35-2 Qualified Recommendation of a Former Employee
Situation:
L.Richard Maxwell, Sales Manager for a national sporting goods manufacturer, has received an inquiry from the marketing director a chain of clothing stores concerning a former employee, Craig Halliburton. The position Halliburton applied for is Director of Sales Training. Although he had an excellent record as a member of Maxwell's department, his experience in training was somewhat limited.
The Letter:
Dear Mr. Maxwell:
I am pleased to write in behalf of Craig Halliburton, who has applied to your company for the position of National Sales Training Director.
Craig joined our organization in 1983 as our sales representative for the state of Arkansas. He quickly proved highly effective in selling, and, during the three years he was in this territory, sales increased nearly 20 percent. He had a special gift for building customer loyalty, and I received many letters of appreciation from these people for his services.
In 1985 Craig was promoted to the position of Field Manager, with the responsibility for recruiting, training, and supervising eleven sales respresentitives in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and southern Missouri. He was equally effective in his job, and we saw a very bright future for him. When southwest regional manager's position became vacant because of a retirement, Craig applied for it. However, he was not chosen for it because we felt that another of our field managers, who had a good deal more experience in management and an outstanding track record in selling, was the more logical candidate. Not long afterward, Craig resigned to accept a sales position with a competing company, where he felt that he would have more greater opportunities for growth. We were very sorry to lose him; he is an outstanding young man -- intelligent, personable, hard-working, and persuasive.
I am not familier with the requirements of your position, so I cannot speak with any authority about Craig's ability to administrater a company-wide sales training program. He did some training, of course, in his field manager's job with us, and he was extremely good at it. I suspect the chances are very good that, even though Craig may lack an in-depth knowledge of training methods at present, he would in time be able to assume the responsibilities of national sales training director very effectively.
Cordially yours,