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Perfman HR: Outline of an Approach Letter

In our earlier post, we spoke about the importance of an approach letter. Today let us talk more about how to structure one! Writing an approach letter is no less a science than the art of knowing your own profession and the more well equipped you are to structure one, the easier it will be for you to get your foot into the cabin door of that influential person who migh just land you the job of your life!

The letter, including the recipient’s name, title, address, and salutation and your own closing phrase and signature will be not more than a full page in its entirety. Each paragraph should be two or three sentences of ten to 20 words (four sentences at most), typically combined with a short sentence for emphasis and variety. The following outline should work for nearly every approach letter.

Paragraph I: The Grabber

To entice the reader to read the remainder of the letter

Paragraph II: The Definer

To indicate what the meeting is intended to accomplish and why it will be  of mutual interest, while assuring that you are not presuming this to be an interview

Paragraph III: The Convincer

To establish that you are a qualified player worth taking seriously

Paragraph IV: The Concluder

To show your appreciation and business-like follow-up intentions

The Grabber

The purpose of the grabber paragraph is simple enough. You want to entice the recipient to read your letter and consider its message, no more. You are attempting more if you try to make the sale in the first paragraph by opening with such phrases as:

I am a finance graduate from Mumbai University with a strong interest in the securitization of commercial real estate loans, or I would like to discuss with you opportunities at HSBC for a human resources–oriented person with strong interpersonal skills,

or

I have admired Future Group’s customer service orientation for a long time and believe the Future Group to be a company where I could make a real contribution.

Sorry—these look too much like form letters. What’s in them to make the reader feel important or interested? You wouldn’t try to start a conversation with someone you didn’t know in a party situation with a declaration of your  own importance—so why do it here?

What, then, does it take to interest your recipient?

How about beginning, instead, with language that might bring about a favorable, warm feeling? Words that show you care enough about the recipient to relate to things that matter to him or her or that are likely to elicit a positive reaction. Words that encourage reading beyond the first paragraph. There are a number of themes to consider for the grabber:

• Valid admiration: for something the person has achieved, advanced,  advocated, or attained that is worthy of respect

• Valid understanding: of the difficulties, pressures, or challenges the person is likely to be experiencing, based on his or her work agenda

• Linkage: shared experience with the same college, home town, interests, community service, or other affiliation

• Family connection: connection to or referral from a family member

• Favorable referral: from a respected or well-liked third party

• Curiosity: as tickled by an unusually apt question you pose, a paradox you frame, or unusual information you have

• Hospitality: an appeal to people’s natural pride in their community, profession, or organization

• Humility: as by reference to good fortune, good mentoring, or other uncharacteristic acknowledgment or disclaimer

Let’s go through the various themes one by one and then see how we can construct language to go with them.

Valid admiration. Tell the recipient that you admire something about him or her or that you admire something the person has accomplished. Valid admiration for something real, something that is a source of pride to your recipient, should be heart-warming. It means you’ve taken the trouble to find out about the person and that you understand something about his or her accomplishments and value. Valid admiration is specific and sincere. This is quite different from flattery, which is simply using words that have no substance for the purpose of, well, flattery.

Valid admiration is:

I’m impressed with the courageous stand you have taken against the short-sightedness of your industry in not approving preventative medical procedures.

Flattery is:

You are well known as a leader in managed care (you assume, because the person has a big title at an HMO).

So, how do you find out what you can validly admire about the person to whom you are writing? Research helps. Maybe you can find a person who knows the individual. Certainly, if you are referred to the person, the source of the referral is in a position to know a lot about the person and will tell you—if you ask.

During the course of your information/referral meetings, you will be obtaining referrals to individuals with whom you could usefully meet, as was discussed earlier. When you obtain referrals—and you might well expect to obtain several of them from each information/referral meeting—it is important to learn enough about the person to whom you are referred so you can establish a solid connection. The information you gain in this manner will help you structure your entire approach letter, the grabber part especially. The following are questions you might ask a referral source about the person to whom you are referred:

• Why, especially, do you suggest that I meet ____________?

• What do you particularly respect [admire, like] about this person?

• Can you give me an example of that?

• What do you see as the most important issues this person might be dealing with?

• What can you tell me about this person’s style of operation?

• Anything else I should know about this person on a business or personal level?

• What might we have in common?

• How should I make contact—or would you like to arrange that?

It’s important, of course, to use your own natural wording, to choose a reasonable number of questions appropriate to the situation, and to not repeat your questions word for word as you obtain multiple referrals.  Valid understanding. Another way to grab the reader’s attention is to identify an issue of particular concern to him or her—and, of course, to use this as a basis for explaining why you’re the person to help answer this need. As you might imagine, a letter that demonstrates the writer’s understanding of your problems can be very compelling. If you know quite a bit about the challenges or dilemmas the person might be facing, and have reason to believe you might be of genuine help, by all means go for it! Here’s an example of language successfully used by one individual to secure a special assistant position with a new, highly placed government official:

I admire your courage in defining such a strong agenda for the office you are assuming. Given your background in research management, I’m sure you will use facts as a basis for sorting out the competing economic and technological arguments on everything you will tackle—but where will you find the time to get the facts? Needless to say, the letter went on to develop this theme and offer a solution. Another example of valid understanding (successfully used to start a job seeker’s letter discussing training and change-management issues):

The restructuring you have just announced, from a product line to a geographically focused sales team, must have you thinking about the cross-training that will have to take place.

A less effective example of valid understanding would be:

I’m sure you’re very busy these days with all the restructuring that is known to have occurred at your company. After all, who isn’t busy these days?

Linkage.

Think about your most recent social experience. Chances are good that if you met someone new, you both searched for some sort of connection— mutual friends, acquaintances, shared college backgrounds, home states, interests. Linkage can be an effective way to grab the reader’s attention and establish legitimacy and kinship. More often than not, this will help convince the reader to at least read through the rest of your letter. The questions you ask your referral source can help with this.

Good examples of linkage:

Sudhir Popat recommended that I write to you, because we apparently have interests in common, including rock music and the Spiti Valley. We didn’t have an opportunity to meet at Delhi University (I’m just about to graduate in urban planning), but we share a common interest in the development of the city of Pune. My interest in Pune began when I learned that my fiancee grew up there, and I’ve since learned that people  from Pune can rarely be persuaded to live anywhere else! Subsequently, I’ve come to love Pune and its tradition of hospitality.

Family connection.

A variation on linkage is to mention a connection with a family member. An example of family connection would be:

Your son, Manoj, recommended that I write to you. Manoj and I have shared many debate experiences together, and he points to you as the source of a lot of his skill in advocacy.

In this case, several other themes are being used as well. These include favorable referral (from Manoj), linkage (shared interest in debate), valid admiration (reference to Manoj giving credit to his father), and curiosity (a father’s natural curiosity about his son and his son’s friends). Note how the combination of themes makes the two sentences of this grabber so powerful.

Favorable referral.

A favorable referral is a recommendation offering positive comments about you from someone the person respects. Why are favorable referrals so much help in making you welcome and creating an initial presumption of your value? Because when making decisions about people or things we have no personal experience with, we tend to rely on the opinions of friends and others we respect.

How do you select a movie to see or a restaurant to try, or choose a professor or a doctor? If you’re like most folks, you ask others for their opinion.

If the referring party agrees to make the introduction, great. You can then decide whether a phone call (to establish a time) or a letter (along the lines outlined here) is a more appropriate way to contact the person. If, on the other hand, your referral source leaves the introduction to you, you should write a letter including language similar to this:

Parul Mishra, your former colleague at Titan, and I have just met and discussed my research into fashion-industry marketing trends. She thought that my research might be of interest to you. She was impressed with what I had learned and with my linkage of marketing to anthropology and suggested that you would be the ideal person for me to visit next. She obviously respects you a great deal.

Note the combination of favorable referral, curiosity (What has the writer learned that Parul found so interesting? What is the connection between marketing and anthropology?), and valid admiration mixed with curiosity (What did Parul say to indicate her respect?). Again, there’s power in a combination of themes. Curiosity. You can pique a person’s curiosity, as in the example above, by merely hinting that something might be of interest without disclosing exactly what that something is. Alternatively, you can arouse curiosity by asking a question or stating a paradox:

Why is it that companies in your industry spend an average of Rs 1 crore on establishing a new account, but less than Rs. 1 lakh on preventing a long-term account from drifting into the hands of a competitor? Perhaps your company is the exception—but then again, maybe not.

You can see how this might stimulate considerable curiosity; it needs only a strong following paragraph (discussed later).

Hospitality.

The natives of Hispaniola welcomed Columbus to their shores and gladly traded gold for baubles. Hospitality is a strong human impulse. It’s a theme you can use to introduce yourself in a new community or a new field:

Richard De’zouza gave me your name when he realized that I was eager to relocate to Mumbai. He pointed me to your weekly column in the Mid Day newspaper, and I have now read a number of your commentaries on life in Mumbai. They are funny and inviting! I would very much like to meet the author to hear about how things really work in Mumbai and to learn who to get to know.

Meeting this columnist became the writer’s gateway to meeting the key players in town—people who controlled banking, real estate, and many local companies. A referral’s hospitality can be a powerful aid if it’s not abused.

Humility.

Humility is a rare quality; it is both appealing and underestimated. Isaac Newton is credited with saying that his achievements were reached by standing on the shoulders of giants. Isn’t that true of most of us? We so rarely hear due credit given to professors, mentors, or good fortune that humility is a prized attribute. But how to express it?

Shweta and I met yesterday to review the work I had done for her about reasons and remedies for the high staff turnover her company has been experiencing. She seemed delighted with the report I prepared, but I must say, it wouldn’t have come to much without her mentoring! She felt it would be valuable for me to meet you, given her own experience of finding you helpful and resourceful on her behalf.

So there you have it, a wide variety of inviting themes you can use by themselves— or better, in combination—to create a powerful grabber.

In our next article we will talk more about the Definer. Stay Tuned!

The letter, including the recipient’s name, title, address, and salutation and your own closing phrase and signature will be not more than a full page in its entirety. Each paragraph should be two or three sentences of ten to 20 words (four sentences at most), typically combined with a short sentence for emphasis and variety. The following outline should work for nearly every approach letter. Paragraph I: The Grabber To entice the reader to read the remainder of the letter Paragraph II: The Definer To indicate what the meeting is intended to accomplish and why it will be of mutual interest, while assuring that you are not presuming this to be an interview Paragraph III: The Convincer To establish that you are a qualified player worth taking seriously Paragraph IV: The Concluder To show your appreciation and business-like follow-up intentions The Grabber The purpose of the grabber paragraph is simple enough. You want to entice the recipient to read your letter and consider its message, no more. You are attempting more if you try to make the sale in the first paragraph by opening with such phrases as: 24 Networking I am a finance major at University of Chicago with a strong interest in the securitization of commercial real estate loans, or I would like to discuss with you opportunities at American Express for a human resources–oriented person with strong interpersonal skills, or I have admired Wal-Mart’s customer service orientation for a long time and believe Wal-Mart to be a company where I could make a real contribution. Sorry—these look too much like form letters. What’s in them to make the reader feel important or interested? You wouldn’t try to start a conversation with someone you didn’t know in a party situation with a declaration of your own importance—so why do it here? What, then, does it take to interest your recipient? How about beginning, instead, with language that might bring about a favorable, warm feeling? Words that show you care enough about the recipient to relate to things that matter to him or her or that are likely to elicit a positive reaction. Words that encourage reading beyond the first paragraph. There are a number of themes to consider for the grabber: • Valid admiration: for something the person has achieved, advanced, advocated, or attained that is worthy of respect • Valid understanding: of the difficulties, pressures, or challenges the person is likely to be experiencing, based on his or her work agenda • Linkage: shared experience with the same college, home town, interests, community service, or other affiliation • Family connection: connection to or referral from a family member 25 Networking • Favorable referral: from a respected or well-liked third party • Curiosity: as tickled by an unusually apt question you pose, a paradox you frame, or unusual information you have • Hospitality: an appeal to people’s natural pride in their community, profession, or organization • Humility: as by reference to good fortune, good mentoring, or other uncharacteristic acknowledgment or disclaimer Let’s go through the various themes one by one and then see how we can construct language to go with them. Valid admiration. Tell the recipient that you admire something about him or her or that you admire something the person has accomplished. Valid admiration for something real, something that is a source of pride to your recipient, should be heart-warming. It means you’ve taken the trouble to find out about the person and that you understand something about his or her accomplishments and value. Valid admiration is specific and sincere. This is quite different from flattery, which is simply using words that have no substance for the purpose of, well, flattery. Valid admiration is: I’m impressed with the courageous stand you have taken against the short-sightedness of your industry in not approving preventative medical procedures. Flattery is: You are well known as a leader in managed care (you assume, because the person has a big title at an HMO). So, how do you find out what you can validly admire about the person to whom you are writing? Research helps. Maybe you can find a person who knows the individual. Certainly, if you are referred to the person, the source of the referral is in a position to know a lot about the person and will tell you—if you ask. 26 Networking During the course of your information/referral meetings, you will be obtaining referrals to individuals with whom you could usefully meet, as was discussed earlier. When you obtain referrals—and you might well expect to obtain several of them from each information/referral meeting—it is important to learn enough about the person to whom you are referred so you can establish a solid connection. The information you gain in this manner will help you structure your entire approach letter, the grabber part especially. The following are questions you might ask a referral source about the person to whom you are referred: • Why, especially, do you suggest that I meet ____________? • What do you particularly respect [admire, like] about this person? • Can you give me an example of that? • What do you see as the most important issues this person might be dealing with? • What can you tell me about this person’s style of operation? • Anything else I should know about this person on a business or personal level? • What might we have in common? • How should I make contact—or would you like to arrange that? It’s important, of course, to use your own natural wording, to choose a reasonable number of questions appropriate to the situation, and to not repeat your questions word for word as you obtain multiple referrals. Valid understanding. Another way to grab the reader’s attention is to identify an issue of particular concern to him or her—and, of course, to use this as a basis for explaining why you’re the person to help answer this need. As you might imagine, a letter that demonstrates the writer’s understanding of your problems can be very compelling. If you know quite a bit about the challenges or dilemmas the person might be facing, and have reason to believe you might be of genuine help, by all means go for it! Here’s an example of language successfully used by one individual to secure a special assistant position with a new, highly placed government official: 27 Networking I admire your courage in defining such a strong agenda for the office you are assuming. Given your background in research management, I’m sure you will use facts as a basis for sorting out the competing economic and technological arguments on everything you will tackle—but where will you find the time to get the facts? Needless to say, the letter went on to develop this theme and offer a solution. Another example of valid understanding (successfully used to start a job seeker’s letter discussing training and change-management issues): The restructuring you have just announced, from a product line to a geographically focused sales team, must have you thinking about the cross-training that will have to take place. A less effective example of valid understanding would be: I’m sure you’re very busy these days with all the restructuring that is known to have occurred at your company. After all, who isn’t busy these days? Linkage. Think about your most recent social experience. Chances are good that if you met someone new, you both searched for some sort of connection— mutual friends, acquaintances, shared college backgrounds, home states, interests. Linkage can be an effective way to grab the reader’s attention and establish legitimacy and kinship. More often than not, this will help convince the reader to at least read through the rest of your letter. The questions you ask your referral source can help with this. Good examples of linkage: Charlie Jenkins recommended that I write to you, because we apparently have interests in common, including Asian music and Nepal. We didn’t have an opportunity to meet at Yale (I’m just about to graduate in urban planning), but we share a common interest in the development of the city of Baltimore. My interest in 28 Networking Baltimore began when I learned that my fiancee grew up there, and I’ve since learned that people from Baltimore can rarely be persuaded to live anywhere else! Subsequently, I’ve come to love Baltimore and its tradition of hospitality. Family connection. A variation on linkage is to mention a connection with a family member. An example of family connection would be: Your son, Mark, recommended that I write to you. Mark and I have shared many debate experiences together, and he points to you as the source of a lot of his skill in advocacy. In this case, several other themes are being used as well. These include favorable referral (from Mark), linkage (shared interest in debate), valid admiration (reference to Mark giving credit to his father), and curiosity (a father’s natural curiosity about his son and his son’s friends). Note how the combination of themes makes the two sentences of this grabber so powerful. Favorable referral. A favorable referral is a recommendation offering positive comments about you from someone the person respects. Why are favorable referrals so much help in making you welcome and creating an initial presumption of your value? Because when making decisions about people or things we have no personal experience with, we tend to rely on the opinions of friends and others we respect. How do you select a movie to see or a restaurant to try, or choose a professor or a doctor? If you’re like most folks, you ask others for their opinion. If the referring party agrees to make the introduction, great. You can then decide whether a phone call (to establish a time) or a letter (along the lines outlined here) is a more appropriate way to contact the person. If, on the other hand, your referral source leaves the introduction to you, you should write a letter including language similar to this: 29 Networking Theresa Elliott, your former colleague at Ray-Ban, and I have just met and discussed my research into fashion-industry marketing trends. She thought that my research might be of interest to you. She was impressed with what I had learned and with my linkage of marketing to anthropology and suggested that you would be the ideal person for me to visit next. She obviously respects you a great deal. Note the combination of favorable referral, curiosity (What has the writer learned that Theresa found so interesting? What is the connection between marketing and anthropology?), and valid admiration mixed with curiosity (What did Theresa say to indicate her respect?). Again, there’s power in a combination of themes. Curiosity. You can pique a person’s curiosity, as in the example above, by merely hinting that something might be of interest without disclosing exactly what that something is. Alternatively, you can arouse curiosity by asking a question or stating a paradox: Why is it that companies in your industry spend an average of $50,000 on establishing a new account, but less than $10,000 on preventing a long-term account from drifting into the hands of a competitor? Perhaps your company is the exception—but then again, maybe not. You can see how this might stimulate considerable curiosity; it needs only a strong following paragraph (discussed later). Hospitality. The natives of Hispaniola welcomed Columbus to their shores and gladly traded gold for baubles. Hospitality is a strong human impulse. It’s a theme you can use to introduce yourself in a new community or a new field: Richard Knight gave me your name when he realized that I was eager to relocate to Tucson. He pointed me to your weekly column in the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, and I have now read a number of your commentaries on life in Tucson. They are funny and inviting! I would very much like to meet the author to hear about how things really work in Tucson and to learn who to get to know. 30 Networking Meeting this columnist became the writer’s gateway to meeting the key players in town—people who controlled banking, real estate, and many local companies. A referral’s hospitality can be a powerful aid if it’s not abused. Humility. Humility is a rare quality; it is both appealing and underestimated. Isaac Newton is credited with saying that his achievements were reached by standing on the shoulders of giants. Isn’t that true of most of us? We so rarely hear due credit given to professors, mentors, or good fortune that humility is a prized attribute. But how to express it? Martha Booth and I met yesterday to review the work I had done for her about reasons and remedies for the high staff turnover her company has been experiencing. She seemed delighted with the report I prepared, but I must say, it wouldn’t have come to much without her mentoring! She felt it would be valuable for me to meet you, given her own experience of finding you helpful and resourceful on her behalf. So there you have it, a wide variety of inviting themes you can use by themselves— or better, in combination—to create a powerful grabber.

About the Author

Sonal Aurora is director and co-founder of Executive Search Firm Mumbai. Perfman HR is a premier HR Consulting Company Founded in Mumbai, India. We are an inventive and dynamic Human Resource Company specializing in Talent Engagement, Learning & HR Solutions.

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