Originally Posted by
Stinger6
I also had a lengthy and successful (9/11 downturn induced) sales career as an intermission during my aviation "career." Zoom sucks. It's a bandage, not a replacement. Looking a client in the eye and getting a signature on a contract is not replaced with a web chat. Business travelers will be back, in only slightly reduced numbers. When? Dunno.
Spot on. Seems I remember a United commercial. Head of sales. Told his team things were down. Time to get out of the office and go visit their clients in person. For them, telephone calls only went so far. He handed out tickets. They asked him about the big client, old friend who had reminded him about it, who was cutting them off. He waved a ticket. He was going there to visit him, himself.
Even with email and Zoom, cementing a deal and building a solid relationship can only be done looking them in the eye, right across the table, over dinner, and out on the golf course.