Your Marketing Plan

You are a product and a service. Despite what you may think, an employer is going to buy you or not based on your features and benefits (mostly benefits).

How you package and disseminate this information is one of the few things you CAN control in your job search.

Your Marketing Plan lays out the following:

Functions you excel at
Statement of your benefits (summary of qualifications or elevator speech)
Market preferences (industries, geographic locations, size of company)
List of target companies

Creating this document is going to help you clarify where you want to go to prevent the "spray and pray" approach to selling. You have targets!

However, you will need to explain to your specific audience how you want them to use your plan which you have placed in front of them. The HOW is dependent on whom you are speaking. Here are some different scenarios:

Past co-worker:
Ask them for additional job titles they have seen that are similar to what you do "What else are they calling what we do out there?"

Neighbor/family/friend:
Ask them to provide you with names of people they know in your target companies "Do you know anyone I could speak to at any of these companies? I am looking for information on what it is like to work there?"

Someone inside a target company:
Ask to have them review your summary of qualifications/elevator speech. "Do you think this background might be of value within your company?" and/or "Does this sound like something your company might be interested in?"

Hiring Manager or above:
Ask them where they think your background may be of value "Where do you think this background might fit within your company?" "Do you know any other companies that might have a need for this type of experience?"

That is why your Marketing plan has to be very well crafted and thought out. It has to do a very good job of spelling out what makes you unique and specifically what skills you bring to the table.