Every week, I get one or two calls from industry friends asking me for the same favor – “Hey Jeff, a good friend of mine just lost their job. Would you mind speaking to them?” I almost always say “yes” to these requests and have developed some great friendships out of these conversations. Most of these conversations follow the same pattern: I spend lots of time listening to their “situation” and credentials while offering some insight into how to best move forward. I’m sure that they are networking like mad and calling all their friends having similar conversations. The problem isn’t the first conversation I have with these individuals; it’s the third, fourth, or fifth conversation. What ends up happening is these newly unemployed folks have “friends” in the industry, and after calling them a few times, there is little purpose to the calls, except “I’m checking-in. Have you heard of any new opportunities?” While there might be more to these conversations, the underlying motivation is finding a job. As time goes on, their visibility becomes less relevant, and they start to fall off the radar. It’s a sad observation, but true. The unfortunate reality is we do not have lots of real friends in the industry. By the way, my definition of “real friends” is people that would sacrifice some portion of their own well-being (money, time, etc.) for your benefit.
So now these folks are unemployed for months with no real relevancy. To make matters worse, the pool of unemployed folks in the financial service industry continues to rapidly grow, causing anyone’s relevancy to be diluted. After I observed this “relevancy-cycle,” I started to change the tone of my conversations. While I am more than happy to listen to their situations and background, I now spend lots of time explaining to them how the “relevancy-cycle” will play out and the importance of trying to stay relevant. You don’t want to be the person that keeps making “check-in” calls in the hopes that something will come up. Remember that for every “check-in” call you make to your friends; other unemployed folks are doing the same thing. After a while, they will let your calls go to voice mail, and you will get a text apologizing for missing your call.
Now, during these conversations, I stress the importance of staying “top of mind,” and it’s all about providing content. People will always pick-up your call or meet with you if you can provide insight. The question now becomes, “what is the best vehicle to deliver content?” This all depends on how you interface with these “friends.” If you are unemployed, it becomes challenging to expect these folks to consistently pick up the phone and listen to your ideas, observations, insights, etc. It HAS to be done on their time, not yours. In an effort to stay relevant, you should formalize your content and push-it-out so they can read it/listen to it on their terms. Why not write a blog, why not record a 2-3-minute audio clip, why not host a podcast with a guest? Why not start a website that houses all this content? Given the current pandemic, people are starving for content. They are spending more time on social media platforms, like LinkedIn, than ever before, and you should take advantage of this opportunity. But remember, people like to “pull” content on their terms – they want to decide when to read a blog, listen to a podcast, or go to LinkedIn to see what’s new. What they do not want is constant calls from people asking for favors. If you provide good, sought after content, then you will stay “top of mind,” which is the ultimate goal when looking for work.
The “relevancy cycle” I mentioned above also applies to employed sales folks. While you have the luxury to continually conduct “check-in” calls, you should also realize that the overwhelming growing trend is that your clients and prospects want to read and listen to your content on their terms. Send customized emails so they can read them at their leisure. Your firm should be creating weekly blogs, both investment-related and sales-related, and have a formal distribution plan, so they get distributed from your email address to a specified list of clients and prospects. Content is king, but the delivery mechanism dictates how well it will be received.
Good Luck and stay safe!