling, John. We’re still in the same place as before. I’ll get back to you when we’ve gotten further down the path of making a decision.
Sales rep: Great. Looking forward to speaking with you then.
In her well written and practical book Selling to Big Companies (click on link to download free chapters), Jill Konrath says in Chapter 19 “Keeping the Campaign Alive”, “To avoid sounding pathetic on follow-up calls, don’t ever say something lame like, ‘I’m just checking in.’ These calls are as important as your initial one and require just as much planning.”
I couldn’t agree more. If you’re going to call someone to “just follow up”…don’t. Call to offer some insight on new research you’re company just completed. Call to offer a discussion with one of your clients who just succeed in conquering the issue that this prospect is facing. Call to see if you can take them out for coffee when you’re in town next week. Call to see if the appointment of a new president at their company is going to affect what they need and offer to speak to them.
But don’t call to “check in.” As Jill says, it’s lame.
How does brand affect a professional service business’ ability to grow? Indeed, does brand have any affect at all?
In the just released research What’s Working In Lead Generation, we asked more than 700 leaders in professional service businesses about their lead generation practices and found that the respondent companies with the well-known company reputations were significantly more likely than their “best kept secret” counterparts to say they were “Good” or “Excellent” at generating leads for their services.
In total, the 30% of companies that considered themselves “very well-known” in their target market benefited from the impact of reputation reach while the 70% of companies that thought of themselves as “not very well-known” didn’t.
Takeaway: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
One argument seems to never go away. On the one side you have people who say, “We need to increase our brand recognition in order to truly succeed with marketing and lead generation.” The other side typically maintains, “Just get out there and sell. Name recognition doesn’t matter.”
Recognition and reputation do matter when it comes to lead generation. 65% of well known companies report being good or excellent at lead generation whereas only 44% of the not well known companies report being good or excellent. If you are well known, whatever lead generation tactics you employ are likely to work better.
In How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Sales from the Client Perspective, we asked 200 buyers of professional services how they find and learn more about potential service providers. After referrals, “I already knew about the service provider” (a.k.a. reputation or brand reach) was the top approach cited along with, “learning about the service provider by hearing them speak.”
In What’s Working In Lead Generation, only 30% of companies claimed the power of name-recognition in their market. That spells opportunity for the other 70% of firms. The more well known you are, the better your lead generation efforts will work. Of course, this begs the question, “which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” or in this case “the brand recognition or the lead generation success?” In our opinion, they work together.
Caveat: Don’t take these results and use them to make your case for getting more money in your advertising budget.
While brand perception can have a tremendous impact on a buyer’s attitude toward a company, and disposition toward purchasing services, the traditional laws of branding do not apply to professional services firms.
Of 33 lead generation outreach tactics, traditional advertising media scored very low in terms of effectiveness:
- Advertising on TV: 33rd out of 33
- Advertising on the radio: 31st out of 33
- Advertising in print media: 29th out of 33
- Advertising in ad-supported websites & online publications: 28th out of 33
Advertising is a way to “get your name out there” as many service business leaders want to do, but it’s not necessarily the best approach or use of marketing budget. Build your service brand through your lead generation efforts. If you infuse value in marketing, and sustain your marketing over an extended period of time, you build awareness and esteem for your firm’s services at the same time you generate leads.
A number of folks read Business Week’s interview with me about our What’s Working in Lead Generation for Professional Services Benchmark Report. One question I’ve been asked since the interview was published is, “What did the leaders at professional services firms actually say about cold calling and what it’s done for them?”
Here’s the “evidence” that folks gave about cold calling working for them:
“Even though calls are frustrating at times…when they work, they really work well. We can get 2 to 4 new clients each year this way, that usually turn to repeat work clients…that is good.”
-Chief Marketing Officer, AEC Services
“70% of correspondents are interested in our services.”
-Principal / Partner, Law Firms / Legal Services
“Our biggest and most profitable customers have been acquired this way.”
-CEO / President, Health Care Services
“75% of more than 250 meetings during the past 2 years have been generated this way.”
-VP / Director of Marketing, Management Consulting
“30% response rate with a 10% first meeting rate. Acts like the newsletter, but gets to an audience blocked by spam filters.”
-Principal / Partner, Human Resources / OD Consulting
“Roughly 25% of new business is brought in this way.”
-Principal / Partner, Retained Executive Search Services
“Cold calling is so rare in UK professional services that it’s quite a pleasant surprise to many recipients. We often get the comment, ‘I’m glad you called. I / my colleague is dealing with just such a situation that you may be able to help with…’”
-Managing Director / Managing Partner, Marketing / PR / Advertising
“It is how we have secured business year after year and we’re over $400 million in sales and in business over 50 years.”
-Field Director, Human Resources / OD Consulting
Some professionals still hold the belief that cold calling does not work. In my opinion, cold calling works, most people just do it wrong.
What’s your opinion?
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