So you are about to send out that “infomercial” letter and flyer. And of course you are determined not to leave it at that, right? You are going to stay on the ball so your pursuit maintains momentum. Depending on the nature of your job, it may be your daily bread and butter to initiate and sustain business conversations.

If you happen to be a job seeker (currently employed or not), then that is certainly the case; meaning, it is in the nature of your job (the job being “job seeker”). When you first initiate business conversations, it usually is in the form of a cover letter and résumé—a qualified, specific instance of an “infomercial” letter and flyer.

In any case: following up is important. The sources you contact may have hundreds of other projects on their plate (or, specifically, hundreds of other résumés to sift through), and it is critical for you to keep, or regain, their attention. Much of your “competition” won’t even follow up (because they’ve let it slack or because they’ve moved on), so this tenaciousness can only work in your favor.

Take control: Say you will follow up, and how, and when.

Not only do you establish protocol with a proactive announcement, you anticipate that the other side won’t be contacting you in the meantime. The announcement has two benefits: for one, it lets the other side off the hook, by communicating “It’s OK if you don’t respond—I’ll get back to you regardless”; and for another, it leaves the door open for you to move on to the next step in the conversation, even though they may not have responded.

My favorite announcement goes something like this: “I will follow up on the phone within two weeks of this letter.” Assuming you first made contact in writing, they have formed a first impression based on the quality of your writing. Now here’s your chance to get a first impression of your voice into the mix—to refresh, enhance, and “broaden” their first impression of you. (Unless they said “No phone calls”; that should be respected).

If you are anxious about calling, or worry about bothering them in the middle of something: don’t call them during their workday—call early in the morning, before they even get there. Voice mail systems usually come with date stamps, and it will make a good impression you called at 6:43 a.m. Successful people take care of business before breakfast!

Just make sure your voice mail goes on no longer than 30 seconds. Nobody wants to listen to longer voice mails; every second they spend listening feels like five as it is. Oh, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays are generally better for doing your follow-up than Mondays and Fridays, which tend to be the busier days of the week.

When you say you will do something, follow through with it.

Did you notice the sample follow-up announcement above included the phrase “within two weeks”? That means you can follow up as soon as one week or as late as two weeks from now. That’s about one week’s worth of a “buffer” you can give yourself—plenty of leeway to allow for weekends, holidays, or days you may be caught up in other things.

The main thing is you do what you said you were going to do. This will get across that you are a person of your word, which will reflect well on your professionalism. No matter what your interaction with that source may be like in the future, it can only work in your favor that they first got to know you for being purposeful, organized, and reliable.

It used to be common for job seekers to spell out what they were looking for. The place to do that was the “objective,” oftentimes an entire paragraph with earnest-sounding statements involving the likes of “grow in synergy with the rest of the team” and “take my potential to new levels of achievement.”

That was yesterday’s approach! Today, the common understanding is that the “objective” is to get the job; that hardly needs to be expressly stated, right? And what is more: the “objective” is all about what you want, and what you envision for your career.

But the job opening doesn’t exist to satisfy what you want. It exists because the company needs something done, they need it done the day before yesterday, and they weren’t able to fill the position internally.

That’s where you come in: the product that is you, with all the wonderfulness of you. Now allow the company to see how their team is going to be better and stronger for having you be part of it. Speak to their needs!

Instead of an “objective,” give your résumé a succinct professional headline. The headline should capture the role you are going for—it should suggest a close match between you and the position. Your professional headline probably is the first thing employers notice about who you are professionally, so let it be the first thing to identify you as a match for their needs.

Generally speaking, the vantage point you want to adopt in the entire application and interviewing process is that of a consultant: Make it a point to elicit and qualify the employers’ needs, then shift gears and discuss how you can help the employer with those needs. Adopting this type of a consultant’s approach will also help avoid making you look like another desperate applicant begging for a job.

Again, job openings exist because employers need things done. These things usually fall into one or more of the following categories:

1. Make (more) money
2. Seize an opportunity (or solve a problem)
3. Save money, time, or both
4. Recruit, train, and develop staff
5. Develop relationships with other organizations or the general public
6. Retain existing markets and customers
7. Develop new markets and customers

In all regularity, it comes down to a combination of several of these—all the while keeping the boss and other team members sane.

Design the presentation of your relevant qualifications and accomplishments to show you understand the urgency on the employer’s part. That goes a long way in sending the right general message to the employer: instead of communicating desperation (“I need a job! You get it?”), you will be communicating assurance (“You need xyz. I get it!”).

Yes, being in need of a job is not pleasant. For employers to hire you, though, they first have to see you are actively aware of their needs. That will give them the confidence that you will turn out to be a good hire—someone who doesn’t just show up for the paycheck but someone who will take on each new round of challenges.