“Let’s Reconnect in January”

If you’re like me, over the past 30 days, a number of your networking conversations have ended with “Let’s reconnect in January”.  This is not an unusual phenomenon for this time of year.  However, it begs the question, what magical conversations will materialize when the calendar suddenly reads January 1st and will people truly be open to networking on that glorious day?

For some people, this knee-jerk response is a ploy to dismiss me completely, akin to saying “don’t call me, I’ll call you”.   However, for most people, there is a genuine interest in having a follow-up conversation, once the craziness of the holidays and year-end reporting is behind them.  In order to make the conversation productive for both parties, it is important that you stagger your attempts to contact these professionals over the next few weeks, respecting their time and focusing on the things you can do to support them rather than looking for them to help you. 

If you are a job seeker, the New Year is a great time to review your contact list and “sphere of influence”.  Identify the unique value you offer and be prepared to facilitate introductions to your network.  Circle back to those you haven’t spoken with in 1-2 months; rekindle the relationships with those you haven’t connected with in 3-6 months; and determine whether or not it makes sense to reach out to the people you haven’t talked to since the early part of last year.   Analyze your networking activities and determine which events and groups were the most productive – hopefully you’ve been tracking your results from the beginning but if not, now is the time to start!  Any group that has not provided valuable contacts or market intelligence should be removed from your list and replaced with new organizations.  Remember to spend most of your time at groups that are geared towards working professionals rather than attending 3 or 4 “in transition” groups every month.  It is also a great time to follow up with companies you interviewed with during the past year.  Their business and/or hiring needs may have changed since you last connected and your follow up will demonstrate your continued interest in working for their organization.

For sales professionals, January is the perfect time to develop new campaigns, focus groups and presentations, providing real value to your prospects.  Analyze your referral sources from 2009 and determine which contacts were responsible for referring quality leads.  More importantly, which leads actually converted to sales? Did you receive any leads from larger networking organizations or were they the result of your 1-on-1 coffee meetings with your “sphere of influence”?  What type of professional provided the best leads – business owners, attorneys, CPAs, bankers? With all of the buzz around Social Media in 2009, it is important to calculate your ROI - compare the amount of time you spent on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to the number of leads you actually received from these sources.  Is it truly a good use of your time to continue working with these online tools? Perhaps it would be beneficial to hire an intern to manage your social media activities.

Finally, for the financial, operations, human resources, marketing, engineering, IT or general management professionals, 2010 is the year to take stock of your situation.  How did your company treat its employees during the recession? Did your firm effectively communicate its goals, vision and plans for surviving the downturn?  When was the last time you gave, or received, a review?  We expect to see a much higher rate of voluntary turnover in 2010 – i.e. your A Players will be leaving to join other businesses.  Now is the time to reconnect with your team in hopes of retaining your top talent.  Additionally, those of you who find yourselves disenfranchised by your employer’s lack of communication, loyalty and appreciation, it’s time to dust off your resume, update your LinkedIn profile and prepare for that phone call from another company or recruiter. 

 

Continued in next column >