[MUSIC] In this lesson you learn strategies for creating a sense of urgency in the hiring manager. You want a hiring manager the feel like here she needs to take action immediately to contact you now before you get away. Remember that in the hiring game, hiring managers are the customers and you or your services are the product. Like with any other product, if you have limited availability you are perceived as more desirable. This strategy is time-honored. A friend of mine used it when selling hot tubs at trade shows. The first thing he did when setting up a show was to place brightly colored sold signs on several of the hot tubs. Without fail, people would ask if they could buy those items, why? Because people want what is not available or what has limited availability. Real estate agents use this trick all the time. They put up bright red and white sold signs because they know these encourage more sales in the neighborhood. Retailers of big ticket items. Know that sold signs encourage sales. People presume that if the floor models are selling they must be good deals and availability might be limited. They better get one while they still can. This is a go to strategy that experience marketers are well aware of limited availability creates desire and a sense of urgency. Your cover letter can do the same with statements such as these. These statements do work, they create a sense of urgency and limit your availability. After all, there's only one of you on the market. Sure you have competition but you are unique. When you create a perception of your limited availability you're using one of the most powerful motivators known to all businesses. Think about how many times you've come across a business using phrases like for a limited time, expires on. Limited availability first come, first serve. Price guaranteed only until, until sold out. Businesses use this language because it works. Remember your services are the product, the employer is the customer. Use the powerful principles of marketing that businesses have been using on all of us for decades. There is one four letter word that has been found to powerfully impact the effectiveness of an advertisement. It's the word call. Split AB tests have repeatedly shown that placing the word call in front of a telephone number increases an ads response. The word call demands an action. This one word tells anyone who reads the ad and has any interest and desire whatsoever in the product exactly what action to take. Even though a telephone number would seem to be enough, including the word call somehow adds motivation for whatever reason the word is known to boost responses. So use it. You do not want to use trident phrases such as this. This sounds like begging or the variation, please call me anytime which sounds desperate. No one should be this available. This sounds condescending. I've actually read cover letters that use, you have my permission to contact me, which is even worse. I think it's a fair bet that anyone receiving a cover letter and resume with your telephone number on it would presume to have permission to call you. This is one of the worst. First of all, it's begging. Second, placing the phrase if interested before the call to action diminishes the power of the call. The prospect is being asked to question their interest, it generates feelings of uncertainty. Gee, maybe you're so unsure of yourself that you want us to questions our own judgement. This is limiting, is this the only reason to call? This is presumptuous. Who's to say you're going to meet me? And it's not much better if you write looking forward to hearing from you. This says after all, this matter's not important. If you have free time during your busy day, when you never have any free time, go ahead and pick up the phone. So what is good? Try this. A direct, simple, straightforward call to action. Combine it with a limited availability line and you have a great close. Employers are people, they perceive more value in a job candidate who is employed or who has limited availability. Whether you're employed or not, you must demonstrate limited availability to create value in the mind of the hiring manager. Along with a sense of urgency in their needing to respond. You create that sense of urgency through one of the phrases you learned above for conveying your limited availability. In the example cover letter from the last lesson we used. A sense of urgency is a powerful element of advertising and selling. Like most any method or idea a sense of urgency will not work in every situation. A sense of urgency is most effective when responding to an open position. Otherwise, not advertising an open position the organization will have no urgent need to respond. [MUSIC]
