A great relationship with an industry decision maker can help your career immensely. We’ll give you some pointers on how best to approach decision makers, and how to maintain a relationship with them, and when not to share your work.
Talking to decision makers is hard enough but knowing when you should even approach them is even more harrowing. Below are some tips on when you should take it to the top and contact the decision maker.
When You’ve Exhausted Your Options
In life, conflict is bound to arrive in every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s our job or social lives, we have to be prepared to deal with conflict. If you have an issue with someone, take it to them first. If the issue persists you call in higher authorities. Explain to your higher authority, whether it’s a supervisor or the owner of a club you to play gigs at, the issue at hand and the steps you’ve taken to rectify the situation with the individual. Decision makers are generally busy people. Keep that in mind before you run straight to the top with your problem. Take a second to breathe and make sure your issue is valid before running to the higher-ups.
It’s like writing an email when you’re upset and then letting it sit in the draft folder for a day. When you open that same email the next day and are so glad you didn’t press send on a raged-filled message to your boss.
But when you’ve all you can do with to try and rectify a situation and it isn’t working, sometimes you have to take the problem upstairs to the bigwigs. A pro tip is to have solutions ideas ready to present during your sit down.
In Regards to Money
Typically decision makers are in charge of the money. If you have a question regarding billing, payments, etc. they are probably the best people to talk to unless another person has been designated to handle such things.
One More Tip
It’s important to know when you should contact the higher-ups but it’s just as important to know when to hold off. For entertainers, it can be hard to get your art into the right hands. You shouldn’t send your material to executives because it’s very unlikely they will even take a glance look at it. It’s actually viewed as unsolicited material. That sounds harsh but it’s true.
Example
A fan recounted the time she gave her demo to Blake Shelton. He signed it and passed it on to another fan.
Like we mentioned above, people in power are busy. They receive so many requests a day that your masterfully crafted artwork will most likely get lost in their deep sea of emails. Go through the proper channels to get your art seen and heard. It’s an uphill battle but worth it in the end when you’ve made it.