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Best Practices for Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan - Part 2

In my January 3rd blog, I began a series on how to develop an effective personal marketing plan based on the insights shared with me by John O’Brien, CEO of The Sales Talent Group.

In that post, we covered step 1 - the need to develop a purpose, and step 2 – the need to develop a defined set of goals. Now let’s move on to step 3.

3. Develop A Personal Sales and Marketing Analysis
First, let’s address who we are selling – it is you. This realization unfortunately makes some people uncomfortable but we have to get past that. You will realize – once your analysis is done – that you have a set of skills, experiences and relationships that have value to potential employers.

Let’s get going:

  • Start with a STAR approach – Situation, Task, Action taken, and Results achieved.
  • Using the STAR approach write up 20 key accomplishments – in detail – that you have directly been involved in. This may be challenging but please press on. The end result you will find are some tremendous insights into what you have achieved in your career.

Next, take advantage of any personality tests that can provide you with insights on your leadership, communication, and relationship styles. Your may already have taken these tests - DiSC, Myers-Briggs, and PI – through your past employers. Review them and think about what they are telling you. If you do not have any assessment tests available, I recommend that you buy the book Strength Finders 2.0 and take the online assessment that comes with the purchase of the book.

Now complete a thorough background check on yourself.

  • Run a credit check
  • Google yourself
  • Get a copy of your college transcripts
  • Call former employers to see how they will respond to reference check calls

The final steps to your product and market analysis should be:

  • Survey the market – talk with former bosses, peers, vendors about what you were good and not so good at. Ask them what they think your next step should be.
  • Go back and read your old performance reviews
  • Write up an analysis of who your competition will be in the market – what are their strengths and weaknesses compared to yours.

The final part of this series will be on developing target markets and marketing materials.

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