Walk
Dylan Conroy
Host of The Ad podcast where I interview the c suite from brands, agencies, media company's, ad & brand tech, influencers and thought leaders as I give myself a MBA in marketing, also known to make the CRM go BRRR ??????
As sellers, we tend to be mobile a lot of the time. I'm constantly driving, in the back of an Uber, on a train or in the subway. I've found ways to be productive in almost any form of travel via mobile devices or desktop, but I also get tremendous value out of walking.
Next time you have a meeting, do a Google Maps search and see if it’s under an hour walk. If it is, try hoofing it. It’s a great way to do a little tourism while you are in a city for business. You see things that you normally wouldn't while you have your head down in the back of a car.
From a sales perspective, you will often walk by companies that you hadn't thought of calling on. You can even pop in and ask to talk to someone in business development for a few minutes. A lot of agencies tend to be clustered around one another.
A few weeks ago, I decided to walk from the Bart Station in Oakland to an agency meeting. It was about a 45 minute walk, but it gave me time to think, some much needed exercise, fresh air. As I walked, I passed by the headquarters of Pixar Animation and Peet's Coffee. My company has done business with Pixar prior to me coming on board. I quickly pulled up my Pixar contacts on Linkedin and did some opportunistic outreach since I was in town.
You can also use the walk for the meeting. One of my favorite meetings was meeting a friend from Horizon at CES at 7:30AM at his hotel and walking down the strip to the convention center to pick up our badges. What a great way to start a show like CES!