A six step approach to creating and updating and using a personal marketing plan for individuals in career transition. This document is to be used during one on one networking to brand yourself and to gain contacts at your defined "Target companies".

1. How to Create an Effective
Marketing Plan
An Essential Job Search Tool
A Step by Step Guide for Creating an Effective
Marketing Plan for People in Career Transition
Presented By Mark Troncone, MBA, PMP®, ITIL v3®, CSM®

2. Agenda
 What is a Marketing Plan
 What it is and Why do you need one
 How does it differ from a resume
 What is it used for
 Marketing Plan Pre-requisites
 How do you create a Marketing Plan
 Six steps to success
 How do you use a Marketing Plan
 Using your Marketing Plan effectively
 Maintaining your Marketing Plan
 Making your Marketing Plan stand out

3. About Me – Mark Troncone
 PMP® Certified – Project Management Institute
 ITIL v3 Foundations Certified
 CRM Certified SCRUM Master® – SCRUM Alliance
 Certified IT Business Analyst – State of Connecticut
 MT Associates - Active career Transition Mentor
 MBA – Management, BS – Marketing, AS - Accounting
 Work experience:
 Save the Children (Currently)
 TransAct Technologies
 Starwood Hotels
 Affinion Group
 Hewitt Associates
 Wachovia Bank
 Bayer Pharmaceuticals
 Reader’s Digest
 James River Corporation

4. How I Learned this Life Skill
I do not have a PHD, HR experience, have not
written articles, or own a career coaching firm
 I attended various presentations on this subject
 I spoke to people at various networking groups
 I asked questions during one on one networking meetings
 I formulated my own Marketing Plan (many times)
 I continued the process of refining my Marketing Plan after
receiving feedback and evaluating what worked vs. what did
not work
 I determined what was and what was not effective and
created a successful approach that anyone can use

5. 7 Steps to Gaining Employment
EMPLOYMENT
Self
Evaluation
-10 Questions you
must ask
yourself
Search
Organization
Plan
- Organization
spreadsheet
-Accountability Plan
- Weekly Outline
Employment
Tools of the Trade
- Resumes - Elevator Speech
- Cover Letter - Marketing Brochure
- Business Cards - Value Proposition
- Marketing Plan - Thank You Letter
Networking
Skills
- Over the Telephone
- Open Networking Groups
- One on One
- Develop Target Company
“Godfathers / Godmothers”
Interviewing
Skills
- Preparation
- Telephone / Video
- Recruiters
- Face to Face
- Follow-Up
Employment
Offer
- Receive an Offer
- Negotiate Salary
- Accept Offer
- On-Boarding Plan
Employment
Search Info
- Research Target Co’s
- Employment Web-Sites
- Recruiters
- Networking Groups
- Informational Web-Sites
- Libraries
- Linked In
1.
2.
3.
4.
7.
6.
5.

6. The Shift Trend in Employment Searching
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
5 % Jobs
found through
On-Line Ads
15%Jobs
found through
Recruiters
80%Jobs
found through
Networking
Employment Facts of Life Where should you focus?
Focus your efforts where there is
the greatest potential for success
– Networking!
80% of jobs are found through networking.
Your Marketing Plan is an effective tool.

7. Why Do We Need a Marketing Plan?
 Because the job search process has changed
 Networking has become the viable skill in
the career search process
 60-80% of people in transition have found
their next job through networking
 A Marketing Plan is used as a valuable
tool to use in order to successfully network
 It is your Transition Plan
 You can Brand yourself and be specific
 You can set yourself apart
 You can receive referrals to your Target Companies

8. What is a Marketing Plan?
Think of yourself as a product. When businesses have
a product they wish to promote and sell…
 They create a plan and strategy to market this product
 The plan might contain:
 A high level overview of the product’s functionality, it’s
unique value, and it’s benefits/features
 It’s competitive advantage (how it differs)
 Where they want to sell and market it
 Target customers to whom they would like to market,
sell and distribute it to
 Your Marketing Plan describes and sells you

9. What is a Marketing Plan ?
 What a Marketing Plan is:
 A document designed as your Transition Plan
 Focuses to sell you as the viable “product”
 Visually shows what you want to do next:
 Professional Summary and “Key” Marketable Skills
 Career Search Objective
 and most importantly…. Target Companies
 What a Marketing Plan is not:
 A resume
 A historic account of your past employment
 Never to be given to a recruiter or employer

10. A Resume vs. a Marketing Plan
 A Resume focuses on the past:
 A chronological account of past employment
 Lists past job experiences (PARS) and skills summary
 Lists education, technical skills, awards etc.
 Main function is to review during a job interview
 Employment application – O/L or Mail
 Review with a job recruiter face to face
 A Marketing Plan focuses on the future:
 Your future employment desires and career objectives
 Shows the value and results you can bring to a company
 The types of industries where you want to work next
 Based upon your experience and skills, lists the
target companies that you feel you can fit into now!

11. What is a Marketing Plan used for
A visual document to share and review
during networking meetings with:
 Other networkers in transition (One on One)
 Contacts you meet who are in the workforce
 Contacts introduced to you by other net-workers
 In a networking meeting or group open forum
It is a valuable tool that will show anyone:
 The next career position you want to achieve
 Your “Key Skills” that make you stand out
 What type of company you excel working at
 The “target” companies you have identified

12. Creating A Marketing Plan -
Prerequisites
Before creating your Marketing Plan you must
complete the following pre-work:
 Know the “key” skills that make you “Unique”
 Think about what you want to do next in your career
 Know your personality “Type” (Myers-Briggs)
 Think about the “type” of company where you can be
successful working for - environment, culture, management
 Where you wish to work - geographically
 Investigate companies that could use your skills, experiences
and offer the environment, growth, and opportunities that you
can be successful within or wish to investigate further

13. Why the Prerequisites are Important
This pre-work is essential to creating a
Marketing Plan because:
 It identifies and markets your personal “Brand”
 It allows you to develop your ”Elevator Speech”
which is part of your Professional Summary
 Helps you to evaluate your skills and
accomplishments
 It allows you to complete a self-analysis of skills and
identifies the:
 Type of company that you will fit best within
 Type of company culture you will like
 The type of manager/team you interact best with
Note: See my presentation “The top ten questions to ask
before you start your job search” on LinkedIn Slide Share.

14. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan
A Marketing Plan consists of 6 sections:
1. Contact Area
2. Professional Summary
3. Key Professional Skills
4. Career Search Objective
5. Professional Experience
6. Targeted Companies
Note: It is important to note that Marketing Plans are like
snowflakes - each one will look different, but all contain
the six parts above in order to be most effective for you

15. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
1. The Contact Area contains the following:
 Your Picture – (professional head shot) located on left side
 Your Name (larger font in bold) plus any certification titles
 Your “Hook” – used to elicit “tell me more”
 Your address (City, State, Zip – street is an option)
 Your Phone Number(s) – Cell and/or Home
 Your Email Address
 Your LinkedIn Address – don’t forget this
 When completed add a bold line under the above to separate

16. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
Mark Troncone MBA, PMP®, ITILv3®, CSM®
“I remove the Fluff in order to ensure a successful system implementation”
H (203) 999 - 9999 1 Main Street mtroncone@global.com
C (203) 999 - 8888 Anytown, CT. 11111 www.Linkedin.com/in/marktroncone
_____________________________________________
1. The Contact Area - Example:

17. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
What is a Hook used for?
 A Hook is a once sentence marketing tool used to create a
condition/response - gain and hold another persons attention
 Use it to say something about yourself/title/skill that will serve the
purpose of the person hearing it to ask – “tell me more”
 It also serves to “Brand” yourself and make it easier
for the people that you network with to remember you
True Examples are:
“I feed the starving masses” – a bread sales executive
“There are two things certain in life, death and taxes, I can’t help you
avoid the first, but I can help you avoid the second” – state tax planner
“I Fix broken Projects” – PMP Project Manager

18. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
What is a Hook used for - con’t.
More True Examples:
“I Relate like Cratchit, and Negotiate like Scrooge” – ESO Program
Manager
“I build businesses to achieve success” - Senior HR executive
“I accelerate projects that impact the bottom line” – IT project manager
“I am a strategic communicator that drives business results” –
Communications Exec
“I am a strategic leader that gets the people thing” – IT CIO Executive
“Your first step to ensuring a successful system implementation”
IT Project Manager/Business Analyst hope you like this last one It’s mine

19. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
2. The Professional Summary:
 Is probably the second most important section of a
Marketing Plan other than your Target Companies.
 It is where you “Brand” yourself to the audience
who you share this document with
 To create this, fill out the following formula:
WIA + WID + STDM X TVIB = RFTC

20. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
Formula => WIA + WID + STDM x TVIB = RFTC
The formula deciphered:
WIA: Who I am +
WID: What I do +
STDM: 2-3 “Key” Skills that define me X
TVIB: The value I bring (to any company) =
RFTC: The results for the company
Let’s see if you can spot the formula in the Professional Summary
on the next page:

21. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
I am a certified PMP® IT Project Manager, ITILv3® Foundations, CSM® SCRUM
Master and a Certified IT Business Analyst. I use my key skills in process
improvement, communication, leadership, and offering alternative solutions in
order to deliver the project initiative from A to Z.
The value I bring to any organization is my ability to effectively gather and
create Business Requirements documentation in order to ensure that only
relative functionality is implemented, because 60% of all new software provided
is NEVER utilized by the end users. Accomplishing this, I can then lead the
project to completion efficiently.
The result for the organization is a quality system delivered within budget and
deadline goals with minimal defects and low maintenance costs and releases
development resources earlier in the process. This, in turn, enables key
executives to use the information the application provides to make strategic
business decisions to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace, thus having
a positive effect on ROI.

22. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
2. The Professional Summary – con’t:
 Do not fill with “Fluff” words
 Results Driven, Passionate, Experienced, Successful, Motivated,
Great Communicator, Dedicated, People Person etc. they take up
space and are non-essential and will lose your readers – be specific!
 You may continue to refine it over time as needed
 Show it to other people and ask for their feedback
 If they cannot say they know who you are, what you do, what makes
you unique and the value/results you bring – go back to the old
drawing board and refine it until they do
 This summary, together with your search objective and 3 target
companies, in part, then becomes your “Elevator Speech” and
creates your personal “Brand”

23. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
3. Key Professional Skills:
 These are 3-4 columns of one to three word additional
skills that define you and make you unique for your job title
 They should be in bulleted form for ease of readability
 Do not list the 2-3 “key” skills mentioned
in your Professional Summary section
 Each column should have 3-4 rows
 Hint – use a table without showing the grid-lines
 Use this area to drive home skills that you
bring to the table and Brand yourself

24. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
3. Key Professional Skills – con’t.:
Example:
 Leading Global Teams  Business/IT Liaison  MS Office  Asset Recovery
 Excel Marcos  Process Improvement  JD Edwards  Debt Restructuring
 SDLC Life Cycle  Project Management  SAP  Media Relations
 Consultative Selling  Presentations  Six Sigma  Process Design

25. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
4. Career Search Objective
 This should be easy after you have self-evaluated and did some
investigating – it narrows down where you want to be
 Simply state:
 What you want your next job title to be
 What size company (large, medium,
small – can be multi
 What industry (CPG, Health, Pharma,
Financial, Manufacturing etc.)
 Where geographically (area)
 Kind of culture or company structure

26. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
4. Career Search Objective – con’t.
Example:
I want to be a product manager for a medium
sized consumer product company in the toy or
video gaming industry located in the New York
metro area. I would value a start-up company
with a creative “team” oriented culture

27. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
5. Professional Experience
 Do not get to crazy with this section,
remember this is not a resume
 List on one row each in date order:
 The name of the company
 Your title
 Years employed
 One major result for each one – NOT a PAR (Problem Action
Result used on resumes). This result is another form of a “Hook” to
elicit from someone who reads it – “Tell me how you did that?”
 You can also use a table with shown or hidden gridlines for this

28. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
5. Professional Experience – con’t.
Use a table as you did in listing your Key Professional
skills and hide the grid-lines
Example:
 XYZ Corp VP Supply Chain 2005 – 2010 Initiated global distribution strategies to sell 30MM
 123 Company Director Product
Distribution
2001 – 2005 Led project that created O/L ordering system
 LMO Ltd. Product Manager 1992 – 2001 Drove XXX product to number 1 in the industry
 PP&H Corp Advertising
Manager
1989 – 2001 Introduced “Fluffy Soap” media campaign

29. The Six Steps to Creating a
Marketing Plan – con’t.
6. Targeted Companies
 List the target companies that you wish to acquire a
contact for or learn more about
 Put in target companies that you have researched to be
a good fit for you
 Add companies that presently have a position that you
wish to apply for
 Hint:
 Put them in alphabetic order or by industry type in alphabetic
order to make it easier to read
 As you get a contact for a company on your list, take that
company off and slot in another – you don’t need it there any
longer and it is taking up valuable space

30. Bad Marketing Plans
 Fail to have a complete Contact Section Including Picture
 Professional Summary Section Lacks Substance/Brand and
is not Focused – Number 1 Mistake
 Does not Define your Key Skills
 Does not adequately tell the reader what your Career Search
Objective is for your desired next position
 Uses too much space listing previous work experience and
company information – Number 3 Mistake
 Does not have enough or uses too little space for Target
Companies – Number 2 Mistake
 Lack Creativity, Color, Layout, Spacing or are not “Pleasing”
to the eye – Must draw the readers eye to key sections

31. Effective use of a Marketing Plan
Marketing Plans should be used:
 At employment networking groups
 At networking events for industry groups
 One on One networking meetings with
a fellow networker in transition
 One on One with a contact that you were
introduced to who is working at one of your
Target Companies – Develop a “Godfather”
 It can be given to anyone – remember you
are looking for a job – but the Marketing Plan
allows people to help you by offering advise,
suggestions, information, help and contacts
 The more efficiently and effectively written,
the more a person you share it with can offer
a contact at one of your target companies

32. Maintaining your Marketing Plan
 Update your Marketing Plan as needed
 Be Specific – the more you are – the better contacts can help
 Update as your Summary, Key Skills, Search Objective and
most importantly – Target Companies change
 Do not be afraid to use other peoples target companies
 Investigate them from the Marketing Plans they share with you
 If you feel that you would fit into these companies – add them to your
Marketing Plan.
 Do not be afraid to use another persons Marketing Plan
format(s) for your own – do not re-invent the wheel
 As a courtesy, ask the person if you can use their format

33. Making your Marketing Plan
Stand Out
 Add color to your Marketing Plan –
it will stick out
 Make it pleasant to the eye
 Do not overcrowd words
 Make it easy to read for the viewer
 Keep spacing between lines
 Keep it a Marketing Document
 Be Inventive, Be different, Be Creative
 Remember your selling yourself – make
people remember you

34. Marketing Plan Results
Now is the time to take action, create
your Marketing Plan and start meeting
contacts at your target companies !!!!!!

35. QUESTIONS
Tell me what you think ???Tell me what you think ???
mtroncone73@yahoo.commtroncone73@yahoo.com