"Does Cold Calling Work?"

As my long-time blog readers know, before becoming a marketing recruiter I owned a B2B inside sales consultancy called "Reliable Growth."  Essentially, I taught companies like NCR and Aflac how to research, identify, and develop new business with a phone, an internet connection and a fax machine.

Telemarketing was the lynch-pin of my campaigns.

My campaigns always involved tightly choreographed, sequential steps and sought to establish permission-based relationships with highly targeted prospects over a 6-8 week time frame.  Each interaction was like a chess move.  You can see the gist of the method in this page from my old manual.  This small portion of my process is based on the un-improvable work of Jim Cecil -- the father of nurture marketing.

Needless to say, I know a thing or two about cold calling.  Indeed, I have made many thousands of ice-cold calls in my life -- and if the telephone were a slot-machine, I would be waaaay up in my winnings.

But there's rejection -- and lots of it.

After all, a cold call interrupts the prospect's day.  It's an intrusion, and most folks don't like to be intruded on.  The cold call loser focuses on this element and takes the rejection personally.  The cold call winner simply "moves through the target" (as they say in the Navy SEALS) by regarding cold calling as a numbers game.

Here are five basic truths about cold calling:

1. You cannot wait for the phone to ring.  You simply MUST reach and touch your prospect.  After all, no one is waiting for your call.
2. What gets measured gets done. "How was your day?"  Good question!  There's nothing as devastating to an opinion as a number.  Get yourself a contact database and track your outbound dials.  If you don't count your dials, your production will lag.
3. The best campaigns involve multiple steps, such as 1.) calling the prospect to verify that s/he is in fact the decision maker, 2.) asking them three closed-ended questions about their current  situation -- thereby disqualifying most prospects as potential new customers, 3.) getting the qualified prospects' permission to send them a HIGHLY PERSONALIZED sales letter, 4.) FAXING the letter, then snail-mailing it the same day, and then 5.) following up no more than 72 hours later to verify their receipt of the letter, answer any questions they may have, and mutually agree on the next steps in the relationship.  To position yourself as a potential resource for institutional buyers, you must be "unintrusively persistent" in your approach:  Our society is famously over-communicated, and B2B prospects are very good at tuning out marketing messages -- especially if they "already have a supplier of what you're selling."  You must have a reliable process in place to address this reality.
4. The most successful reps are "light on their feet" and can talk outside of the script.  Patter works better than droning.
5. The best reps know their product inside-and-out and can put their product "solution" into the context of how the prospect thinks, how they buy (logical vs. emotional), what they fear, what makes them mad, what are their top three daily frustrations, etc.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post:

Today on iMedia, Sean Cheyney, VP of Marketing for AccuQuote, has a nice piece called 5 Ways to Screw up a Cold Call.   His tips include ...

1. Make your own calls:  Using appointment setters can be dilutive to the brand and to the initiative.
2. Don't insult your prospect:  Patience is a virtue.  Listen to the prospect and don't try to shoehorn your product or service into every prospect's business on the very first call.  Or as my dad used to say, "Take things a step at a time: You can't get from first base to third by running across the pitcher's mound."
3. Be prepared and speak clearly: Practice what you're going to say and keep your message to 45 seconds or less.  While I might take issue with the 45 second time frame, I would say that your first call should have an "arc" with a beginning, a middle, and an end -- and the end should always be an open ended, "what's your opinion" type question.
4. Know your customer: The most common way to screw up a cold call is to not know anything about your prospect's business.  Amen.  This should actually be # 1 ...
5. It's a two-way conversation:  According to Mr. Cheyney, "If you talk at me, you'll annoy me. Talk with me and you have a shot."  Yup.

Sales reps get hung up on cold-calling (no pun intended), but an old sales manager at Aflac had it right when he told his reps "I don't care if your own mother refers you to a prospect:   If you have never spoken to the prospect before, then your first call is always a cold call."  Truer words have never been spoken.

So given the above, here's my question: "Is cold calling an effective part of your company's marketing mix?"  Why or why not??

Advice to Sales Managers

Are you a Sales Manager?  Do you know a Sales Manager?  Good!  Send them this post.  They'll be glad you did.

Now then:  If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you might know that I was a frozen food trader throughout the 1990s.  A "trader" is basically a sales rep who does much of his own buying.

I learned more about the nature of negotiation, price competition, manufacturing, intermodal logistics, and international trade while working at AJC International than at any other time in my life.  It was awesome.

In 1997, I bought more than $14 million worth of frozen beef and pork for my own account -- and I sold almost $32 million in frozen food to more than 17 countries throughout the pacific rim.  Have you ever haggled with a beef packer in a falling shortrib market?  Me too!

None of this makes me a hotshot.  It simply means that AJC forced each trader to think like a small business owner, and it paid its traders based on two metrics:  Booked revenue and invoiced revenue -- which was "booked revenue adjusted for actual storage, handling, inspection, shipping, insurance, interest accrued on inventoried product, bank surcharges, customer credit, and quality claims."  Whew!

One of the great things AJC required its traders to do was "cost out" every trade on a spreadsheet.  For example, a trader couldn't simply buy a truckload of frozen chicken legquarters for USD 0.135/lb FOB from a packer in Fort Smith, AR and sell them to a Chinese distributor for USD 0.2425/lb CIF Qingdao without accruing (and sometimes negotiating) the costs listed above.

Once the costs were known, the trader would write up the sale on a 3-ply form resembling the spreadsheet -- with one ply going to Accounting (who would tie back to the trade any ensuing bills), one ply going to Logistics (who would manage the movement of the load), and one ply being kept by the trader (who would constantly review his portfolio of deals with Logistics to make sure that they shipped in accordance with the terms of the contract).

As each load moved through the international supply chain (the transit time was usually 40-50 days), each trader had to actually approve the vendor invoices that got tied back to their individual trades.

Just like in real life.

It was not uncommon to get hit with a "lumping" or "box stamping" bill on an odd pallet of product taken from inventory to make weight in a container.  If mis-accrued, those charges came out of my paycheck as they were tied back to my trades.  Ouch.  Loads that arrived late were deemed "out of contract" by customers and short-paid (or "marked to market").  Those costs were also deducted from my trading P&L.

There was even a political and currency "risk premium" that each trader had to accrue, depending on the product's destination.  Products sold to Iraq carried a higher premium than the same ones to Singapore.

From 1993-1999, I wrote up more than a thousand trades, and I knew my costs cold.  It just wasn't kosher to wing it.

A Temple of Self-Interest

There was very little random motion in AJC's organization.  Everyone from the traders to the shipping clerks showed up to make money.  To this day, AJC remains a temple of self-interest.  So effective was the AJC costing system that one of my first engagements as a self-employed marketing consultant was to introduce the system to a local importer of vitamin raw materials.

AJC's training is so good that its competitors call it "Atlanta Junior College" because so many of its traders have left to start their own niche trading companies.  Very successfully, I might add.

Reality Check for the Sales Staff

So it was with great interest that I read Jaclyne Badal's article "A Reality Check for the Sales Staff" in today's WSJ.  The article states that "squeezed by global price pressure and customer demands, companies often strike deals that generate revenue but not profit."

But companies are getting a clue:  Dow Chemical just implemented software to analyze the profitability of deals.  One tactic Dow uses to cut transportation costs is to consolidate shipments (AJC did that eons ago).

From Revenue to Profit

Many companies are trying to boost the bottom line by weeding out products and customers that generate revenue but little profit.  According to Ms. Badal's article, sales managers and sales consultants suggest:

1. Calculate the true cost of each sale -- including actual storage, handling, inspection, shipping, insurance, interest accrued on inventoried product, bank surcharges, customer credit, and quality claims.  If you can tie back your marketing expenses, so much the better.
2. Examine individual customers -- especially if they are high maintenance.  At AJC, we used to call bitchy, low-profit customers Ankle-biters.
3. Share information with customers to justify price increases -- or to jointly control trading costs.
4. Consider using software that will block (or require approval of) unprofitable deals.
5. Keep the sales team in the loop and consider adjusting commission formulas.

Sales Manager Job Search Tip:

If you are a sales manager who is looking for new career opportunities, please take a look at your accomplishments in light of these suggestions.

• To what extent have you improved your employer's profitability by helping it get its arms around its costs?
• Have you developed and implemented any systems to track revenues, costs per sale, and net profits?
• Have you partnered with your customers to lean-up the value chain?

What are you waiting for?  Do these things NOW -- and by all means make sure they are accurately reflected on your resume.  You'll make more money and enjoy a shorter, more effective job search for your efforts.

Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance

DID YOU KNOW ... that only 12% of the Internet's content is reachable by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN?  The other 88% of what's on the web is behind log-ins and registration fields -- so the major search engines cannot "spider" it.  Simply put, Google only gives you the tip of the iceberg.

As an executive recruiter, I use special software that gives me access to much of what's on the "Deep Web."  Very often, my candidates are the most thoroughly prepared candidates in any given executive search.  World-class company research gives them a serious advantage.

However, sometimes I use these software tools just for fun.  For example, today I used one of my tools to dredge up 16 freely accessible articles from the Harvard Business Review -- including the HBR classic "Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance."  See for yourself ...

1. Growth as a Process
2. How to Play to Your Strengths
3. Leadership in Your Midst - Tapping the Hidden Strength of Minority Executives
4. They're Not Employees, They're People
5. The Perfect Message at the Perfect Moment
6. Schizophrenia at GM (by Jack Trout)
7. Competing on Analytics
8. Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance
9. How Strategists Really Think
10. Outsourcing Marketing
11. Why Satisfied Customers Defect
12. Managing for Creativity
13. Your Company's Secret Change Agents
14. The One Number You Need to Grow
15. All Strategy Is Local
16. It's Time to Retire Retirement

If you're pressed for time, marketers MUST check out articles # 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, and 15.  If you are in HR, be sure to read articles # 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, and 16.  Notice # 8 is on both lists.  I have bolded in red my personal favorites.

Technorati tags:  Business  Tools

Are you a Multichannel Marketer?

In an unusual move to subsidize its online business, Home Depot has begun to offer prime product placement on its homepage.  Click here for a demo.

According to Nielsen NetRatings, Home Depot's online store is visited by 4 million shoppers each week, nearly 90% of whom own their own homes.  And now "Vendors can communicate their stories via video," according to Home Depot's Director of Online Marketing, Greg Foglesong.

Three things are interesting about this:

It makes Home Depot a media company -- allowing it to compete with Martha Stewart and HGTV.  This is right in line with Todd Herman's recent comments on Beet.TV.  Pay very, very close attention to what this guy is saying -- and consider thoughtfully how this trend might effect your company (and your job) in 5-7 years.

It takes CPG multichannel merchandising to a whole new level.  In the past, CPG companies like Heinz, Colgate, Coke, and Rubbermaid were unable to reach their end users in a way that could measurably and immediately stimulate demand for their products.  Yes, they could run newspaper ads or feature coupons in the retailer's store environment -- but they couldn't actually tweak their promotions on the fly.  This changes all of that.  Shorter customer feedback loops will increase product development velocity, and that will change the nature of how products are launched and sustained.

It enables new entrants to make inroads into a competitive category much more quickly.  For example, two weeks ago I had a dream that I became rich after having invented a curiously strong, Altoids-like toothpaste called "Bully."  If copied by the likes of Publix and Walmart, Home Depot's move would allow similar niche consumer products to find a wider audience almost immediately.  And the clickthroughs of niche product ads will provide real-time market research to the retailer that there is a strong demand for high-intensity products like Bully or Jones Cola.  Retailers always follow the money, and rolling waves of colorful, clutter busting, here-today-gone-tomorrow niche products could easily impact our society in new and unforeseen ways.

I agree with Rupert Murdoch, who thinks that we are in the top of the second inning of the Internet era.  These are exciting times to be a marketer, and that excitement will be a good thing for marketing candidates who take the time to understand how the latest web apps can interplay with traditional marketing strategies.

Are you a winner?

I received a resume today from a guy who's a former NFL player with the NY Jets and Oakland Raiders.  I freaking love that.  Why?  Because it shows that ...

1. The guy understands the Law of the Farm.  You can't cram on the farm.  Plan.  Sow.  Nurture.  Reap.  That's the deal.  Season after season.  Overnight sensations don't exist.  It's the same way in life.  Wanna play in the NFL?  Dream about it.  Sleep in NFL pajamas.  Have heroes.  Play Pop Warner.  Dream about it some more.  Play in middle- and high-school.  Get your ass kicked.  Get right back up again.  Do wind sprints until you puke.  Keep dreaming.  Play college ball.  Etc.  Eventually, you blossom into a real ball player.  That doesn't happen over night, and neither does the ability to bring in a good crop.  That mentality is indispensable in building a business.
2. The guy knows how to win.  Winning takes self composure -- which, ironically, requires selflessness.  Winning takes humility so that you can take your ego out of the game and get into "the Zone."  Humble people lack the fear of being humiliated, and that enables fearlessness.  Winning is about being able to see yourself in the third person -- if you see yourself at all.  Winning and excellence and humble service to others share a common thread:  They are all selfless states. That mentality is indispensable in building a team.
3. The guy is adaptable.  He didn't buy-in to all of the rock-star adoration that people drip all over ball players and then fail to adapt in the real world, where workaday stiffs like us scrape out a living.  He went from NFL player to faceless Wan Administrator without bitching.  And now, he has actually done something with his white collar career, and his NFL career is just a footnote on his resume.  John Wooden was right:  Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.  That mentality is indispensable in building a life.

What about you?  Are you like this former ball player?  At what activity have you excelled in your own life?  Is it on your resume?  Are you approaching your own career with the same level of passion -- for the love of the game?  Or are you living in the past?
___________________________________________

"If you wish to be considered (passively and discreetly) for a significantly better career opportunity, simply upload your resume into my database. Your information will not be shared without your prior knowledge and consent." -- Harry / (678) 795-0900

A "Linked-In" Marketing Recruiter

As a marketing headhunter, increasingly I am seeing resumes in Word format that contain testimonials about the candidate at the end of the document.  Great idea.  The most effective testimonials have live links to the Linked-In profiles of those people providing the endorsements.  These same testimonials are also embedded into the candidate's Linked-in profile.  For example, the following testimonials were scraped from a resume this morning (dummy links to Linked-in provided in bold for illustration purposes)...

Kudos

"Mary Zelnick consulted for our company as the Online Merchandising Manager.  The skill set and vision she brought to the project from both a business and a technical perspective was outstanding.  I would highly recommend her as a consultant or an employee for any company and would very much enjoy working with her again.”  (July 7, 2005)  Jeffrey Wright, managed Mary at Target.com

"Having worked several years for Mary Zelnick at Walmart.com, I highly recommend and endorse her online merchandising skills.  Mary combines solid hands-on experience with sound leadership and coaching abilities - a powerful combination that fosters a productive, enthusiastic, and cohesive team. Communication and integrity are strengths of Mary, and she is constantly striving for optimal solutions.” (June 30, 2006)  Don Dimagela, reported to Mary at Walmart.com

"I had a great opportunity when I was working at Synergis: To work with Mary Zelnick. Most of what I learned while at Synergis, I learned from her. Her technical skills, her ultimate customer focus and her great abilities as a manager, total commitment to success. I highly recommend Mary as a very valuable, reliable and trusted advisor in any project or endeavor.” (June 26, 2006)  Arthur Velingo, Sr. Consultant, Sybase Inc worked indirectly for Mary at Synergis

By now most HR and marketing professionals know that Linked-in testimonials are impossible to manipulate.  All a user can do with an average testimonial is not add it to their profile -- they cannot change it.  That lends an air of authenticity to Linked-in testimonials, which I love.

If you are not a Linked-in user, what are you waiting for?  Sign up today!  And if you are a Linked-in user, get some testimonials and add them to your resume.  Ideally, you should have testimonials for each job you have held.

Linked-in testimonials will legitimize your claims of functional expertise, and they will help a hiring manager understand exactly where and how and when you have created value in the past.

And in case you haven't seen it, here's my Linked-In profile:  Marketing Recruiter

Personal Branding

This is Zoë Goldring here, one of the JobGals over at JobSyntax with the honor of posting on Harry Joiner’s Marketing Headhunter for this week's Recruiting Blog Swap.

The big kerfluffle made by Apple and Google recently to protect their brand names (thanks for the lead Heather), got me thinking again about personal brand and protecting your name – and reputation – in the digital age.  We’ve blogged before about combatting your digital dirt and the idea of personal brand, but have you ever thought about what (or frankly who) might be out their tarnishing your personal brand and how you can protect it?

Here are a few quick thoughts on how you can keep your impeccable reputation untarnished:

1. Go ahead, Google yourself.  Or Yahoo! or MSN Search; whichever search engine satisfies your itch. As most potential employers will probably be doing the same thing, it’s important to find out what information is out there about you, positive or negative.  You’ll have an opportunity to then address these with the recruiter or hiring manager should they ever come up.  Harry has a great example of this in finding Caleb Founds on Jobster.


2. Check your references, recruiters will.  Who’s on your list of references that you hand to future employers?  Will these people provide an honest and critical evaluation of your skills?  Have you spoken with them in advance to determine how they might answer questions about your work history, interpersonal and team skills?  Now, I am not suggesting that you stack your references in a 100% positive light, people will figure that out, but make sure to know who on your list is giving an honest and accurate assement of your skills.


3. Do you have a doppleganger?  Folks with uncommon names, say like a Zoë Goldring or a Gretchen Ledgard, may not have this problem.  However, if you have a terribly common name, think John Smith, try to detemine if there are other individuals out there practicing in your same field with the same name.  You may even try to differentiate yourself by using your middle initial.  I have a friend who has the same name as his father, they live in the same city and practice in the same field.  Long ago he found it imperative to distinguish himself from his father.  Now he goes by J. Norman Wilson.  A slight change in name gave birth to a new identity and helped set him apart.


4. Stick to your brand.  A strong brand will continue to evolve with you over time.  At the same time, and of course career changes aside, you want to have a lazer-like focus on the key attributes you have to offer to an employer.  If you want to be know as the internet brand marketing expert, what activities and goals must you accomplish to reach that status?  Consider writing yourself a brief elevator pitch, as suggested by Libby Sartain over at Yahoo!, and reviewing it on a quarterly basis.  Does this still describe you and your goals?  Should it be changed to reflect any recent accomplishments?  Oh, and if you do change your name you may want to consider sticking to it in the long run :)

Understanding what information is out there about you as well as what others might be saying can go a long way in protecting your personal brand.  Just like G.I. Joe said in those great cartoon PSA’s of yesteryear, knowing is half the battle!

"Would I hire them again?"

I received a call this week from a friend-of-a-friend.

My friend is a famous search engine copywriter, and the friend she referred to me is a smart, friendly, business-oriented 29-year old internet marketer with an unblemished 8-year track record of success with the same Fortune 500 direct-to-consumer company.  Four of those years were in web development.  Within the last four years, she has single-handedly built her employer's organic SEO programs with amazing success.  Her resume is a work of art.

Anyway, this young lady (let's call her "Susan") is looking for new opportunities.

Here's why:  Eight years ago, Susan signed on with her company for an annual salary of $60K plus a $2500 discretionary bonus.  Despite several promotions, "company policy" has held Susan to cost of living increases at 6% per annum, while the discretionary bonus has never changed.  Today she makes $95K + a $2500 bonus.  Her performance reviews have been nothing less than exemplary.

So last week Susan gets reviewed, and -- as usual -- her boss raved about her performance.  All of her KPI's are through the roof.  Yet when Susan mentioned to her boss that people with her background are making $150K base + bonus on the agency side of the SEO business and $125K base + bonus on the client side, her boss said ...

"Susan, if you can get that kind of money elsewhere, go for it. Your employee status allows me to pay you $95K + a cost of living increase. Take it or leave it."

Less than an hour later, Susan was on the phone with me.

Note to HR Managers:  Your employees do not operate in a vacuum.  They know what the market is for their skillset.  In particular, SEO programs are very profitable for both agencies and clients.  Simply put, there is a ton of money washing around in the SEO space.  Most top-flight SEO consultants are being billed out at $150/hour -- and everyone knows it.

The best way to keep your recruiting costs low is to not lose good people.

Susan's defection is totally unnecessary.  She's trained.  She has solid intercompany relationships. She's well-respected by her peers outside of the company.  And her desk is very cash-flow positive. Replacing Susan will be a costly hassle if the company does it without my help.  And if the company does it with my help, I'll charge them 20-25% of the replacement's base salary -- which will likely be $125K + bonus.  The total cost to clean up this mess will be $60-70K.

The worst thing a company can do is to motivate their stars to look around.  Trust me, if I get an unsolicited call from one of your A-players, I will remind them that you don't appreciate them.  That's my job:  I'm a management recruiter, and I'm pretty good at it.

And if you want your company to go from Good to Great, for each employee under review ask "Would I hire this person again?"  If the answer is yes, then keep in mind the total cost to replace that person and assign their bonus accordingly.

In the meantime, if you are a corporate recruiter who's looking for a highly-skilled organic SEO program manager (single, home owner, no kids, easy relocation), call me at (678) 795-0900.

Attention Job Seekers: "Get Found Now"

Jim Durbin here from StlRecruiting.com, guest authoring on Marketing Headhunter as part of the Recruiting.com BlogSwap.

A couple of weeks ago Harry told you how to get noticed on Monster.  Now let's move into the next step of getting noticed -- your complete online profile.

If you are a job-seeker, or think you will be looking anytime in the next year, the best way to get noticed by top-notch recruiters is to raise your online profile.  This is more than making sure you appear on Google - it's managing your comprehensive online presence.

Here is your Must Do List for getting noticed by the end of the year.

1.  Sign Up For Linked In:  LinkedIn is a social networking service that allows recruiters to search for you by title, school, company and geographic location.  Take the time to create a winning profile, reach out to a few friends, and accept invitations when they are offered.  Also make sure your LinkedIn url is attached to your e-mail signature.  Having a LinkedIn profile is like wearing a Rolex in a hotel bar:  It says you're looking without having to be obvious about it.

2.  Update your Online Directory Info at ZoomInfo and JigSaw.

3.  If you have a blog, post on it frequently with your name and title.  Add descriptors like your current projects, technical expertise, and examples of anything you have done that shows up in the public record.  Add conferences, meetings, user groups, and leadership positions in the community.  Be specific with your expertise - try to imagine what a recruiter might type into a search engine.  Put in contact management software you have used, complex projects you have run, and descriptions of your certifications.  The goal is to be obvious, but not too obvious.

4.  If you don't have a blog, offer to guest post at friends of yours that have high-ranked blogs.  I have Hyperion Essbase and Streamserve recruiters contacting me regularly because of guest posts left by experts over a year ago.

5.  Write articles for trade publications, newspapers, and the local company newsletter.  Recruiters seek out expertise, and someone who is published is going to have a better chance of getting noticed than someone who keeps their expertise confined to the company e-mail.

6.  Sponsor or start a networking event for your speciality in your local area.  The truth about networking groups is the most benefit goes to the people who start the group.  Why not make that you?

These rules are all fine and good, but the most important piece of advice I can give you is to set aside your fear and your pride and start immediately.  You never know when you may need a recruiter to call.  Make yourself as easy to find as possible, and many opportunities could open up to you, not just job offers.  If you're lucky, you may find yourself writing a post for on the Marketing Headhunter.

Jim Durbin is the Director, Corporate Communication for Durbin Media Group, an interactive marketing firm based in St Louis.  He is an expert on online communities and business blogging, and can be found blogging at StlRecruiting and Brandstorming.

Guerrilla Marketing Your Open Jobs

Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick is on the cover of Bass Player magazine this month.  This I know because I went to the Publix up the road today and saw the magazine on the newsstand.

Now, I'm not a bass player.  But I am a Cheap Trick fan.  Plus, I'm a drummer and I found it perplexing that Publix did not stock Modern Drummer.  Why, you ask?  Because circulation analytics for retail distribution is a science -- and I'm sure Publix stocked Bass Player based on the historical sales of that title at store # 12365 in Roswell, GA.  From this one can surmise that there are more bass players in my store radius than drummers.  I guess that makes me a hot commodity.

As I thumbed through the magazine, I wondered how I could reach the twenty or so bass players who would also thumb though those pages -- and the handful who would ultimately buy those five copies.  Who were they?  What kinds of music do they like?  Would they like to have a beer and possibly jam some time?  After all, we're local -- and we have in common an appreciation of Tom Petersson.

Then it hit me:  Why not come back to the store and insert post it notes into the pages?  "Roswell-based drummer seeks Tom Petersson sound-alike for jamming and possible gigging. Call (678) 795-0900."  Ethics aside, it's certainly targeted -- both psychographically and geographically. And that's what you want in your advertising.

Question:  Who's your target employee -- and what do they read?  Where do they hang out?  How can you reach them?  Put yourself in their shoes, and walk through an imaginary day with them.  Then go to those place and advertise your open position.  This is called Guerrilla Marketing -- and it's worth knowing how to do if you are a specialty retailer in need of hourly employees who belong to a certain niche or subculture.