Hitting the Road: Mindful Business Travel in a Post-COVID World

Due to my current job search I have been in many meetings with employers and although much about the working world has changed in response to COVID, some of the same questions are being asked. I'm most interested in unpacking: "How comfortable are you with travel?" That question has been asked as long as cars have been driving and planes have been flying. Historically speaking, the common perception has been that being physically in front of the client, either prospective or current, is vital to doing business, and particularly important to closing new business.

Pre-COVID, I was in the position of being both the salesperson and the client. As a salesperson, I spent most of my time on the road. I routinely racked up enough frequent flier miles and hotel points to subsidize many personal vacations. Attractive as that was for bragging rights amongst salespeople (the book and movie “Up in the Air”nailed it perfectly), that level of travel was overkill and counterproductive from a time and relationship management perspective.

I didn't appreciate just how much overkill it was until I moved into a well-funded state university system position with the word "partnerships" in my title. As one might imagine, this attracted vendor salespeople like bees to honey. I was the recipient of many emails that began with "I am planning to be in town in a couple of weeks, can I take you to lunch?" or something similar. Because I had spent my career in sales and had used similar tactics, I always tried to take the meeting - at least at the beginning. As our business picked up, I quickly realized I didn't have time for these lunches/coffees/chats. My calendar was full of meetings with my internal team about items with tight deadlines, and I could only take the time out to meet with someone if we were confident we wanted to partner with them.

And that's when the lightbulb went off: not one of those casual requests for a meeting ever ended in us doing business together.

Let me be clear: Face-to-face time is essential, as is traveling to make it happen. I have no problem doing it. I love it, in fact. I am a true extrovert: I get my energy from others, and nothing can replace that in-person connection…as long as it happens at the right time.

So now, when asked how comfortable I am with travel, I honestly answer it: I have no problem with travel and even look forward to it, but there must be a compelling business reason for it to occur.

Here are a few of the questions I ask myself before requesting an in-person meeting with a prospective or current client:

●?????Do they want to meet with me? – The concept of "comfort" is crucial, especially in the aftermath of COVID, and it's important to be respectful of people's feelings about being face-to-face; I just come right out and ask how my partners feel about it with the explicit understanding that I will support whatever works best for them.

●?????Will a face-to-face meeting move the business forward? – This is a simple one but often overlooked. Does the client need you there for a presentation before closing the deal, as showing up would illustrate a more significant commitment? Are there terms to review in person so a deal can be solidified? Is a conference happening and it's a natural opportunity to meet when you are both together (even if it is in the same town)? Ideally, I want the client to look forward to our in-person meeting; this should be the start or continuation of a valued partnership. ‘

●?????Will I show up as my best self? –If I miss my child's big event , my mother's important doctor's appointment or being with a sick pet in their last days, I will be distracted, and that is not in the client's best interest. ?I have made that mistake before and still regret it today. Could it have been done over Zoom or on another day? Had I been honest with the client, would they not have understood? Now, more than ever, there is respect and empathy for one another's lives outside of our jobs, and we should continue to allow for that – on both sides.?This is one of the valuable lessons we learned during Covid.

Finally, the meeting tools at our disposal now allow us much greater flexibility and "face-time" without having to hop on a plane and schedule meetings in person. It enables the salesperson the opportunity to see the client (read their body language, make eye contact, SMILE), and it allows the client a discrete amount of time (typically only 30 minutes for initial meetings) to meet with potential vendor partners and then get back to the rest of their day. COVID made it so that we had to continue doing business and closing deals despite keeping our physical distance from one another, and look what happened: we did it!

That being said, there is a renewed appetite for that in-person connection that many of us feel and look forward to establishing again, just with a more mindful approach.