I recently had an excellent executive recruiter – John O’Brien, CEO of The Sales Talent Group – speak at my career networking (C3G Sales sub group) on how recruiters operate and how candidates can best work with them.
John was also gracious enough to share with us his “Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan”. The document is a summary of his insights gathered over fifteen years of recruiting and over 17,000 reviewed resumes.
Here is the blueprint that John has developed based on the best practices he has gathered:
- Create a purpose and mission for yourself
- Set clearly written and defined goals
- Complete a product and marketing analysis
- Identify your target markets
- Develop impactful marketing materials
- Utilize an effective sales approach
I would like to explore these best practices to help everyone better understand how to create the personal marketing plan that will enable them to further their career search.
1. Create a personal purpose and mission
This represents the foundation from which your entire plan will be based. First, start with writing down what is the purpose of your marketing plan. It can be that you have been released from your last employer or that you want to develop a new way to reinvigorate your career. This gives you the reason to get started. Then create a personal mission statement on what you want in life in terms of what career, personal development, etc. With this done you will be well on your way to getting started.
2. Set clearly written and defined goals
Once your purpose and mission is created now write down SMART goals – meaning:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time bound
In writing the goals make sure you cover everything – what your next job will be, where it will be, what type of industry you will operate in, what type of culture it will be, how much compensation will you need.
This is a start. Next week we will cover the rest of the personal marketing plan best practices.
