The Roadwarrior
We recently completed a survey that showed each SE spending an average of 10% of their time traveling on the job. This is 4-5 hours per week! And some individuals were much higher. The smaller your company, the more likely you are to blow out that number as your territories are bigger.
Given that much down time, how much time do we spend planning to maximize it? After all it’s pretty easy to default back to slipping in a DVD or listening to some tunes.
Correctly done, plane time can be some of your most productive time even without internet access. Here’s some activities to consider.
- Review training material – Download podcasts and training videos ahead of time so you can review later. Especially if you’ll be in the car, you may need to convert the format to something you can play over your speakers. Not all tools record in ipod format by default. There are plenty of freeware tools that can help.
- Fire up the lab – If you’re in the position of selling software, now is your chance to fire up your virtual machine and get some lab time in.
- Prepare for your meeting – Fine tune your presentation/demo/etc. You can rehearse to yourself, add some speaker notes, go over the key players in your account, plan for objections, etc.
- Update your CRM – I always found I got through this much easier if there weren’t other things pressing on my schedule. If you’re lucky enough to have an offline client even better. Even jotting down a text list of the weeks activities to copy/paste when you land is a good start.
- Write up a trip report or case study – If you’ve had a noteworthy customer visit that might be of interest to others, jot it down and share or publish in your company’s KM.
- Clear the inbox – For me having an empty inbox is a great stress reducer. Try the Outlook 3-step: Reply, file, or delete.
- Catch up on your feeds/books - I’ve got some excellent suggestions here. If you’re not already using a feedreader for the websites, now is a good time to start collecting some great reading material. Most have offline capabilities.
- Reassess your goals – You can be as general or specific as you like. Take some time to plan out your quarter with top opps and the like. Try some whitespace analysis, run your accounts through your sales methodology, make some to-call lists, etc.
- Update your standard deck(s) – This is important if you have a larger portfolio. Take some time to keep all your standard decks updated and fresh. You never want to be stuck off-guard with an interested prospect and a standard corporate deck when s/he asks to see more info on other product.
- Document your process – Larger SE organizations will provide a lot of standard demo/eval documentation you can use with your customers. Smaller ones may not have gotten that far. Either start documenting your approach (sharing your best practice) or adding back to the collective.
- Work on your “image” – I’ve talked before about the need to specialize and dominate your niche. Take some time to write that whitepaper, update your blog (or contribute toward others’), or perform some research in your virtual lab.
- Clean up that digital rat’s nest – Your laptop is often your most valuable tool. Take some time to keep it “well oiled”. Delete some old files, add some encryption, defrag, reorganize your important files to keep them at close reach, use a registry cleaner, run a deep security/adware sweep, or add that software you’ve been meaning to try.
Sometimes relaxation or other hobby is the best use of your time. When you’re in the mood to get some work done and you find yourself in a lobby or airport without internet access, know that it doesn’t have to be unproductive.
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Filed under: Productivity
