| When
you work with large commercial clients, multiple
contacts are as key as meaningful ones.
Business by Design
this month suggests you focus on the quantity
as well as quality of your contacts.
THIS MONTH:
+ When Your Buddy Goes Bye-Bye
+The Deeper the Better
+ When Your Buddy Goes Bye-Bye
For years you work with a big client-- a firm
responsible, say, for hospitals, or banks or shopping
malls.
The design projects and the orders and the money
keep pouring in. You couldn't be happier.
One day, your key contact -- the person who brought
you in - - quits.
The company never hires you again.
Whose fault is that?
It's great to have a key contact at a corporate
client. But that's not enough.
A key contact can get reassigned.
Or get fired.
Or retire.
Or die.
If you haven't connected with others at the firm,
then see ya later.
You're gone, too.
+The Deeper the Better
Your future with a corporate client depends on how
many people in the company you know -- and how many
know you.
In this era of downsizing, outsourcing, turnover
and change, it pays to "go deep" within
the company.
Some tips on how to to do that:
Seek contacts from your contact
-- Ask the person who brought you in for names
of others you should know.
Aim high -- Request that all
of the senior managers and vice presidents attend
initial brainstorming sessions.
Gab with the Gatekeepers --
Network with office managers, secretaries, executive
assistants and others in tune with daily operations.
Bond with the Brass -- Seek
onging input throughout the project from top decisionmakers
.
Play Pool -- Set up your "next
shot" by discussing additional projects and
other services you can provide.
You can never know too many people within the
company.
|
