I am bored today and going through some of the stuff I wrote in the past. I picked this among the many:

Virtual Covering Letter


I am a Marketing & Business Development Consultant, working with global IT and Telecom organisations implementing market entry, account penetration and partner development strategies, as well as working with clients to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives and benchmarking their positioning and performance against competition.

I have been working for a small consultancy for over 2 years and looking to do something new and progress my career.

I have an entrepreneurial spirit and would like to start up my own company but I need more experience first, 4 years business experience are a good foundation but not enough.. Well the reality is that I don't have the guts to go solo now!

I have recently done a business and financial plan for a staffing agency providing IT contractors to system integrators and final clients, it looks good on paper but the working capital is high and, again, I don't have the confidence to do that. I could even get a grant from the council or another public institution if I decided to open an office in Lambeth for instance and it would be very cheap to set up but… the factoring exposure and the risks involved are quite a concern!

I also thought about setting up a marketing agency that provides a converged, integrated sales and marketing service, combining in depth market research, lead generation and direct marketing, up to sales deal facilitation and closure.

The b2b sales and marketing service market is slowly converging. We traditionally have 6 main separate players offering different but complementary services: Branding and advertising, PR, Market Research/Benchmarking, Telemarketing/Lead generation, direct marketing-mailings, events and hospitality management. (Have I missed any other important one?)

The same service provider can carry out a market study profiling decision makers (market research) who will be targeted after the study by a “key findings report” (direct marketing) and subsequently followed up by a sales call (telemarketing). If the same company has got the capabilities of organising an event with the same decision makers the lead/opportunity generation is bigger, if the same company can also facilitate the rapport building between the decision makers and the client it’s proper consulting. The company could even help with proposal writing and after sales! Not sure there is such a company that can take a client from in depth market research to sales deal through a structured, multiphase business development campaign. (Please let me know if there are many companies that do this already!)

I have experience of structuring complex business development campaigns that open up new revenue opportunities. I can apply the same methodology and experience to any types of product or service sales. The basic structure of all types of sales is to study a given sector, market, account and decision maker to deeply understand needs and priorities with your service offering in mind, to structure a value proposition that fulfils or helps to fulfil some of these needs. Doing it, following a determined but flexible structure, can take the decision maker on a journey of discovery that helps him/her setting or articulating his/her needs and priorities. The journey itself is the sales process, and if the journey is a value experience, the pitching of the service will be simple to do.

I would like to work as an associate for a start-up or niche company, well backed and well run, in the area of marketing, IT consulting, new-media. Something creative and innovative but where the director has got a commercial and practical ability too, I think many early stages start-ups are too "creative" and not enough focused on the bottom line!

At the same time I am looking for a more standard job in the corporate world, or for an already established mid-market organisation. Some of my friends are telling me I am too young to join a start-up and the best I could do is to work for a Plc where I can get good training, get a better grasp of corporate culture and politics, more stability and security for 3-4 years, and then go solo.

What do you guys think would be the best option at this stage? I have four years business experience, after graduating in 2001. Please help!