Travelling Sales Day for Me

As you may or may not know I am a partner in a venture that is currently creating an innovative inventory solution for the agriculture business. This came about more or less because I knew someone who has an inventory software venture and he was looking for his first customer and naturally since my Dad is well known in the agriculture circles and knows many ag businesses, I partnered with him (and for other reasons explained in a future blog). Well today we are demonstrating and pitching the solution to a company based out of Woodstock. People seem fairly excited about the solution both on my team and at the company we are pitching it to so, so far so good.

Now, I am not sure how many readers have to make sales calls so to speak. It is actually a welcomed thing if it occurs on occasion, otherwise it can just be a pain in the ass. I mean in one way it's nice to drive down to meet with potential clients. Generally travelling can be fun, even if it only involves driving down the 401, but equally so are the little perks that are associated with sales calls, like resturant eating on the business's tab. Depending on where you have to travel, you may go to places in the world that are interesting. Take me, I have to do a sales call in Cleveland this February and the travel will allow me to go to and see interesting places I wouldn't normally otherwise have (like the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland). Today it is handy that I go down to Woodstock for the sales call as Waterloo is nearby and hence I can visit my friends!

The downsides are certainly there if either the travel is too long/tiring, or if the amount of sales calls occurs frequently, i.e. you are travelling frequently. I mean being on the road n number of weeks in a year is typically when you know you have it over your head. Try managing and running any functional business when you are constantly on the road. It is hard to make key business decisions when you are on the road and away from the office (and hence the people that make up your venture). I can recall driving down to a Ford plant many times in a week and it being tiring, (and not to mention expensive when it comes to gas!) Travelling can also be annoying if you are going to a venture you don't know exactly where it is located. Nothing is worse showing up 15 or 30 minutes late because the businesses is off several small streets in London, that's happened to me before. You also have to deal with traffic and road conditions and in London that means making many illegal turns on Wellington Road to make a left hand turn! Oh well, just my thoughts...