Bringing out the Big Guns

Remember how when you were 20/21 and just graduating from college and everyone you know told you to "Network, Network, Network." But, if you were anything like me, you were sure you could do it on your own so you simply smiled, nodded, and then went about in your own blissful state of mind confident that someone would hire you into our dream position (which was never an entry-level position by the way) simply because you were you. How'd that work out for you?

Now, ten or so years later, I've learned that the best way to get anything done in this world is to tap into your network and use them to help you figure it out. Best of all, most people love to help people out so it's innate in most of us to network and help other people network. Nothing brings me more joy then being able to help an unemployed friend get a direct track into the HR department of the company of his dreams rather than just letting him send in his resume to the black hole of electronic resume filing.

In return, I use my network whenever I can which, for me, is usually to try and identify the right person/team within a company to whom I can talk to about possibly adding our product to their line. About a month ago I sent in samples to BIG company who had expressed interest in our products at a tradeshow. I've done two followups and still no news. Not all together surprising but at the same time, as crazy as this may sound, I'm losing that window of opportunity to get into a BIG company for Holiday Season 2009. As such, I've tapped into my network to try and find the right contact within another BIG company (actually BIG Company #1's competitor). Truthfully, my product line probably plays better in BIG Company #2 so I'd love to get the product in front of them and see what they have to say. And while I don't necessarily expect either company to decide they want the product, I figure like the lottery, you can't win if you don't play.