This is also the week that old clients are most likely to
get that Happy New Year! email from a consultant like me. I send these out in waves to ensure that I properly
personalise each one. After all, these
are all people with whom I have a history that must be reflected (leveraged)
otherwise I might as well be cold calling.
And like anyone embarking on that January job search I wait until Tuesday
before starting. That way maybe I'm
less likely to be caught up in the First Great Inbox Purge of 2012.
With an augur’s intensity I watch my own inbox for
replies. There’s a hierarchy of outcomes from the exercise:
-
- The quick note proposing a call or meeting in the coming weeks is absolutely the most I can hope for
- The longer note with specific feedback on last year’s results and the plans for the next twelve months isn't awful. At least my contact took a few minutes to set out the issues that affect me personally
- The email saying that there's been a change of roles but also giving me the name of the new contact (cc’d) isn't bad. Managing a baton-change in a client organisation is part of my job
- It’s hard not to read a quick note announcing a change of roles without any further information as ‘goodbye and good luck’
- The cursory Happy New Year reply is the email equivalent of a stilted exchange of pleasantries whilst waiting for an elevator
Optimist that I am, getting no response at all is still reason
for hope. Maybe my contact isn't back at
her desk for another week. Maybe she’s
gone straight into a procession of heavy-duty meetings. Or maybe she’s surreptitiously on the job
hunt herself, in which case there's no point me being on her radar until she
either gets settled in a new position or resigns herself to the current role
and refocuses on her 2012 To Do List. I
make a note to try again in mid-March.
I've long believed that no genuine marketing effort goes ultimately unrewarded. Those efforts must be genuine, an ongoing
part of the day-to-day job and not just the occasional paroxysm of activity
intended to refill an otherwise empty calendar.
And don't be surprised when that reward arrives from an unexpected direction. Yesterday I got an unsolicited email
requesting a meeting in Italy as soon as is convenient. Not so much attributable cause-and-effect as ‘corporate
karma’.
Approach the low-yield tasks with the right attitude and trust
that the cosmos is taking note.
