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This chapter will be important for executives to review. You probably realize that you can get a job created for yourself... one that is shaped to your talents... and you may have done this in the past. We’ve found that the higher you go as a professional or executive, the more likely that the next position you accept will actually be created for you. In some cases, it will be an existing opportunity that is revised to fit what you bring to the table.

Keep in mind this simple thought. We all hire top people when we are persuaded that the benefits of having them on board will sufficiently outweigh the dollar cost.

You can get offers, even if no job openings are said to exist. You simply need to present yourself as a solution to a problem. The “create a job” approach is for executives who want a job tailored to their best abilities. A few examples might include an executive who can develop new products for a company, a sales executive with contacts in particular markets or a general manager who can start up a division in a specific industry.

Aside from executives, the “create a job” approach can also be considered by anyone who may have difficulty winning offers through other means. This includes those who have a narrow market for their talents, people who wish to change industries, or those who have been unemployed for a while or who want to stay in a specific geographic or industry area.

In these situations, to win the job you want, you may have to create it by making an employer aware of your ability to make contributions.

The following pages will give you some guiding principles as you consider this approach. You must focus on small to medium sized firms, go directly to people with the authority to create jobs, have a clear benefit proposition, take strong initiatives in your first meetings, and stir the employer’s imagination.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

If someone is likely to give you a bad or lukewarm reference, you need to bring it out in the interview and supply enough good ones to offset it. For example, if the interviewer asks to speak with a reference who will be questionable, defuse the situation by explaining that you had differences of opinion on company directions. Remain totally objective and unemotional, and never imply negatives about that person. Also, if you are doubtful about what a reference might say, you might have a friend do a mock reference check to find out what is being said.

If the reference is neutral, don’t hesitate to ask the person to furnish more positive information. If necessary, explain that any negative input is keeping you from winning a position and enabling you to support yourself and your family. As a last resort, you may have to imply that you will seek a legal remedy.

Fundamental guidelines

Only network with superior materials. List people you want to see, in industries of interest, and find a way to meet them.

Always know what you want to say, the questions to ask, and the strengths to emphasize.

Be sure to exchange cards and talk with people wherever you go. Let them know you are thinking about something new.

Try to leave every meeting or discussion you have with new names.

Always remember the names of the front office and send a non- standard thank you note after each meeting. For example, mention an article you have seen where the firm is mentioned.

Remember, people know when they’re “being networked.” That doesn’t mean they won’t help, but don’t try to fool them.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

Most of the time, important references will be the people you reported to in the past, or the person you currently report to or their superiors. Choose the highest level reference, as long as you get an enthusiastic endorsement, and avoid people who don’t communicate well. Also be sure to give them an idea of what to emphasize about your background.

References you select should know your achievements and have no hesitation in making strong statements. What they say is very important, but the enthusiasm and conviction they project is more important. Let them know that you have high regard for them and their opinions, and they will want to do their very best.

Also, make sure that your references know the full story. Here’s an example. A woman who worked for me left to complete her MBA. She was competent, had a quiet manner, but could be forceful. When she started interviewing, she brought me up-to-date. She called after an interview to tell me that she felt they had some concerns about her quiet nature.

Armed with that information, I was ready when I was called by her potential boss. Before the question was asked, I mentioned that sometimes people could be deceived by this woman’s quiet nature, but that she could be very assertive. The person responded that I had put to rest his one concern.

References can be your best sources of referrals. Leave each person a half-dozen resumes. Reassure them that you won’t use them too many times. After calling them, send a brief note that shows your appreciation and summarize a few positive things they can say about you. You can even make a list of questions that employers might ask and suggest answers for them.

By the way, let references know as soon as you have used their names, and ask them to let you know when they have been contacted. Employers will sometimes ask them for the name of someone else who is familiar with you.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

Mark was a VP who wanted to become a CFO. We helped make Mark aware of the power of his references. When Mark heard his company was to be sold, he felt his salary was $20,000 less than it should be.

Did his boss feel bad about paying him less than he was worth? Absolutely. Could Mark ask him to act as a reference, and would he raise him to the level he wanted, in return for staying for the last two months? Definitely.

Now, the boss had a friend in an accounting firm. Mark asked his boss if he would approach his friend as a second reference. Together, they had lunch. The accountant was happy to be a second reference. In the same way, Mark developed a third reference, his own brother-in-law.

When he launched a campaign, he had a good interview with the president of a small paper company. A conservative man, he asked for three references. Mark recontacted his references, so they were ready. After his boss had given him a glowing reference, the president mentioned that he was still uncertain. 

When the second reference was called (the boss’s friend), he told the president that in the right situation Mark could help save $1 million in taxes, and control costs. He had repositioned Mark as a broader-based financial executive.

Next, Mark’s third reference supported the others and added a few points. The day after the last reference check, he got a call from the president, and guess what? His message was, “Mark, what will it take to get you?” He ended up as CFO at a much higher income.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

The growth of the Internet and social networking sites such as LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Zing and others, combined with personal marketing websites and the use of email... are ushering in a new era of networking. And, it is a much easier and more effective way to network. All you need are some superior resumes and an attractive personal marketing website that display your formal credentials, accomplishments and transferable skills in an impressive way. Then, instead of asking for “an informational interview,” you can just send off a well designed email with a link to your website.

People on the receiving end will get it and be impressed and you will have their time. And, you can use this method to contact hundreds of people in a very short time... people who have a high probability of being able to help you.

What kind of people? I’m not suggesting that you do this with your genuine personal contacts and real friends, who will look forward to visiting with you on a personal basis. However, they would also be very interested in seeing your personal marketing website.

But we all have what I refer to as acquaintances on another level. Here I’m referring to people who might be golfing partners, politicians, lawyers, ministers, investment bankers, etc., people who might legitimately be able to easily refer us to others based on a short telephone call (after seeing your personal marketing website).

You can also target industries of interest and get contact information on key executives who would be good targets. Influential alumni have also proven to be very responsive to this approach. Other possibilities to contact include executive directors of associations who have many “lines” into their industries. Editors of business magazines and newsletters may also have an inside track on the needs of specific organizations.

Other good executives to target can be those who have been quoted in articles. This makes an introduction easy and natural. Also be sure to track down lost contacts in past organizations.

As far as informational interviews go, you can do that while abiding by some time tested rules. For example, your discussions must be kept brief, and you need to have your list of questions prepared. You will do better when you have researched a firm and are asking for feedback on ideas that may benefit them.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

Networking is an important avenue for developing leads to private opportunities. As part of our service, we will be helping you upgrade your LinkedIn site. Or if you are not registered, we will get you registered. We will also advise you on how to maximize your opportunities through the social media. Our goal is to dramatically expand your networking efforts, making it much easier here. However, it is important for you to understand the fundamentals of networking, regardless of the sources you use. This chapter will deal with that.

Networking is a pyramiding strategy... one where you capitalize on one name to gain an interview with another. The most popular style of networking involves seeking informational interviews.

Your purpose here would be to get an appointment with executives and ask them to share with you some information about their industry challenges. Naturally, if you happened to be well connected, and you maintained a list of contacts into the hundreds, that could help give you a fast start.

Unfortunately, the problem with this is that it usually takes a long time. And, some people find it demeaning to approach friends and acquaintances to ask for help in finding a new career position. Nevertheless, it does work if you have the time and inclination to approach your job search this way. Hopefully, some of your discussions will result in referrals to another executive who might have something for you... and be able to use your talents.

While this traditional networking can work, besides taking time, networking people with a new job in mind has become overworked. Just about every executive has been networked over and over again. What’s more, who has 45 minutes to an hour to devote to someone else? Or even 30 minutes?

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Reorganizations involve shifts in executive ranks. They spell opportunity for those at the next lower level, and changes ripple through the organization down the line. 

Problems often imply one of two things: managers haven’t been performing well, or the company needs new capabilities to survive and grow. Organizations with problems often need help from the following:

• Marketing people who can identify new markets and find new applications for existing products.
• Sales people who can help increase revenues.
• Applications engineers who can design new products... and applications for existing ones. 
• Operations and manufacturing people who can find more cost- efficient ways to produce goods and reduce overhead.
• Skilled negotiators who can win more favorable terms with labor, suppliers and customers.
• Financial staff who can cut costs or raise more capital to make further expansion possible.
• Real estate and financial people who can redeploy assets or dispose of unwanted facilities.
• CEOs, COOs and GMs who can take responsibility for plant closings, consolidations and streamlinings.
• CEOs and COOs who can supply new leadership.
• HR executives who can help find all these people.

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You read that a firm is starting a new division to sell a revolutionary cell phone... one that can compete with the iPhone and the Blackberry. The obvious implications are that this company could very well need people in marketing and sales. Since it’s a new division, you might also expect that there will be some need for finance people as well.

If you’re a design engineer, you might also project a need for that capability to support the design effort. Those possibilities would be real enough, but now let’s use “ripple effect thinking” to see if we can infer some other needs. If you’re an industrial engineer with knowledge in this product area, you know this concept will concern competitors. You might contact them to help in the new product area.

Or, you may be someone who is experienced in dealing with regulatory authorities. You recognize that the potential customers for this product will have to deal with the FCC to gain product approval. Consequently, this firm might need someone like you.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

Every day, events occur in tens of thousands of firms that lead decision makers to begin the process of privately looking for new people. These events are often reported in local and national publications, newsletters and online. They are essentially signals of emerging jobs... and that hiring will soon follow. What kinds of news events signal emerging jobs?

• ·      An employer receiving new capital
• ·      A firm kicking off a new product
• ·      Executive appointments
• ·      Word of new local business operations
• ·      New contracts being awarded
• ·      Planned relocations
• ·      Major licensing agreements
• ·      Announcements of growth expectations
• ·      Announcements of record sales & profits

For companies undergoing transitions, chances are they will need to attract good people to handle problems or capitalize on their opportunities. Their activities won’t just be limited to one or two functions. They can be expected to need people in all categories: sales, marketing, finance, etc. What’s more, these situations will generally be much less competitive than public openings.

Ripple effect thinking

When you read about a company that is giving out signals that they may be hiring at an above-average rate, don’t stop at the obvious implications. Use what we refer to as “ripple effect thinking.” This is simply taking the time to think about changes that may be occurring in the company up and down the line and across many functions.

You may also get some good ideas about using information to find opportunities with a company’s suppliers, customers and even their competitors. Consider the following example.

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Let’s assume you were a district sales manager seeking a national sales manager’s job. Here is a range of direct mail actions to consider.

Most popular. Sent to CEOs. Takes good credentials in mainstream fields to work. Some response is from large firms, but this is better with small companies.

Much better. Sent to SVP sales by personal name, selected by industry, size and location. Can be very good with telephone follow-up.

Excellent. Sent to SVP sales to whom you have spoken. Or, sent to SVP sales, by name, where a third-party mailing goes out under someone’s letterhead. 

Outstanding. Sent to SVP sales, by name, to whom you’ve been referred or met or spoken to.

Often the best. Doing continuous direct mail to your high prob- ability prospects. For example, if no interest results from a first mailing, contact a minimum of five other decision makers in mid-sized firms and up to 12 in large organizations or divisions—spaced out over eight weeks (with phone follow-up).

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Aside from using the phone, your choices are making contact by (1) email... (2) fax... or (3) first-class direct mail. Going to someone’s per- sonal email is inexpensive, but sometimes offends people. Sending them a note through a corporate email address works best in smaller firms. Making contact by fax can be effective and relatively inexpensive... if you can get access to a fax that goes to them. (The problem in large firms is that your fax may never reach the right person.)

Using the general fax number in a small or medium sized company works better. Contacting executives by first-class mail in an envelope marked “private and personal” is the best way but is also the most ex- pensive. As a rule, to have a mailing service do this will cost $2.00 or more per letter.

Granted, that means $2,000 to make 1,000 contacts. But what is the value of uncovering that handful of senior executive openings... and having them be interested in you? Another way to look at it is to consider how much money you may be losing by staying unemployed for just an extra month. So, for many people, the value is high. And, of course, these job hunting expenses are generally tax deductible.

I asked a friend of mine, a CEO of a high tech company, what he thought of direct mail. His response was, “Well, I get a lot of resumes and even some from my board members who pass on candidates. It works if the person really comes across well.” Another friend, a VP of Market- ing at a Fortune 500 company, put it another way. He said, “I look at resumes. If something matches my needs, I usually respond directly. It’s a matter of timing.”

A third associate, the head of HR at a Fortune 500 company, sent me the following when I was updating this book. His comment was, “I would highly recommend direct mail. Third-party letters can be especially effective if the right person is writing for you. Just prepare a letter they approve for their signature. Make it easy for them to assist.”

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

The higher you go, the more likely your desired position will be found somewhere in the private market. And, the greater the chance that a job will be created or reshaped to fit your particular blend of skills and strengths... and the specific contributions you can make. 

Here’s an example. A COO with achievements in both sales and marketing, attracted interest in the aviation, defense and electronic industries. At the end of his search, he had 10 attractive opportunities to negotiate. One of those was with a company that he highly respected, but the position they had in mind was not big enough for him. Importantly, he did not allow the conversations to end there, because he liked the company. So, he went the extra mile to go through three meetings. At the conclusion, the job had been redefined to two levels higher... in order to take advantage of his many strengths. It also carried a base salary $100,000 larger than the original job.

There is much more to marketing any professional or executive on a direct basis than can be covered in this brief discussion. It remains, however, one of the quicker ways for any person to uncover private positions... that would have otherwise never been uncovered. In addition, you gain the long-term advantage of getting into the databases of organizations... and paving the way for an inquiry sometime in the future. This can be very important for young professionals who will have a number of career moves ahead of them.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.

Yes. Let’s take an example of a CFO who lost his job, but wanted to continue living in a medium size metro area like Denver. Now, let’s also assume the executive wants to earn $200,000. So, we might start by looking at the size of companies in Denver… according to their number of employees… who might require a CFO and who would also be able to pay him or her $200,000 or more. Listed below are the approximate number of employers in the Denver area… with a population of approximately 2.7 million.

Less than 10 employees = 85,000

11-20 employees = 10,000

21-50 employees = 6,000

51-100 employees = 3,000

Greater than 100 employees = 2,500

Chances are that we would need to restrict ourselves to organizations with more than 100 employees… or 2,500 organizations. So let’s now apply the math that we discussed earlier. Based on turnover data, how many companies might have the job we’re looking for become available this week? If you divide 2,500 by 208, you’ll get about 12 companies.

However, keep in mind that we are referring to jobs becoming available (or needs evolving into jobs) this week. If our executive client is in the market for 12 weeks, there would be a total of 12 x 12… or about 144 positions available during this time period. That’s why it pays to have your material good enough so it gets scanned into their databases.

We have learned that if we go back to the same organizations and executives… a second time within 90 days… that the response we get will range as high as 75% of whatever activity we got the first time.

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The answer is yes—particularly when contacting larger companies. Let’s look at three examples:

Example #1. Years ago, our firm had an executive come to us who had been a sales manager in the camera industry. He contacted us with only one objective in mind. He wanted to be the national sales manager for a specific Japanese firm.. So, we wrote an initial letter… a short resume as a one-page summary (a universal resume) and a full biography for him… and we had them translated into Japanese. It presented a very compelling statement as to why he was the ideal candidate to run American sales operations. Initially, we sent that document to the head of Pentax operations in Japan. That didn’t work. Subsequently, we sent it to several other executives, including the CFO, the EVP and the CEO. Eventually the top executive flew him over to Japan and some weeks later he got the job.

Example #2. Another executive we once handled wanted to live in Rochester, New York and had a specific interest in the Xerox Corporation. Over a period of ten weeks, we contacted more than 15 different executives…before an interview was secured. Surprisingly, it never came to light that we had contacted other executives in the same corporation. The same would be true of most large organizations today.

Example #3. In another instance, a client in New Jersey, who had both marketing and technical skills, sent his materials to the HR Department plus five other decision makers in different divisions of a large pharmaceutical company. The HR Department responded that they had distributed his resume throughout the firm and there were no suitable openings. Over the next 10 days, he learned in follow-up calls that two other recipients were not interested, but one was and invited him for an interview. He also received two replies in writing. One said they might have an opening in the next two months. The other invited him for an interview right away… because he seemed to be a good match for a position they wanted to fill soon. Without direct mail, none of this would have happened.

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You can take either a “micro” or a “macro” approach. A micro campaign should target your best 100 prospects... or at most 200. And if you personally follow up by phone, it can work very well. But, most people seeking $100,000 or more can also benefit by sending 1,000 letters to other secondary possibilities… and if you are an executive, perhaps more. Why?

Well, if you went to 200 organizations… how many are likely to need someone like you? Let’s assume that you’re looking for a job of which there is only one in each organization. For example, let’s say you want to be a General Counsel… VP of Sales… Director of HR… the CFO… VP of Operations… the CEO, etc. On the average, one company out of each 208 is likely to need someone like you at that moment. However, they may be in the wrong industry for you. And, even with the best materials, they may not be as impressed with your background as you think they should be.

Here is why the previous paragraph is so true. The job market runs primarily on turnover. From the U.S. Labor Department, we know that professionals and executives change jobs at the rate of once every four years in the U.S. That means that the job they occupy becomes available once every four years… or 208 weeks. So, that’s why we know that if you went out to 208 companies, you would probably only reach one that needs someone like you right now.

Get more information about Robert Gerberg by reading his blog or following him on Twitter. Or check out great companies like SET Personal Marketing or ERI Personal Marketing.