Sometimes It's Worth Travelling 5,000 Miles for a 5 Minute Meeting

Sometimes It’s Worth Travelling 5,000 Miles for a 5 Minute Meeting

I re-learned this lesson shortly before the holidays.  We’re negotiating a big deal with a company out on the west coast, and we were at a tense and critical spot in the negotiations.  I knew that the only way to move the deal forward to a handshake and a term sheet was to meet face to face with the decision makers on the other side of the table, in person. 

So I got on a plane.  It wasn’t my first choice of activities, and although I was able to work a couple of other meetings into the trip, the trip was a long way to go for a really short meeting.  But it was 100% worthwhile, with a very specific mission accomplished.

As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, it’s important to be "Present AND Accounted For" in business settings, and with everyone’s busy schedules and increasingly frenzied and multi-tasking office environments, it’s harder than ever to really get someone’s attention.  There’s just no substitute for looking someone in the eye and doing a real handshake, not a virtual one.