jobs

There's an old marketing maxim I live by when advising job seekers.

It dates back to the 1930s and comes from Robert Collier, one of the best writers of sales letters who ever lived.

It goes like this: To create successful advertising, the writer must enter the conversation already going on in mind of the reader.

Because everybody is thinking about something. If you can tap into a person's thoughts with your message, they will pay attention to you.

Applied to your job search, your cover letters should address concerns that are already in the mind of the reader. In this case, that's your future boss.

Would you like to know two ways to do that, stand out, and get hired faster?

Here they are ...

1) Use the News

Every day, the news headlines offer you a ready-made source of ideas to capitalize on when writing cover letters to employers.

Let me illustrate with two examples.

Example #1: Local news item

If you're in the Twin Cities, you can start a cover letter with this headline, based on a sports story that's in the news right now:

The Twins Have Won 9 of Their Last 10 Games -- Would You Like an Even Better Winning Percentage?

... then begin your letter like this:

Dear Ms. Abercrombie,

I don't know if you follow the Twins, but they've won 9 of their last 10 games -- 90%. That's hot.

My recent experience as a project manager is even hotter: I've managed 8 of 8 projects to on-time, on-budget completion this year, for a "winning" percentage of 100. Could your team use a performer like that? I hope so!

Let me explain ...