I have written about this before but as I was spending a few minutes on Scot’s CubeRules blog I saw this post: Move your career assets to your personal systems
In the past I’ve heard people recommend that even if you use a CRM (if you are in sales, you should have a CRM), you should put your contacts into JibberJobber.
Why? Because let’s say you spend a year or more developing professional relationships. In the olden days, this would be referred to as you “book of business.” People get hired because of their book of business! It’s that valuable.
My argument is that you have spent weeks, months, maybe years on these relationships. They started out as professional relationships, but eventually you talk about the family, vacations, hobbies… and they become personal relationships.
When you leave your company, all of your contacts’ information stays in the company CRM, and it is their property.
But does that mean that you need to sever the relationships you’ve made? Sometimes you’ll have a clause in your agreement to not reach out to them, or not sell them competitive stuff. But many times you should reach out to them… you just wont have their information.
Scot makes the case to make sure you get all of your career assets from your soon-to-be-old company before you don’t have access to those systems. I want to make the argument that, starting today, no matter when you leave your company, you should use JibberJobber. It is the networking and career management system to help you manage those contact relationships!
This is great advice and helps to layoff-proof your career and maintain contacts. I’ve spoken to so many sales professionals over the years who’ve lost them all and had to start over.