We all know that things tend to get shut down during the holidays. Even though it’s hard to get in touch with someone, it’s important that we don’t wait until January, just because people are busy during the holidays.
In my last company we had two major efforts going on. One was developing our software, and the other was marketing and sales. The sales cycle was anywhere from 6 months to more. At one point, one of the executives said that we should shut down sales and marketing, and focus on development for a year. After that year, we could pick up sales and marketing efforts. The math on that proposal made no sense at all. Basically, he was saying to stop the marketing/sales machine from generating anything for 18+ month (12 months for development (we all know that no software project is done by the projected date) and another 6 months to work someone through the sales cycle. Oh, I should mention: just because I said the sales cycle was anywhere *from* 6 months doesn’t mean that the average was 6 months. Some of the prospects had been in talks with us for over a year. That means that this guy’s plan would have stopped all revenue to our company for a solid two years.
Doesn’t make sense, does it?
Well, as job seekers, that is what we are doing when we stop networking during November and December. We try to get back in front of the right people by January, but you already know that’s a tough proposition. You have too many people to get in front of and are a tad disorganized… and they are just settling into their new year, new strategy, new challenges. You didn’t just delay your communication for two months… you delayed your networking results for two months plus weeks or months.
Don’t do that.
In the U.S., next week is a big holiday weekend where most of your contacts will be out from Wednesday through the following Monday. So take advantage of this, and reach out to them THIS WEEK. They’ll reply and say “I’ll get back to you the week after Thanksgiving…”, which is JUST FINE. Better to get that response than “I’ll get back to you in January.
This is the week. Make the call. Send the email.