Now, since enough time has passed and I no longer want the job (I'm doubling down at my current position), I thought it would be cool to post the actual cover letter that I sent them.
Who knows - maybe it will be super interesting for someone out there to read.... Perhaps as what not to do, as I never heard back. 😂 LOL.
My letter will summarize:
- My Current Perception of Zen Planner
- Competitive Analysis
- What Could Be with Zen Planner
To the Geniuses behind the Awesomeness known as Zen Planner:
I believe that we have a future together.
If that sounds like a pick up line to you, that is because it totally is. I said those exact words to a girl that I had only known for a few weeks... and we’ve been married for almost 10 years now. :)
Cheesy as it may sound, I really do see myself as having an amazing relationship with your company. Not just as the client that I currently am, but as someone who can add tremendous value to your team.
Now, I understand that you may not be looking for someone like me. You might scroll through this resume rather quickly and conclude that I don’t fit the mold for one of your current job positions. I totally get that. But, I’m hoping that you’ll share my gut feeling (that this is a good fit), and you’ll forward this one on.
Alright - so I am going to break the official Resume mold. I hope you don’t mind. Here’s a little table of contents for what’s coming up:
- Currently Perception of ZP
- What Could Be with ZP
Convincing You I Can HelpConditions of Hire
Thank you for reading this. Thank you for sharing this. Thank you for considering this.
With gratitude,
Austin Curtis
My Current Perception of Zen Planner
During my 5 years operating a Martial Arts School, I’ve actually signed up for and worked with many of your competitors in the martial arts space including:
- Atlas
- Kicksite
- AAC
- Perfect Mind / Champions way
- Rainmaker
- Mindbody Online
- Member Owl
- Member Solutions
Our martial arts school is unique in that our most popular programs have been fitness based - ever since we first opened. This means that I’ve looked at ZP from the fitness perspective as much as I have from the martial arts perspective.
Zen Planner is a solidly-built web app. It’s easy to setup and navigate for small business owners and it especially excels in it’s detailed reporting and flexible membership / billing abilities. It does other things well-enough to make it the most well-rounded and exciting software on the market in my opinion. My staff members get excited to use it and are constantly asking to learn more about what it can do.
Competitive Analysis
Zen Planner fares well against competitors in these areas:
- Member App
- Staff App
- Kiosk App
- Automation potential
- Simplicity and usability
- Price
- Platform
- Quick setup
It does not fare as well against competitors in these key areas:
- Point of Sale / Retail Section
- Layout of Profile / Contact Records
- Client Communication Options
- Membership Website layout and options
- Belt tracking (although it has improved)
- Results Tracking
- Integrations / plugins
- Workout tracking
Zen Planner and its competitors both need improvement in:
- Relevant “Out of the box” content / automations
- Software Training Resources
- Helpful user groups
- Referral Program
What Zen Planner Could Be
Zen Planner has terrific sales people, a knowledgeable and helpful onboarding staff, and I can tell it’s a great company to work for. I’ve come across some real go-getters in the company who are improving things, but the overall impression that I get is there are still a lot people in the company who are a bit resistant to hearing about feature requests and improvements.
The attitude of some seems to be “Stop asking for ways to improve it already.” My guess is that this stems from the sheer quantity of different business models and needs that are out there. I know this can be tough… It's the same way at our dojo. I've gotten used to hearing constructive feedback and playing the right balance between listening to ideas and sticking to our vision. The best way forward is to have a strong vision of what could be.
The reason that I eventually decided on signing up with Zen Planner was because of 2 things: 1) I liked you guys as people. 2) I had a real taste of the company’s potential.
Back when I was still trying to decide on a software, I got a phone call from Eric Blackwell. He invited me to see the Beta version of the Kiosk app - which was the killer feature that I was looking for. It was awesome. That experience won me over - both because of the personal touch and because I saw the direction that ZP was going.
I can tell that Zen Planner is still hungry. It still has the feeling of a startup! That is how all businesses should operate! There are new fitness softwares popping up all over the place.
Here is what I imagine Zen Planner could be:
- The #1 choice for Martial Arts schools who want to switch softwares
- Most other software choices out there are terrible
- Most martial art schools switch software at least 1x every 3 years
- The #1 easiest software for Fitness professionals / gyms to install and train people
- All other software that I’ve tried out is very difficult to set up
- Fitness businesses pop up all the time and need something right away
- Depending on the place, Staff turnover is a nightmare. They need training.
- The #1 resource for membership business education and training
- Building trust with these businesses is easy for ZP.
- There is not enough education out there for these businesses.
- The #1 most coolest company to team up with for gyms / boxes / dojos.
- ZP is already one of the coolest, if not THE coolest.
- ZP could have even more interaction with clients.
- ZP could build even more community.
If that sounds anything like Zen Planner’s vision of the future, I’d really like to be on board to help make those things happen!
Austin Curtis - you are so funny :)
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you, Sandy!
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