Justification of the main idea
Following the pathway of contemporary requirements in different job families, it is clear that employees are urging for having success in careers as soon as possible. In this respect marketing is amplified to “break the ice” in contemporary job offers. Moreover, careers in marketing need an individual’s special inclination in mapping the plan of succeeding in careers. It is a challenging perspective of arranging which presupposes great results in the short and in the long run.
The report provides a construct of marketing as applied to personal self-evaluative implications in this very job family. The main attention is grabbed to the consecutive professions which logically give ground to reach out the dream position. Thereupon, it is vital to identify at least 5 consecutive positions. Then, one should match them with personal KSAs. Finally, the report requires pointing out the alternate progressions along with challenges as concerned with the ways of survival in urge for a better “place under the sun.” Sticking to the point of the main objectives, it is necessary to break all issues touching upon marketing down.
Drawing up a career map
The search for the top in career prospects should be designed in an appropriate way. It means that the main points should illuminate the logic of stepping forward in every beginning of an employee. In this case a self-reliant and self-conscientious employee should state the purpose of going upward in the marketing career ladder. Every stage while going over from one position to another should be described as a challenge having been encountered successfully. On the other hand, an efficient planner is one who criticizes himself/herself on each barrier to pull through.
Customer service advisor
The five positions are shown in ascending scale from the bottom up to the top of career mapping. The first is the position of a member in the customer service department. It is a job in a support or call center. It is the place to start moving forward. Taking care of customers, each employee earns a good reputation to a company outlined through survival, profits, and growth (Lamb et al., 2008). It is necessary to learn the lesson of correctly communicating with customers along with knowing their needs and worries. Trying to encompass these areas of corporate ethics, one makes a jump in understanding the principles of communication savvy.
This initial position in careers helps novices understand the pivotal ideas on effective marketing and launching products as well as increasing customers’ interests. Marketing strategy of a definite company is a code which should be taken by employees as a given. To be on the safe side, one should apply for different training projects (on-job or off-job training). This remarkable step would show an employee current tendencies and developmental initiatives among leading companies in training personnel. Moreover, it would give a confidence boost to a worker in call center or in customer support at large. It is time for a young specialist to prove or improve his/her KSAs before the management team. It also means that a person should treat personal achievements as some kind of victory on the way toward expansion of the main goal.
Sales advisor
The next step in the field of marketing presupposes launching products to clients. It is the frontal way of participation between two parties (a company and a client) through an advisor. A person hired or raised to this position should clearly understand the scope of products available and yielded by the company. Furthermore, one should recognize the most appropriate ways in assisting customers to buy this or that product. In the community full of ICT and competition between leading companies sales advisors are placed in “commodity hell” (Ferrell & Hartline, 2007). However, all difficulties can be eliminated if one was attentive to the specificities of the job when working in customer support department primordially. Notwithstanding, the senior staff of the company provides different trainings to increase the internal culture in it. Thus, a sales advisor should keep a strict eye on a single opportunity to get knowledge and share it in practice.
While doing best at the position of sales advisor, an employee should be careful when giving pieces of advice to customers. Largely, it is a fallacy for most of the staff members to think that trying to verbally engage in conversation without any idea of the product requested. Here lies a trap for the whole body of the company. Thus, failing in short of the requirements an employee risks getting into “professional delay.” The term “system” might be understood as a peculiarity of marketing itself and a definite company, in particular. Systematic character of development in internal and external relationships concerning the company is to be fixed by an employee (Pike, 2004). Sales advisor is a person who understands the way the company goes on, to date. Further still, sales advisor has a personal style of communication with customers without any harmful effect to the company’s reputation.
Marketing and sale coordinator
The peculiarity of this position as compared to the previous two is that it relates to the higher layer of managerial hierarchy within a company. In this respect marketing and sale coordinator should be proficient in:
- Knowledge base (higher education, academic degree, MBA);
- Minimal experience of three years;
- High-quality communication within the personnel and with customers.
These points are generalized to maintain the truth of launching marketing procedures by the company. In other words, an amateur will not do this job. Hence, to make it clear, an employee should express personal inclinations to drive the company to the success every now and then. It should be felt and seen by the senior staff. Step-by-step procedure of doing job proficiently along with some kind of ambition to ask for more is needful. In fact, such attitudes speed up person’s promotion throughout the workplace. Stanley (2003) remarks the tripartite unity of relationships applied to a marketing and sale coordinator in terms of direct marketing, such as:
- Client-based relationships;
- Agency-based relationships;
- Supplier-based agreements.
The overall analysis of marketing tricks includes different techniques and strategies that are used and practices by the companies to let rivals behind. Hence, this position in career improvements is of great significance. There is nothing stable in marketing, for ideas and information are spread over the competitors. Thus, according to KSA approach, marketing and sale coordinator should be creative in person. To launch creativeness in perspectives for the company, one should have a strong skill to embrace this position totally. Communicating with management team and experts in the field of marketing technologies, it is vital to focus on different opinions of them. Thereafter, such information would serve as a skeleton to come up with the personal scenario for the company.
What is more, a coordinator should be accurate to involve people and strategies in a far-reaching world where time matters. Thus, a coordinator should be aware of different links that drive marketing. Wolpert (2008, p. 21) admits that a person who chooses the marketing way of career development should take notice of:
- Product marketing;
- Field marketing;
- Segment marketing;
- Partner marketing;
- Competitive analysis.
The latter is supposed to be the cornerstone for making decision in pursuing career perfection. Analyzing all pros and cons of personal attainments and deeds in the work area, a marketing expert prevents himself/herself from falling down into a pit of illusions. In fact, a marketing and sales coordinator is a person responsible for a group of people to lead, an army of customers to please, and a horde of suppliers to make agreements. It is wrong to underestimate the risks of this position. However, a mature disciple in the field of marketing knows that framing time and mapping duties and responsibilities is the best way to arrange things.
Director of Business Development
The peculiarity of this position is that it corresponds to people with at least five years of experience on leading positions concerning marketing. Moreover, it is considered to be a peak of the career ladder for the majority of people. However, according to KSAs, becoming a director is the results of different check-outs of one’s personal persistence in making company (companies) thrive in comparison to the closest rivals. This idea is shared among employees, for becoming a leader; one should behave and act as a leader all round before. This is the main reason of why people achieve a position of director in marketing departments.
Thus, director of business development should have a range of competencies matching the position as such. First of all, a director is a great planner of daily activities. In terms of huge amounts of work to do within 24 hours a professional would not waste time but rely on each minute spent daily. Thereupon, primordial experience of coordinating work might be helpful. Moreover, a director of business development knows how to distribute different aspects of work among subordinates. It is a manager of human resources within the business department of the company.
To provide outstanding strategies, a director of business development should appreciate marketing communications. In the world full of information torrents it is practically significant to use communication. Rallying thoughts over the way to launch marketing communication, a director takes a glance at previous personal and world experience. Weighing all pros and cons such person makes a decision on the best marketing communication model. Hence, one can infer a director of business development as a chief in marketing communication. Lamb et al. (2008, p. 414) admit that, typically, a director in marketing must have “overall responsibility for integrating the company’s marketing communications.”
Another competency that should be gained previously for the position of a director is evaluation of goals to be achieved monthly and annually. It is not true that marketing is constantly going on without shaping time frames. A director of business development should be original and decisive in methods for making business grow positively. Development in this respect should also be concerned as upward-related. It also means that a participating with clients, colleagues and partners of higher rank, a director should nuzzle close to the principle of business etiquette. In fact, a director is for a person who is apparently industrious and initiative in marketing company’s performance among clients and rivals as well. As strange as it may seem, a director of business development works all day long and never leaves his/her working place until everything has been done for today and has been planned for tomorrow.
Vice President of Global Marketing
Finally, this specific position is seen to be of the highest rank in stratification of marketing career prospects. Vice president is wise to turn subordinates (directors, senior managers, chiefs of different subsidiaries belonging to the firm across the parent country and worldwide). On the other hand, it is a decisive person capable of moving the company strategy by means of holding meetings within the board of presidents. To achieve this position, one should have shown dexterous and rational manner in putting new ways to improve company’s performance forward. It also concerns the relationships beyond the workspace.
Self-esteem, high professionalism in the profiling field (marketing) along with huge deposits of knowledge and experience (at least ten years on leading positions) characterize vice president of global marketing. Taking part in global dimension of marketing perspectives, a vice president should know several foreign languages. It is a must, actually. In addition, one of the main competencies is to get on well with people of different traits of character if it is strategically lucrative for the company. However, the position of solely vice president is chosen here to demonstrate a sort of marketing trick as well. It is so, for a man responsible for this position has almost similar duties to CEO and board of stakeholders. However, the scope of issues to be done should be based on previously made implications to facilitate the work process of the whole company.
In this respect one needs an example to be taken as an advantage in breaking the borders between a person and a dream. Ferrell & Hartline (2007) illuminate in their study the figure of George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN. He was industrious and creative during his careers. This person was apt at maintaining culture within ESPN that serves to the company’s advantage (Ferrell & Hartline, 2007). Personal check-outs of consumers needs in order to match it with what the subordinates say is in most cases puts the president in the center of what is going on throughout the company. In turn vice president just helps to find the best way to please the only dominant person over him/her.
Alternative progressions
The aforementioned description of hypothesized career prospects should have a so-called plan “B” in the short and in the long perspective. It means that above listed heights are real if a person uses different methods of influence on and participation with people in terms of professional interests. Going on the edge between professional and personal life, one is better correlate more efforts on how dominants were taught to survive. Reasoning over suchlike prospects will definitely form in a person a vision of a winner. With persuasiveness in personal success inside, one can easily materialize what has been planned at the very beginning.
Reference
Ferrell OC & Hartline MD 2007, Marketing Strategy, Edition 4, Cengage Learning, Stanford, CT.
Lamb CW, Hair JF & McDaniel C 2008, Essentials of Marketing, Edition 6, Cengage Learning, Stanford, CT.
Pike S 2004, Destination marketing organizations, Elsevier, London.
Stanley A 2003, Careers in marketing, advertising and public relations, Edition 8, Kogan Page Publishers, London.
Wolpert DK 2008, Sales and Marketing Careers in the Tech Sector, Swordfish Communications, Austin, TX.