Your New Role as a Transitioning Exec
Transitioning to Your New Role
Most executives in transition begin with the task of clarifying their next position. We can likely agree that role clarity is critical. But are you lacking role clarity for your interim role?
What’s My Interim Role?
Whether you worked in a marketing role in the past or not, you have marketing job now. You’re suddenly accountable for marketing and selling yourself. As with any executive position, some delegation can and should take place. But the ultimate responsibility to execute lies with you.
Top 12 Tasks for Transitioning Execs
To help support role awareness for your new C-Level position, here’s a Bakers Dozen ideas for enhancing your role awareness and productivity.
- Appoint yourself to the position of Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for You, Inc.
- Set goals and hold yourself accountable
- Identify your target market(s)
- Write and execute a plan to articulate your unique value proposition and get your message to decision makers with challenges that you can solve for your target industries
- Visit 15 Second Pitch to craft your elevator pitch / positioning statement
- Learn to use InDeed.co to research opportunities
- Hire a wordsmith for your resume and LinkedIn profile
- Find 25 companies within 10 miles of your home that are prospective employers
- Use Hoovers.com to find the top ten people at your target companies
- Call five contacts each day and tell them why you are excellent
- Proactively ping your target prospects with your value proposition and your why.
- Create professional marketing materials like your career depends on it
- Business Cards
- Hand Bills
- Personal Website
- Introductory Video
13. Network at trade associations specific to your target industries.
Delegation
It’s essential to engage others to support your marketing efforts. “Others” might include recruiters, resume writers, career coaches and networking contacts. As you delegate, engage and lead others to support your cause, be aware of their different motives.
Resume/Profile Writers and Career Coaches are professionals who, by definition, sell their professional services and expertise. They run for-profit businesses that will work for you.
Recruiters also run for-profit businesses. But unless you are the one paying, they do NOT work for you. So you can’t hold them accountable for your career success. And no matter how co-operative they may seem, your cause is NOT their first priority.
Your networking contacts typically have more altruistic motives. Their fulfillment comes from helping and connecting. You can and should hold them accountable for their verbal promises. But not much more. Your ongoing feedback and gratitude will keep them engaged. Forgetting those who made an effort to help will result in burning bridges that you’ll likely need to cross in the future.
With any executive position, you’re ultimately responsible for getting results. The buck stops with you.
Resources
We’ve assembled a list of resources for transitioning execs on our site’s Resources Page to help you to take charge of your sales and marketing responsibility.
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