The pandemic has presented personal and professional challenges across the world. Six months ago, we could call offices or meet on site, and connect with people working in a professional environment. Now, everyone has been forced to adopt virtual meeting tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, FaceTime, Facebook Groups, WebEx, Slack and others, presenting an opportunity for innovative technology leaders. The comfort of reliable internet and ergonomic workspaces in offices has been turned into makeshift workspaces and spotty Wi-Fi. Many people, including the majority of Leadership Connect clients, are busier than ever. While jobs data present a rocky picture, the job market is hot in several thriving industries. This presents a multitude of challenges in staying connected.
Leadership Connect’s data shows one thing has been constant during this pandemic: People are leaving high status positions. These vacancies and departures further challenge relationship building with stakeholders. As of Aug. 3, over 13% of federal positions were vacant while state & local governments had around 4% of positions open. There have been over 28,000 departures across federal & local government, companies, and nonprofits since March. These numbers continue to grow, and present many questions.
Leadership Connect can help you navigate the 5 W’s of staying connected.
Who do you connect with if your contact is on furlough or has moved on to another company?
Surrounding relationships is key to client management. Always get to know more than one point-of-contact, especially senior level executives. When you cannot reach your POC, begin your outreach from the top down. Using Leadership Networks, clients can map relationships and understand the strength of the connections based on our unique approach to scoring the relationship types from family relationships to association memberships and everything in between.
What happens when you cannot find a point-of-contact for your client or prospect?
Finding the right person (on the first try) through your own efforts can be time consuming and challenging. With Leadership Connect, the research is performed for you using primary-sourced data, and analysts who validate the information. You are more likely to get in the door and stay connected by finding out more about your client’s staff, including alma maters, career history, association memberships, board activities and personal networks. This information is key in starting conversations and is included in Leadership Connect. It is all about building relationships.
Where do you find the contact information for your customers and prospects?
Direct contact information is not always available from company websites or published content. Calling organizations typically results in “I’m sorry we don’t share that information.” With Leadership Connect, over 60 data scientists in New York and Washington do the research for you by using the latest technology, accepting only primary sources, validating the content, and doing boots-on-the-ground research. Recently, mobile contact information was added to Leadership Connect profiles. In the past, mobile numbers were sacred and only used in an emergency, but today many folks include their mobile in their signature as their preferred method of contact. Weekly briefings can give you a heads up on the revolving door, assisting in forging relationships with organizations and the people that run them.
When is the right time reach out?
Business hours still seem to be the best time to connect but most importantly, have a business reason to reach out and make the phone call first. Many people are finding that engagement with clients is stronger now in the virtual world.
Why do you need to stay connected?
The answer to this is obvious, it is easier to keep clients than get new ones, and you never know where your point of contact may go as they advance in their careers. A referral is always better than cold calling.
During this pandemic, each person has their own set of personal challenges from isolation to home office sharing and childcare. Connecting with people is more important than ever and, in most cases, a welcome conversation.
Make the phone calls today.
Leadership Connect is the premier information service built for developing relationships that impact decisions in government, business, and media. Using a combination of deep research expertise and cutting-edge technology, the service helps clients win business and influence policy across a wide range of industries.
Clients include nearly every U.S. government agency, many S&P 500 companies, and leading organizations in media, consulting, law, banking, and in the not-for-profit world. Marketing and business development teams benefit by surrounding existing relationships and finding new ones using the advanced search and list-building features. Senior leaders on-the-go tend to use the mobile app to stay connected and advance strategic priorities.
For more information, contact Juniper Thren at jthren@leadershipconnect.io, 703-346-4677 or request a demo today!
