Cold call for a job?

Well, I have had 3 management positions created for me out of thin air. And any number of consulting gigs. The 30 second commercial does the job of qualifying the prospect. If the pain points resonate with the prospect, they will eagerly listen to all of it and want more.

The wrong way to talk here is that awful fake enthusiastic, bombastic language that tries to push them employer into meeting with you. What I've presented is very different.

You're right, it probably is the most talking you'll do in the conversation. But we have to talk most at the beginning and end of the conversation, because that's when we're setting up the ground rules for this and the next discussion. It's in the middle you do the 70% listening / 30% speaking.

Another example: I was calling to prospect for businesses that were interested in a 2-day sales training course. A control equipment wholesaler branch came up on my list, and the guy I was working with said "Nahh, they'll have their own program." I called anyway, because I like to do that sort of thing. The GM listened to my 30 second commercial, said "Wow, I wish my guys could make a call like that!" and invited us in. They did have an internal program, but weren't happy with the result. He had us do paid assessments of his employees, and then joined the program.

I love being told "This probably won't work."

For sales work, I can usually trim it down to two killer pain points after a week or so of calling the niche. Then it is faster. But in this case, the OP is qualifying employers In or Out, and doesn't know exactly which pain points will work...so he has to give a little more info. If the exec is even remotely thinking about hiring, they will listen to the whole thing and respond. Remember, we're not trying to force anyone into talking to us who doesn't want to. If they aren't wanting to hire already, why would we want to crowbar them into meeting us? Waste of time. There are plenty of other employers around to move on to, and some of those will be hiring.

The second part of the process here, that will really help you circumvent the whole "fill out an application and we'll call you" crap, is to have a standout resume.

For the first 10 years or so of my career, I actually used a 'brief' as described in Think And Grow Rich...printed on nice paper, bound with cover...nobody takes the effort to make something like that, and it worked very well given to targeted people. Once I dropped one off at a company I wanted to work at, no position advertised and the person I wanted to talk to wasn't in. Next day the Director of Manufacturing called me back...a couple days later I was working there in a made-for-me management role. Cost was about $10 apiece.

Nowadays I have a reputation, blog, and niche resume websites that do the same thing, and let the client know who I am and what I'm like before they ever meet me.

It's sad to me that 99% of the people who read this will say, "That's nice for Jason, but it won't work for me" and not do a thing to improve their own situation. Making a 10 or 15 page brief is just too much work. They go to the instruction manual I've laid out on my blog about how to find work you enjoy, and read one out of the many articles I have there! It's indicative of exactly why these same people fail in IM: no stick-to-itiveness and no desire to put in extra effort. If it isn't easy and doesn't bring instant success, it's too much work.