When I am engaged by a client to help them fulfill a particular need I set up some processes that I have found allow us to cover the market as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

We first identify every company that a person doing the tasks that the position we are working on might work at.  in other words we identify any company that could possibly be your clients competitors.  After that is done we go into each company and name gather every department that is similar to the department that the person usually would come from. 

Example if you are working on a claims position there is a high likelihood that the people over in Customer Service may have the same skill sets you are looking for.  We then create a written presentation that our client has approved as to how they want us to represent them.  From there we develop a plan to call every person that had been name gathered.  often times if it is a big list we will call after hours so that we can leave more messages. Remember you can make about 100 calls a day and talk to about 15 people average.  But if you call after hours you can easily leave 150-200 messages in just a few hours.  From these messages you will get through your market quicker and also you will know anyone that calls back at least has a passing interest in exploring the opportunity.