Pump every meeting for industry information. In most meetings -- especially sales meetings -- people become obsessed with getting their own messages out. Listening and responding to information and anxieties almost have to be active goals, says Crawford, or else they can be forgotten. "It's the probing and listening approach, and it seems to be sorely lacking in American industry. Actually asking questions like, What kind of growth plans do you have?"
Crawford also solicits an evaluation of Brook: What could the company be doing better? "We'll ask, 'What could we be doing differently to help you?' We ask it that way, instead of asking, 'Are we doing well?' or something where they could give a yes or no answer -- and the answers we get are fascinating. People will let us know they want different kinds of furniture offered. Or they'll ask us why we offer two-day delivery and not one-day, and we'll be able to educate them on why we make certain trade-offs." The question also becomes a way of gauging how the services and offerings of competitors are influencing the expectations of Brook's customers.
Debrief immediately, with a critique. "We'll stand around outside or go to the car, and we'll talk first about how we did. Sometimes the meeting was a disaster. And we'll figure out what we might have done differently; I hate to talk about what didn't work. I talk about opportunity here. What could be done better. And if the others are too careful about telling me what I did wrong, I'll come out and tell them my comments were too long, that I talk about listening but I wasn't listening."
Listen, too, to your people. Talking with staff, especially staff in the field, is another forum for conducting industry research. And dedicating blocks of time -- four hours per contact, minimum -- affords a unique opportunity for feedback and candid information. "The accuracy of what you see and what you feel will be far greater in person," says Crawford. "People on the phone will be more guarded; people in groups are going to be restrained and more careful. But if I'm moving in the field and we're driving from one call to another for hours at a time, I know that in the course of the day I'll know more about what they're feeling."
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Even if it's hard to argue with his results -- lower turnover and better productivity from his people, and a better market sense for himself -- Bob Crawford's passion for travel surpasses that of most CEOs. More common is the sentiment of Jimmy Calano, CEO of CareerTrack, a $65-million company that employs 400 people and puts on 6,000 half-day to two-day skill-training seminars a year internationally: "My number one piece of advice about travel? Don't go."
While conceding his bias and contending that much networking and deal making can be done via phone, voice mail, fax, and overnight mail, Calano is not Crawford's strategic alter ego. He agrees there are irrefutable benefits to being "out there." He spends road time meeting with major partners -- for example, the Tom Peters Group, whose seminars CareerTrack manages -- or going to sit in the audience of a CareerTrack program every few months to do quality control, or attending a trade conference to look for new ideas.
Part of the benefit is purely emotional: "We all want to connect with people," admits Calano. "And we justify it and rationalize it because we're human." The other part is more pragmatic: a personal presence leaves a bigger impression. "Ask executives why they ultimately make many of their decisions," says Calano, "and in the end they'll say it wasn't the facts, it was how they felt about it. Emotion drives decisions probably more than anything."
One thing Calano is evangelical about is that the key to travel is to travel smart. Calano may be the most organized person in the universe, so that when he takes a trip -- generally once or twice a month, for two to four days at a time -- no moment or opportunity is wasted. Here's what he does to make his time work for him.
Assess the necessity of the trip. "If I'm going to a seminar or a conference, in my mind I'm looking for a $10,000 idea per day, whether it's in cost savings or revenue generation," says Calano. "If I'm making a sales presentation, the piece of business has to produce $100,000 or more. I know the value of my time -- every year I try to calculate that value, because it helps me evaluate how I spend it."
And he explicitly will ask if a visit is necessary. "I'll say, 'I'm willing to make this trip, but is it the best use of your time? Do you have two or three hours to give me if I come?' "
Bring people who can help you or whom you can help. "If I'm going to a convention or a meeting, I try to figure out who stands to learn the most by monitoring or being a party to the event or just trailing along for the ride. Or I'll bring someone who can add the most value to the sales call or presentation or whatever the purpose of the trip is. That could be a tech specialist, or it could be a CareerTrack veteran."
See if you can leverage the trip. Calano keeps a rough list of people in his Rolodex, organized by the city they're in, so that he can quickly check if there's someone he ought to visit while he's in the area.
Organize pretravel details. Calano's assistant developed a mini-itinerary that she types up and staples to his plane-ticket jacket; included are his flight numbers and times, hotel and airport-transportation information, and notes about whether his mail and newspapers are being picked up at his home. "I live and die by that. It's just a little trick that's worked like a charm; I can find all my vital information very quickly." He also makes sure he has fax numbers for everywhere he'll be, so he can let people know how to reach him.
Pack smart. Calano has a list of all the items he could possibly need on a business trip taped to his closet door, to use as a checklist when he's packing. "I spend one to two hours packing, even for a three-day trip. The reason is that I mentally go through the trip, not quite every hour, but morning, afternoon, and evening, thinking about whom I'm going to be with. And my list: this sounds compulsive and fanatic, but I was so tired of having to go down to the gift shop at 6 o'clock in the morning, unshaven and having to buy a razor."
Leave the day before. Calano has a clear preference for arriving the evening before a meeting. "It reduces my stress level and makes me fresher; I'm not excited about waking up at 4 in the morning, racing to the airport, going through that hassle, and showing up disheveled and exhausted, with my system out of whack. Maybe it's a luxury I give myself as a CEO that some people with tighter schedules simply can't afford. I can, and I choose to."
