5 Reasons Why You Want a Name for Cover Letters

And Ways to Do It…

The number one thing people listen for the most is the sound of their own name...

How do you feel when you get a piece of mail and it’s addressed to you?

You feel awesome if it’s not a bank statement or piece of business mail.

You feel even more curious when it looks personal or from someone or some organization you know and respect.

Well this is why you want to always address your marketing to someone specific whenever possible.

(The other part is to build the relationship before you ever have to send them the letter.)

You want to connect with your reader at an emotional level and your marketing should aim to do that in a professional yet deep way.

And it all starts with a person’s name.

What One of Your Fellow Readers Asked

“Sunny, just wondering:

What’s your ideas on getting the name of the HR person who’s doing the recruiting?

They don’t put this info on the job posting and when you call, all you get is a voice mail, or even worse, the secretary tells you to send it to the email address that’s listed (usually Get Email).

A topic for a future blog [post] perhaps?

Susanna”

To clear things up from a psychological stand point there are at least five reasons why you always want a name on all of your marketing materials (or nearly all of them).

1. You Want to Get Attention and Stand Out

This is ultimately what you want.

You want to show them that you’ve done your homework and that you’re really interested in working for their company and with that person.

Send your resume both in the mail and electronically to a lead decision maker, executive or hiring manager in the department you want to work in.

And avoid sending your resume, cover letter and creative marketing materials to human resources (or personnel managers).

Get yourself in front of the decision makers and if they pass it down to HR then it’s because they’re interested in you.

And that’s fine.

At least you’ve got their attention for other marketing follow up.

2. Making It Personal Means You’re Investing in a Relationship

Whether or not there’s a job available or advertised you always, always want to build a relationship.

You want a foot in the door of their attention.

And you’re also working on building up your contacts in your network.

Knowing someone on a first name basis is a step in building a connection.

It tells them, “You’re a person I’m interested in (and can help) not just a nameless someone who can give me a job.”

3. Avoid Voice Mail Limbo

So what if you want to find the hiring person’s name or the executive who’s in charge?

Where do you look?

What do you do?

If you get the voice mail system, call back later when someone’s there.

You could leave a message except that’d throw the ball in the employer’s court.

You should always have control of the ball.

Try different times of the day – somewhere between 8-10 am is a start.

Noon is another good time too when different secretaries may switch it up.

4. Avoid the Secretary and Typical Email Address Response

If you get the secretary, avoid asking, “Who would I send my resume to if I was interested in working in your company?”

Forget asking that because you’ll be told to send your resume to the human resource random lottery hole (which means they may or may not find you – and always on their terms).

Instead focus on finding out who the hiring manager or lead executive in the department you want to work in is.

Getting the contact information should be the name of the game.

Use any excuse or reason that makes sense.

You could say you had wanted to do a follow up contact with him or her from a past networking event and had forgotten to get their card, etc.

Or it could be that you’re doing research for a university case study.

Or you could be arranging an informational interview.

5. Get the Name through Online Research

You could go online and figure out who the hiring manager or lead executive is for the department if their contact information is available on the web site or other company documents.

You can use social media networks like LinkedIn to find the name.

And if the person isn’t on networks like LinkedIn find someone in their company who’d be willing to tell you – even if they’re in another department.

Just give some of the cover reasons that were mentioned in point #4.

Getting the name isn’t that hard and the value of having the name is priceless.

If you want to get attention and stand out, always get the name and address it to a specific person for your letters and other marketing materials.

Make things personal and show you’ve done the homework.

Of course there are other ways to get a name and landing a job often means building a relationship beforehand whether it’s through case studies, networking and informational interviews.

So always aim to get personal and put a name to the hiring manager or departmental head – it’s the first step to building both a network and landing a job.

Got any comments or questions?

Leave them below and I’ll get back to you in an upcoming post.

Fair winds,