There is always a job in a good organization
for an impact player. An impact player is someone who can quickly
improve the economics of a company. An impact player is someone who
can bring in customers, energize the sales force, restructure an
under-performing department, speed up the innovation process, solve
the late shipment problem, or physically move the manufacturing
facility to a lower cost area. An impact player also is someone who
will do the necessary but noxious tasks one ome else wants to do.
An impact player is someone who will get their hands dirty, pick up
a shovel and start shoveling, open the store early and close late,
deliver product on their way home, deal tirelessly with irate
customers, and make a service call on Christmas Eve. Good
executives in good companies want to hire impact players. To get
the attention of the CEO in your target company, write him or her a
letter that demonstrates your ability to impact the company.
Research the company
exhaustively, constantly looking for areas where you skills and
experience might be of benefit to them. While reading the company's
literature; trying the products; talking to customers, competitors,
and suppliers you will discover good business opportunities or
challenges, or both. Dollarize the value of those business
opportunities you have discovered. Write a one-page letter to the
CEO of the company or the highest-ranking relevant hiring
executive. Pinpoint four or five opportunities for the company
where your expertise and ideas will be useful. If the letter is
carefully written, and your proposed opportunities are reasonably
feasible, you will, in most cases, at least get an interview. If,
for whatever reason, the company can't hire you, the person you
interviewed may have other good contacts. If you don't get hired
full-time, you might be offered a consulting assignment to work on
one of the opportunities you described in your impact letter. A
consulting assignment is a great way for you and the company to
evaluate each other. Doing well may lead to a full-time
position.
It is far better to
do the hard work of producing five impact letters that get great
results than to send out five hundred resumes that generate five
hundred rejections. A good impact letter demonstrates your
potential to make an impact.
Impact Letter: Example #1
Written by a person
with manufacturing skills to the CEO.
Dear Mr. Day:
You have a great
company and I have spent some time studying it. Based on my
research, which includes observing your products in use by your
customers, there are four things that would have a positive
economic impact on your business.
1. Customers complain that Product A
occasionally loses hydraulic fluid, creating one hour of costly
downtime while being repaired. The problem can be solved with a
redesigned lip seal. I know how to get that done.
2. Based on a description of your factory floor
layout, there would be considerable savings to you if you
adapt the Toyota motor car's one-piece flow production method to
your manufacturing process.
3. Such a process will also result in reduced
factory floor space usage, and less inventory of vendor parts.
4. Customers say your lead time on shipments is
now sixteen weeks. There are a number of ways to reduce that lead
time.
If I don't hear from
you, I will follow up to discuss how to make these ideas a
reality.
Manufacturingly
Yours,
Baldwin A. Ward
P.S. One Customer
suggested a product improvement that might be a good new product.
It is a neat idea.
Impact Letter: Example #2
A letter from a sales
candidate to the Vice-President of Sales.
Dear Mr. Baker:
You have a great
company and I have spent some time studying it. Based on my
research, which includes observing your products in use by your
customers, there are four things that would have a positive
economic impact on your business.
1. I visited twenty of your customer stores.
Product A was available in fourteen stores. The other six stores
are good target accounts as they move considerable volume. With
persistence I can get your product on their shelves.
2. In addition, only two stores were using your
display materials, and they were getting good results. We could
take the experience of those two stores and educate every customer
to the sales-generating potential of proper display.
3. One customer said she would be willing to
stock all of your sku's but she can't find anyone to show her how
to merchandise the line. Her concern might represent an opportunity
for a national planogram promotion.
4. Your competitor is test marketing a new
product in Boston. I have some verbatims from the retailers and a
few of their customers as to how the new product is doing. We could
discuss some ideas on what you might do in response.
If I don't hear from
you, I will follow up to propose how to make these ideas a
reality.
Sellingly Yours,
Ewell C. Rezultz
P.S. There is a new
channel distribution available to you. This channel could add 5
percent volume to your top line.