What is a marketing plan? A marketing plan identifies and defines the product. It also profiles the product's market and defines its position in the marketplace. The product is then packaged to reflect its best image. Finally, it is aggressively promoted and then sold. You must take these same steps to successfully make your career change.
You might think having a job hinders your mid-career change because you cannot devote enough time to it. Not true. It is true that the search may take longer, but that does not outweigh the benefits of keeping your current job. There are several ways to make time for interviews and telephone work. You can change your lunch hour to an earlier or later time, or you might be able to change a day off to one during the week. You could change your working hours to have time in the morning or afternoon for your search. Many employers will not object to your making a career change as long as it does not interfere with your work. If such is the case, your boss will work with you to make time available. In other instances, if you're in sales, for example, you will have to work covertly. Many prospective employers will schedule interviews around your working hours. Direct mail, networking, and private placement agencies can all be managed to aid the search of anyone currently employed. Remember, employers prefer to hire someone who is employed-working people change jobs every day.
Keep an old Chinese saying in mind during your career-change marketing campaign: "A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck." It takes effort, time, and money to make a successful change. The greater the change, the more required from you.
Developing Your Marketing Plan
Your marketing plan is the foundation on which your entire career change is built. It defines the goals, objectives, procedures, and methods that determine your campaign. It also is a monitoring device that integrates all elements of your marketing mix-telephone, direct mail, networking, and consultants.
We will approach your marketing plan in two phases in this article. The first phase is a broad overview of the six parts of a marketing plan, with an example of a successful plan. The second phase is a more detailed discussion geared toward your marketing plan.
Overview of Marketing Plan
Have a blank sheet of paper ready and walk through an overview of the information you need to create your marketing plan. First, you need an objective for your marketing plan. Your objective describes your ultimate goal. What is the goal of your career change? Are you changing careers to achieve greater advancement? Are you changing careers in order to change your life-style? What kind of industry interests you? Where do you want to work? Write down your objective.
The second part of your plan is packaging. Here you want to take a hard look at your physical presentation. Write "Packaging" under your objective.
The third part of your marketing plan is to define your market. Write "Market." Under this heading write down the geographical location where you wish to work. Part of de-fining your market, one of the most critical parts for your campaign, is developing a prospect list. This list is a major tool for you to use in your search, and it consists of company names, addresses, and the name and title of your key contact person in each company. Write "Prospect List" as a subhead-ing under "Market."
The direct mail campaign is the fourth part of your plan. It involves writing your resume and a cover letter to send to companies on your prospect list.
The fifth part of your marketing plan is your network. Your network consists of family, friends, coworkers, daily business contacts, church and club associates, and many more people you will learn about. Experts say that 75 to 85 percent of all positions are filled through this process.
The sixth and last part of your marketing plan is personal calls. These are visits by you to employers either to gather information from a network referral or to seek out a key contact in a company.
You should now have a sheet of paper in front of you that looks something like this:
- Objective: I want to become a (your career choice).
- Packaging: Desired image and effort required.
- Market: Preferred geographic location and type of company.
- Prospect List: Names of companies and key contacts.
- Direct Mail Campaign: List target companies.
- Resume: Tailored to specific job and company.
- Cover Letter: Directed to specific individual.
- Mailings: Sent to target companies.
- Network: Develop primary, secondary, and tertiary groups.
- Personal Calls: Prospecting and data gathering.
A well-planned mid-career change marketing campaign helps you achieve your objective because it:
- stimulates your thinking and makes better use of your time and resources;
- highlights your job search responsibilities and schedules your work;
- coordinates and unifies your efforts; and
- creates awareness of obstacles that must be overcome.
- SIMPLE-easy to understand and conduct;
- CLEAR-precise and detailed;
- PRACTICAL-realistic about objectives; and
- COMPLETE-inclusive of all critical elements.
