February 2009
Extra
Tightened Travel Spending Means Less In-Person Meetings
Looking to reduce overhead, many companies are restricting the amount of money employees can spend on travel and other expenses. For some distributor salespeople this means less face-to-face meetings.
Many distributors began cutting back on personal visits during the summer when gas prices reached a threshold of pain. Others began better organizing their sales calls so they would hit clients in the same area, thus avoiding multiple trips. These habits have remained even as gas prices have waned, thanks to a reluctance to spend money in what could be a difficult revenue year. So much so that one distributor who has five sales reps criticized his staff for not getting back out on the road.
Still, a number of factors have allowed distributors to stay put. Mike Koop, co-owner of MBK Promotions (asi/257911), says, “Everything is word-of-mouth. We get referrals all of the time so we don’t need to be in the car a lot.” Koop estimates he meets with clients once or twice a year to maintain relationships and will take advantage of meeting face-to-face when delivering merchandise to his end-users.
Pat Elfering, owner of PJ’s Enterprises (asi/288941), agrees with Koop. “I do so much repeat business, people come to me.”
Koop says having a showroom helps draw clients in, while Elfering maintains a storefront in her 3,000-person town near Minnesota. The Web has also reduced the necessity of the pressing-the-flesh sales call, says Koop. “People see our Web site and ask can I get something like this? We use a lot of e-mail.” The one exception is apparel sales. “The only time I make personal sales calls anymore is for wearables. People still like to see that in person.”
Larger corporations like Accenture, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard are increasingly looking to the Web as a place to hold their meetings or they are opting to use videoconferencing. The trend is taking hold not only because of economic constraints, but also because the technology has vastly improved. A report late last year by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative and the Climate Group estimated that 20% of global business could be substituted with videoconferencing and Web-based meeting software.
Because ad specialties tend to be a relationship-based business, such technology may not be the answer. Barb Heiber, president of BP Promotions (asi/129404), believes it is good to do more face-to-face meetings when the economy is bad. “It’s just the better thing to do now,” she says. “You need to keep steady contact to see what their needs are and try to help them.”
Instead of cutting back on travel, she is reducing her direct mail spend because of the high cost of postage and shipping. Rather than mail it, “I’ll service anyone in a hundred miles [in-person],” she says. “It’s easier for me because my clients like me.”
Ken Hein is an NJ-based freelance writer.
