How to Get Employers to Answer Your Phone Calls Part One
Imagine that you’ve sent a few white papers showing off what you know about solving a problem for an industry.
You send it to several potential employers or clients and the response is great they want to know more.
Suddenly it becomes easier for you to call them up and learn more about what’s going on at the company because now they know who you are and what you know about their issues.
A white paper is a powerful way to cut through the communication clutter that blocks you off from hiring people and prevents a successful job search or career transition.
It helps to show you’re an expert in a specific topic or subject that solves a problem that a potential company has.
In short it helps to show how valuable you are.
It’s also quick to write – it should be a 10 hour project.
So what are the seven steps you can use?
1. Brainstorm a White Paper Topic
Brainstorm topics for a white paper or several white papers.
Write out 100 ideas on a piece of paper, mind mapping program (Freemind, Novamind, Mindjet Mindmanager, Mindnode Pro) or outlining program (Omnioutliner, Microsoft Onenote).
The point is to exhaust every possible idea for a white paper.
Think of things that solve a problem or show something new that could be useful to potential employers in the industry.
Think of resources like Springwise, Trend Hunter and The Cool Hunter to give you some ideas.
Other Resource: Five Best Outlining Tools via Lifehacker
2. Do Your White Paper Homework
Do your research into the topics.
Interview people inside and outside the industry.
Check out 6 Steps on How to Do Informational Interviews and the related video.
Analyze statistics, online information and government information as needed.
You can start with sites like Industry Canada or the Office of Industry Analysis for the US.
3. Write Your White Paper
All the preparation work you’ve done until now should be nearly 50-60% of the work.
Writing it should be about 10-20%.
There are a lot of ways of doing this however you should be able to provide your white paper in various formats from Microsoft Word to ebook formats like Kindle .mobi or iBooks .epub.
Sure Microsoft Word will do the trick however one of the most amazing tools I’ve ever used is a program called Scrivener.
It’s the Swiss army knife of writers, has an amazing set of features and works for both Windows and Mac.
I highly recommend it for both the research, writing and editing phases.
4. Get Your White Paper Edited
Get your white paper edited and reviewed by someone who knows nothing about the industry (or problem) and someone who does.
Doing this will help you cover all of the angles you might have missed.
If you’ve got the money to spare hire yourself a respectable editor too.
Other Resource: How to Write a White Paper by Knowles
5. Send a White Paper to Anyone Who Helped You Out
Send a copy of the white paper to anyone who helped you with your research (a good practice to do even if you forgot to offer).
This is a good idea if you used face to face research interviews.
This is a great way to build and maintain relationships with your contacts, providing them value as well as providing potential employers or clients value too.
Other Resource: How to Write a White Paper by Stelzner
6. Send the White Paper to Potential Employers or Clients
Send the white paper to potential employers, network contacts, magazines, trade journals, publishers or editors.
Make sure publishers and editors include your tagline, contact information and web page.
It’ll drive attention and traffic your way.
It also helps if you have other free or paid information available for them either in the tagline or on your web site.
Other Resource: PrimoPDF PDF Creator If You’re Using an Old Version of Word to Write a White Paper
7. Giveaway the White Paper Online
Provide a copy of your white paper on your Web site, LinkedIn profile or other online profiles.
In fact providing a link to your Google Profile could help boost its visibility in search rankings if you do nothing else.
Remember, the big thing is to focus on a “hot topic item” or important topics that matter to your industry, its leaders and people.
Do your homework and finding the right topic shouldn’t be too tough.
You can keep using the white paper until it goes out of date as a gift to employers, hiring managers, CEOs and others who’d be interested.
It’ll certainly help build your network and give you some serious credibility just like a book or booklet would.
Similar to writing a book or booklet, you’ll probably want to reach and interview people for the paper.
What this does is to boost your credibility.
Ask for some editing help and then get it ready to go.
You can easily turn it into a PDF electronic version and have it emailed to the person in less than a minute after you get home from a networking event.
Now that you’ve got some steps on creating a white paper get out there and get your name out.
Show them that you are an expert on your topic and build your reputation!
Make it easy for people to want to answer your call!
Want more information like this? Get 101 Job Search Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for Landing the Job You Want or sign up for The Zen of Job Search – Get Attention! 10 Ideas That Really Work.
How are you presenting yourself with a white paper? (Above Photo via Free Digital Photos.net)
Fair winds,
About Sunny Lam
