About Cover Letters and Contact Letters…They’re Not the Same

Sending a cover letter with your résumé is now standard practice. It is expected by employers. They know that the résumé is an insufficient tool to express your uniqueness and your suitability to a job opening. Anyone who sends out a résumé without one would be foolish. And anyone who sends a cover letter, expecting that it will automatically result in their résumé being read by a decision maker is equally mistaken.

A cover letter is sent with a résumé to generate interest in you and, hopefully, land an interview. But, cover letters have become passé. They are just more you talking about you and saying you are so great. Then: Here’s my résumé. Wasn’t I right about me? Think about it for a moment. Suppose I wanted to get you to read a full page of typewritten material about me. You would probably resist reading it.

But, if the entire page was about you, you would read it in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you?

A contact letter is a very different personal marketing tool. Its purpose is also to land an interview. But it has some distinctly different advantages over a cover letter. It is sent without a résumé, directly to a decision-maker, in order to secure an interview for an unpublished position. The reason it works so well is that it is all about your prospective employer and his concerns.

So, it has two great advantages: 1. It speaks to the reader about his favorite topic: himself and his concerns. 2. It addresses the unpublished job market, where there are not 1,000 competitors vying for the same position.

Just as a résumé is the primary tool for published job openings (less than 20% of all jobs), a contact letter is the primary tool for unpublished positions (80% or more of all jobs). This is the new tool for opening up the hidden job market.

Here’s a comparison between a cover letter and a contact letter. The difference is of crucial importance to the new method.

1.      A Cover Letter Is Expected – A Contact Letter Isn’t.
A cover letter accompanies every résumé in order to tell the recipient what to expect and in some ways explain the experience or education you have listed in your résumé. This is basic business etiquette and totally appropriate when responding to an advertised (or posted) job opening.

A Contact Letter is not sent in response to anything other than your perceived need or business opportunity. Since it is not expected and the only purpose of it is to announce the discovery of a solution to a discovered problem or missed opportunity, a résumé would be totally inappropriate. It would show that you are looking for a job, not offering a solution.

2.      Using E-Mail.
It is perfectly acceptable to send your cover letter (and résumé ) electronically. And, when doing so, the cover letter should precede the résumé embedded in the body of the e-mail. Your résumé would follow as an attachment. Once again, this is in response to an advertised or posted opening.

Sending a Contact Letter by e-mail is totally incorrect. For that matter, I recommend that a contact letter be mailed on specially sized stationery. I prefer 7”x 10” and in an off-white color. It must be sent as a personal contact, professional to professional, offering help and advice.

3.      It Must Be Unique.
Canned cover letters scream out laziness and don’t make a good first impression. Cover letters need to be tailored to each specific company. But, since the company information may itself be vague (since you are replying to a newspaper (or on line) ad, you may only be able to say things such as what drew you to the company or the ad. You may only be able to say how much you enjoyed speaking with the company representatives at a job fair.

Your contact letter, since it is based on your research of the company and its challenges, will be very specific. It is a targeted contact with a decision-maker and it mentions their challenges and how you can address them. The more you know about them and the more you speak about them, the greater the probability of them calling you for an interview.

4.      Avoid Errors.
The competition is stiff. Dozens, maybe hundreds or more people are competing with you for the same opening. Those who make hiring decisions are looking for a reason to reject your résumé! That’s right, they are not looking for the best applicant until after they have culled out of the pile those few who are least objectionable. Don’t assist them in their quick decisions by including misspelled words or sloppy grammar. Proofread your cover letter carefully.

Errors can also be costly in contact letters. But for different reasons. Your contact letter will actually be read by a decision maker, not a computer, not someone in HR. And, since your letter will not be in response to an ad, the person who reads it will be looking for content very early on. The will be asking the questions: “Who is this person?” And, “Does her offer sound appealing and reasonable?” So, in addition to spelling and grammar, you must make sure that you have delivered comparable results previously and that you can deliver on your proposal.

5. Brevity Is Great – For Cover Letters; Not So Much for Contact Letters.
Your cover letter should be around two-thirds of a page long and as brief as two or three paragraphs. Most career experts recommend that a cover letter should never be over a page long. Your sentences must precise, crisp, and to the point. HR people will reject a cover letter that takes longer than a minute to read.

Brevity is not the main feature of a contact letter, content is. When your contact letter is received it will create questions. If your research is on the mark, and your proposal alludes to deliverable results that the business leader wants, he would be quite remiss to dismiss your offer without an offer to speak with you.

6. Address Them Both To A Specific Person.
It is hard to address your cover letter to a specific person at a company when you are responding to an ad or posting, unless the name of the contact is contained in the ad. Often, if the name is included, it is merely someone in personnel and not someone with hiring authority. You can always address your cover letter to the department head of the area that you are interested in (e.g. Director of Marketing). But, you may be addressing it to the wrong person and you’ll never get a response. And, letters that are addressed to HR departments have a just as great a chance of getting lost in the shuffle.

Your Contact Letter Is Addressed to Three People. The Circle of Influence method of contact works from your research. You have chosen and researched three contact people at your prospective employer. You know their names, their functions, and, quite possibly their home addresses. Since your contact letter is a personal contact about the challenges, opportunities, or problems of a specific company and it addresses them, you want your letter to be as personal as possible, without being intrusive.

7. Cover Letters Describe Qualifications; Contact Letters Accomplishments.
The body of your cover letter is used to give a quick overview of your skills and proficiencies. It describes successes you have had in the past using your talents. Since it is the résumé before the résumé, you must slant it toward the job description of the position you are seeking. In three short paragraphs you must focus on your strengths, your skills, and the benefits the employer would have by hiring you.

In your contact letter, you will talk about the challenges facing the employer and the dollarized benefits you have brought to similar situations. And/or you will present some opportunities you have been able to capitalize upon in your other work situations. The focus of your contact letter is on the employer and his concerns, not on you and your suitability for a position that is open.

8. Don't Re-hash Your Resume.
Your cover letter should not be a replicate of your résumé. Cover letters are a chance for you to add information that does not generally fit into résumé format. They address issues like: why you want to work for the company, why your experience as a widget maker clearly qualifies you for the position of chief blowfish inspector. Cover letters are opportunities to distinguish yourself.

Contact letters are NOT linked to your Résumé
Remember, you are contacting a decision-maker at a specific company because you have ideas to share with her about ways in which you can assist in problem-solving or opportunity spotting for their company. Your goal is to sit down with them and discuss these ideas. If they believe your ideas are credible, you will get the opportunity to prove yourself.

Now, let’s look at some examples:

Dorothy, the medical office manager was advised to lie on her résumé by career experts. They saw her years of experience and her age (over 45) as a liability. So, she did. She got a few more interviews than previously, but still no offers.

Dorothy began using our New Method.

She focused on her strengths. She assessed her history of successes and she dollarized her contributions to her former employers’ success. Then she began using the Circle of Influence.

Here’s how:

She networked with the local association of medical office assistants and found three firms that were growing nicely, but had had extreme personnel turnover. She used the Yellow Pages exercise to determine the relative position of each of these firms, based on the size and layout of this year’s ad versus last year’s. She called each office and made a fictitious appointment, grading all the factors, insurance taken, delays on hold, etc. She visited the offices and just looked around, inside and out. She even checked out the doctor’s cars.

She checked with the local Chamber of Commerce to see if anyone from the office attended meetings and if the doctors were members of the Chamber. She checked the local newspapers to see if the doctors were involved in any charity work, worked with schools, or did other volunteer work.

She found out their home addresses and wrote each one a two page letter encapsulating her research.

Sample Contact letter below: