How will you assess FIT when opportunities come to your attention?  At the core of your personal marketing strategies is the effective use of the actual words and phrases you use to define the FIT between your motivated competencies and the market's need for services and solutions.  They are so much more than the "the right buzz words," or "keywords" as used in technology driven job banks (or the mirrored resume bank queries)... they are the building blocks of your message.

Most of us learned these lessons back in grade school. 

1. Word selection... Your choice of words can convey very different meanings.  For example, as a manager, do you direct the activity of your subordinates... coordinate the efforts of multi-level, interactive teams or peer groups... or actually do certain functions to achieve results?

2. Effective phraseology... Often, the soft measure words used to describe what sort of a worker you are or how you perform your work, are discarded as self-serving "fluff."  However, when built in to powerful, high impact phrases, they serve to differentiate you from others capable of doing the same work.  For example, being a "problem solver" doesn't make you better than your professional competitors... but describing yourself as a tenacious (an adjective) problem solver, or one who solves problems professionally (an adverb), begins to personalize your strengths.

3. Whole sentence structure... Build accomplishment statements that demonstrate and prove your abilities and experience.  While resumes utilize a truncated syntax that eliminates the repetitive use of the noun "I", correspondence and conversation dictate the more narrative use of nouns.  In all cases, however, use an action verb to convey actual behavior, words and phrases to describe the object being acted upon, and, when possible, state actual results of the activity.  Constructed effectively, a good accomplishment can trigger all the right questions about your strengths...

4. Focused, behavior-laden paragraphs... to provide examples and offer proof of your strengths and experience.  A typical resume format doesn't allow for much of this proof, but a well constructed message should trigger the questions that allow you to expand a conversation from your actual experiences.  Thus your resume and correspondence can create the dialog of your phone calls, personal conversations and, ultimately, actual employment interviews.

Yes, its worth your practice time to focus on words.  They can create high impact and convey powerful "word pictures."  Your messages will be delivered in three different ways:

In marketing, these delivery vehicles are referred to as collaterals.  And at their core is a simple collection of words that describe the FIT between your strengths and the market's need.  That collection of the right words and phrases, your definition of a good FIT, is the communication strategy of your Personal Market Plan.