Are you an executive who is seeking ways to increase your market exposure? The good news is that it’s easier than you think. From placing top executives in leading firms for over two decades, here is a trap to avoid and a tactic that is proven to work:
- Trap to avoid: many execs I consult with rely solely on their own professional network to seek new opportunities or they select a few executive recruiters they have come in contact with over the years. While it’s smart for you to tap into this network, you must realize that this represents only a small fraction of available opportunities.
- Best method: I emphasize to my executive clients the need to be proactive. This means researching and discovering the companies and opportunities that fit your background and marketing yourself directly to those company’s key contacts. It also means marketing yourself to the relevant industry or functional practice sector consultants at all the major, regional, and boutique executive search firms, not just the select firms you know from the past.
- How can you start today? My company Lead5 offers comprehensive lists of companies that you can filter by position, region, company size, industry, and ownership structure. This list, combined with Lead5’s intel of executive departures, yields companies that are strong candidates for your outreach. Lead5 also maintains an executive recruiter database of the leading US-based retained search consultants for firms of all sizes, sortable by the Lead5 filters.
- Start small, think big. If you deployed this proactive methodology, even sending only one outreach per week, you are exponentially increasing your chances of being discovered.
To wrap this up, I encourage you to take a proactive role in your career. This is the best way to maximize your value in the marketplace. I see too many executives waiting on a phone call from a recruiter or over-relying on their own professional network. By expanding your comfort zone, you are positioning yourself for career growth and stability.