And so, this is Christmas. What have you done? Your head’s full of eggnog and whether you’ve hit your targets or not, nothing you do now will change things before year-end. But beware that checking out too heavily during the festive season can result in some serious BD blunders that could haunt you well into the new year!
So what are these BD blunders recruiters need to avoid over the festive period?
The half-conscious sign off
Email blunders happen all the time (we’ve all been there!) but it’s inevitable that they get particularly frequent at this time of year.
Your emails (or ‘flee-mails’ as our Head of Accounts likes to call them!) can take a dramatic turn for the ridiculous when you’re reaching the end of a long year, going for Christmas lunches every day and reaching the point that you’re just desperate for some much-needed rest.
You’re already starting to lose focus whilst frantically trying to get those last few emails shot out before you leave for Christmas break, and next thing you know you’re signing off emails with ‘Best Washes’ and ‘xxx’ to prospects!
My favourite semi-conscious sign off this year has to be from our Head of Growth, Cammy who signed off an email to a client that was intended as an apology for rescheduling a call with ‘Apologies for the incontinence’! *facepalm*
The standard social media fail
We all love sharing what we’re getting up to at this time of year across social media, with all the Christmas jumper-wearing, office parties and client gift-sending going on.
But whilst it’s great to give candidates, clients and prospects an insight into your company culture and use Christmas as a way of promoting your agency (and personal) brand, there are tonnes of potential social media disasters just waiting to happen at this time of year.
For example, writing LinkedIn comments or statuses when you’re a bit well-oiled telling clients how much you love working with them, or posting your drunken Christmas photos on your branded work social media accounts instead of your personal ones. Ouch!
My favourite social media fail from last Christmas was when I was heading back from an awards ceremony with our Chief Fish, Wendy – both a little worse for wear to say the least – only to be told when we arrived in to the office the following morning that Wendy had accidentally published a private email as a tweet during the ceremony!
Luckily the content of the email was acceptable for public viewing, and it gave us all a laugh (this time round)!
The out-of-office booboo
Setting your email out of office is an annoying last-minute chore that’s easy to mess up or even forget to do entirely. So, when you’re signing off to finish up for Christmas, don’t wait to set your out of office until you're half way out the door or up to the eyeballs in mulled wine on your couch.
It’s far too easy to end up putting out an OOO riddled with typos if you’re in a rush, or worse – accidentally setting your internal OOO as an external message that goes straight to clients, candidates and basically everyone you don’t want to be telling that you're off getting fat and drunk and don’t plan on checking your emails or doing any work for the foreseeable future. It’s an easy mistake to make so be careful with this!
One of my personal favourite instances of an out-of-office booboo was when our CEO Wendy set hers last Christmas to say ‘I will get back to you intimately’ instead of ‘imminently’. You’d get a few interesting responses to that!
The unfinished business development call
A lot of laughs happen around the office at this time of year. We have our Christmas jumper days, our official and unofficial boozy Christmas parties and lunches, and the result is that we tend to kick off for the afternoon and get on our jollies whilst still on the office clock.
But the danger with this is that we spend a lot of our time on the phone, and this leaves us vulnerable to making mistakes. So, if you’re going to make calls on the last office day before Christmas holidays, at least get them done first thing so you don’t hit the giggles mid conversation or offend anyone!
So whilst you deserve to wind down after a long, busy year - stay conscious and avoid these blunders! Have you got any festive slip-ups like these to share? Tell us in the comments below!
