According to JOLTS (the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey), the average rate of job turnover is about 47%. About 35% leave voluntarily their jobs and about 12% are laid off or otherwise terminated. These statistics suggest that there’s a lot of movement in personnel in companies. When personnel in companies you deal with change, it’s challenging to re-establish relationships and ensure your own business continuity. Many of those employees had been with their companies for years or even decades, and now your contact at a business customer or with a vendor may be gone. As it was said in Ghostbusters: “Who ya gonna call?”
How can you create continuity?
Have a game plan
You need to be able to reach a new person, especially if that person is a decision-maker, so you can continue doing business with the company from which your old contact departed. Once you learn that your old contact is gone, act promptly.
- Find out who the replacement is. Ask your old contact, if appropriate, or query others in the company who can tell you the right person to reach out to. Perhaps assistants, team members, or department heads can help you. Review LinkedIn or the company website to see if there are new employees.
- Make contact. Once you have a name, send an introductory email or post a message on LinkedIn. Explain who you are and suggest a meeting or phone call to explain more. Don’t assume that the new contact knows who you are.
- Handle fallout. What happens in the interim until you can reestablish a relationship? Be prepared for hassles, lost sales, or other problems that will need to be resolved in the short term until you can recreate pathways for the long term.
You also want to take action when someone in your company leaves to set up new contacts for your customers and vendors. Don’t leave them hanging.
Think ahead
There’s a lot to do when an old contact leaves. Thinking ahead, even if your contacts are all in place at this time, things could change and you can avoid the need to virtually start from scratch when an old contact leaves.
- Don’t rely on a single-point relationship. Build connections with others. Who is the assistant to your contact? Who are others within a department?
- Stay in touch with the departed contact. There may be opportunities to work with this person at another company. Or that person may return to the original company.
- Build additional relationships. Don’t rely on a single vendor or a big customer. Spread out and grow your activities.
Personal lessons
I’ve been in business for a long time, and the extensive change in personnel that I’ve experienced has taught me some valuable lessons:
- I’m more sensitive to how customers perceive changes in staff. Customers get used to dealing with certain people and change is difficult.
- I’m more proactive in following up on projects that have been left dangling. There may be no one at the other end to do this.
- I’m more philosophic about change in general. While I like my routine and have established many long-term relationships with people in other businesses, I recognize that things continually change, and I have to be flexible enough to handle what’s new.
Final thought
“Change is the law of life.” – John F. Kennedy
Be ready for change; accept that it’s going to happen. Who knows? Maybe it can be a positive thing. You may cultivate an even better relationship with a new person.
