CopyDiva

The very act of following up with a job lead or a contact who has potential to need my services is occasionally fraught with peril. The kind of peril when you get no response after initial enthusiasm. I’m not talking about no response from a cold call or even a referral from a colleague, but only from someone who I’ve spoken with or had some email exchanges with.
On the one hand, I need to fulfill on my promises — sending over a resume, call back Thursday, etc. Being that I am a person who’s spent lots of time managing customer and partner relationships, I understand the importance of managing a relationship, of the give-and-take required to know/understand that there’s commitment on both sides of the conversation. If I know I can’t meet the schedule, then I ‘fess up - a quick email is usually enough, or a phone message, saying “Hey, I know I said I’d get back to you on X, but really won’t be able to do that until Y. Let me know if that causes a problem for you.” Seems simple enough, yes?

Apparently not. And, the surprising piece is that of all the folks I have spoken to over the last few months, this has only happened twice. In both cases — and this is what’s weird to me — the person I was supposed to hear back from was a VP of Client Services, or some similar role. So, let that sink in. I was asked to call or respond on a certain day. I did so. I receive back the great gaping void of nothingness. From someone whose daily charge is relationship management for key customers.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Maybe they got too busy, or decided there wasn’t a reason to talk to you. I am really quite understanding of folks being busy, I have been there myself. And, if they don’t want to talk to me, that’s ok too. Just let me know, and I won’t call or email again - I don’t take it as an insult. The point is, what I am learning about this potential hiring manager, and how this person manages relationships?

Here’s how I end up dealing with this situation. I give people lots of “busy” latitude. I truly empathize. So, I make the extra effort to continue to follow up for a period of time — say, two weeks. Every few days or so, stretching out longer the farther out I get. And people appreciate my persistence if they asked me to follow up. I appreciate that they are getting back to me as well, even long after the fact.

After a while though, I am going to stop. The message I get from nothing is pretty loud. But here’s what I don’t get. In both cases, I can easily see myself needing their services in the future. Now, I am left with a less than stellar view into client services.

Follow up and follow through are key to relationships. If you have no need or desire, be direct — I know I appreciate it. If you need more time, say so. Either way is better than no response.

Some of you may know that I am in the throws of a job search — well, I’d call it something more like “an epic adventure to find the company and crew that’s excited about what I want to do, wants me to do it with them and get paid for it.”

Being that I spent many, many years as a consultant, I think I am morally opposed to looking for a job. This is because I am not just looking for a place to go, do work, and come home. If I am going to spend the majority of my waking hours somewhere, shoot, I ought to like the people and the challenges.

When I was doing more consulting, my approach to finding new customers was two-fold:

1. Look for companies I wanted to do work for, then pursue them
2. Network with existing customers I enjoyed working with to find new customers

This approach (once I built up a decent collection of clients) suited me and worked quite well. I did very little else to find new customers.

I am using this same approach in looking for a new opportunity - connecting with associates via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, as well as through my local connections in pursuit of the next landing place.

What I will say about this approach is that even though online connections make it a whole lot easier to do the research, the process is quite exhausting. Unlike John McCain, I try to do a little bit more vetting of potential employers. And, since I am not going through the typical channels (HR, big impersonal web site) to get noticed, I sometimes have to go through the preliminaries a few times before I hit on the right person.

Fortunately, I have met some very nice people in my career who are so willing to connect me with people, so I have no lack of leads and connections. My location — the Boulder/Denver area of Colorado –can be a problem, though. Much of the work I am interested in is taking place in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and sometimes Chicago or Dallas. I do get interest, but the remote thing has been a stopping point along the way. Which is funny to me, because the work I am looking to do — the work I do — is mostly done online, with the occasional conference or show or client/customer visit.

For some companies, the remote idea really isn’t an issue, especially once they realize how disciplined I am (and hey, if you are one of those and are looking for someone with my talents, please get in touch).

I am doing some messaging work for one such company right now — great people, distributed organization and great products.

In the social media realm, it makes no sense to me that you want that person in the same physical location. Sure, it helps to visit the home office, and talk to your coworkers. But, for someone like me, I can get a whole lot accomplished outside the office.