Holiday Sourcing

[Maureen Sharib]

The Fourth of July approaches and we sourcers all know what that means – one of our better sourcing opportunities draws near! Customers “in the know” understand that getting their “holiday orders” in early will assure a spectacular fireworks of names when they themselves return to work after the festivities. As summer advances some folks may be re-thinking their employment options and maybe it’s not such a bad time to be offering opportunities – after all, if you don’t have it "on the shelf” you sure as heck can’t sell it, right?

Some of the behavior that fuels all this busyness in our industry is the simple fact that while the cats are away the mice do play! Sourcers understand that while others are away “merry-making”, opportunity abounds in the emptied halls of corporate America. Knowing that many people will take advantage of a holiday like July 4th by turning the approaching holiday into a five day hiccup as offices empty the preceding Wednesday and Thursday through the following Tuesday, sourcers can be assured the week approaching and the weeks after (they forget to change their VoiceMails when they come back to work!) a holiday VoiceMails will be loaded with information hotter than a cherry bomb.

“Hi, this is Joe Smith – I’ll be back in the office on July 7; in my absence if this is a quality issue call Pete Jones at xxx xxx xxxx and if this is a test issue call the Test Manager at Susan Wheeler at xxx xxx xxxx and if this is a delivery issue call my manager Mike Kincaid at xxx xxx xxxx and if all this fails call my Admin - she usually ALWAYS answers - at xxx xxx xxxx.”

VoiceMails can be the darnedest, most revealing things!

Regular receptionists may also be away during this time as well, replaced by lesser experienced gatekeepers so experienced sourcers adjust their approaches during promising times like these. A “temp” is very likely to confess to you that she is just that to explain her lack of knowledge/skill and many of them are more easily “influenced” – shall we say?

Lonely Security Guards can be not-too-pleased that they’re the only ones required to keep watch at this time of year over extremely valuable information (after all, what’s MORE valuable to a company than their employees? Really?) and some of their angst can be consoled in the simplest ways. You’d be surprised how many of them have access to corporate directories and if they don’t, how much is stored in their heads from long years of service. The human brain is a computer too, you know.

These are just a few of the many reasons holidays are so productive for sourcing – batten down your hatches sourcers –we’re coming into one of the busiest opportunity times we see in this business. Customers, get your orders primed and delivered to your sourcers – many of them welcome this time-consuming work at this time of year (remember the Introvert theory?) It gives some of them a welcome excuse NOT to attend those holiday get-togethers.

Happy sourcing!