How many times do you decide to purchase a product after simply reading a promotional leaflet delivered along with your newspaper? If the leaflet’s content is well designed and targeted towards your specific need. Then it may attract your attention to know more. But to improve your response towards an act of considering it as a buy, there needs to be a follow-up call from a salesperson addressing your needs after studying your specific requirements.
Similarly, making an application is an activity done by almost 100 percent of the job seekers. Also, ensuring that it reaches the hiring manager is achieved by many. But does it get the job seeker a higher number of interview calls? Well, it might if your achievements match the job requirements for more vacant positions. But with thousands of applications, there is every chance that your application along with your Resume (which are important tools too) alone might get you the fewer number of interview calls.
In our customised Job & Interview Assistance service, we coach job seekers with a technique that works and increases their chance by 10 times of getting the call? The tool is the elevator pitch follow up call to the hiring manager (HM) or the HR manager (HRM).
However, most of the time, Job Seekers either shy away from making that follow up call or are unable to do it because of the challenge of locating coordinates of the HM/HRM. And even if they do get hold of them, the question remains how to present yourself and what to say. We all know that time being a constraint with everyone, a follow-up call has to hit the nail on the head and that too within 1 minute on lines of an elevator pitch.
Just in case, you are not familiar, an elevator pitch is when you have to sell something within one minute to a prospective buyer/individual. Let us assume that you and your boss enter an elevator/lift on the ground floor to go to the 40th storey of an office building. And you have been brimming with a new profitable idea which you want the company to implement which would also ensure a promotion/reward for you. Now, you need to convince (sell) your boss within the one minute that it takes for the lift to reach from the ground floor to the 40th.
Similarly, in a follow phone call, you have precisely one minute to convince the HM to meet you. Needless to mention, a lot of research work on the job requirements needs to be done combined with enough practice before you make that call.
The Following 4 Steps Will Help You Achieve The Objective of Getting Increased Number Of Interview Calls
Step 1 – Name:
It is critical to know the full name of the hiring manager/HR manager. You need to introduce yourself simply by saying “I am XYZ with…… years of experience, working in/worked in ABC company and have applied for the position of…………..”.
Advantage: By addressing the HM by his/her name, you will gain his/her attention and it helps in building a rapport. And you will come across as an individual who is a professional who is serious about doing homework.
Step 2 – Address The Pain Point:
Immediately present the most crucial point of the job. For example, if the job is in project management, the improvement in the TAT (turn around time) and the yield/pay off per project are two pain points, then purely focus on those.
Advantage: Since you obviously are not known to the HM/ HR manager, the emphasis on the job’s most crucial deliverable will further gain his/her attention.
Step 3 – Connect Your Expertise With The Pain Point:
Smoothly transit your communication towards a brief mention of your demonstrated experience with success in that area. Mention how you have been recognized by your company for your achievement in that specific task.
Advantage: You will come across as an individual worth meeting and evaluating.
Step 4 – Seek An Appointment:
Mention you are keen on the job because you are confident of adding value and would like to elaborate in a face to face meeting how you would be a solution provider.
The above 4 steps will serve as a guideline for you to work out the approach you need to take to increase the number of times you get an audience with the HM or HRM.
Remember the objective of the follow-up call is only to get you a face to face meeting with the company’s influencer/decision-maker. It is not an interview, so you have to resist the temptation to fall into your own trap of starting to elaborate on your achievements. Because in your first connect over the phone with someone who does not know you and has innumerable applications to attend to, there is always the great risk that you will not have the opportunity to present your candidature holistically and you may not be called further for an interview. The suggested approach will motivate the hiring manager to call you for the interview.
Now, since you are ready to follow up, please go ahead. Do make use of this effective tool and land up successfully with the increasing number of interview calls.
Sarabjeet Sachar
Seasoned Career Coach, Founder & CEO, Aspiration