The "Glamour" of Business Travel

Everybody who knows me, knows that I am a salesman and I love what I do. First of all I'm really good at it and secondly I was born to do this job. Every report card and progress report that I ever received In school had one thing in common, they all said "excessive talking". So it's only natural that I now make my living by talking. A large part of sales is building trust with the customer, and that trust is built based on what I say. Now don't get me wrong, you have to have a great product, but largely when the client hands me the check they are doing so because of what I have said and the trust that they have in me. If I say the wrong thing, or something I say is different than what I've said, the deal goes south quickly.

Probably the part of my job that I enjoy the most is that I get to travel. It allows me to meet interesting people, see interesting places and make it such that I am not the person who has been chained to the same desk for 20 years doing the same things day after day. Its also much easier for a customer to buy from a person that the've been able to look in the eyes, rather than being an annoying voice on the other end of a phone.

Traveling for business is not glamorous, it is rather taxing. It is taxing both physically and emotionally, but I do love it...most of the time. I often forget the price my family pays for this part of my job. It affords us many luxuries like free flights and hotels, but there is also a downside. When I'm on the road, I'm not with my family. Hannah has to be Mommy and Daddy, and Mackenzie and Jackson don't understand why Daddy isn't home. I think it was a bit easier on them when we were closer geographically to family, but it was still hard. Poor Jackson has no male interaction in his life when I'm away. It's not glamorous, not at all.

So as I sit here in another airport, waiting for a 5.5 hour flight across the country, alone with my thoughts, I can only think of another night that Mackenzie and Jackson are going to sleep without their Daddy there to tuck them in. Another night that Hannah has to be Mommy and Daddy. Another night that I won't get home until the wee hours of the morning, and just in time to be home for a day before leaving again. I can only hope that my family understands and that Mackenzie, Jackson and Baby #3 don't resent me for the choices I've made. I hope that they always remember that Daddy loves them more than the moon and the stars, and that I've done and continue to do the best that I can to make sure that they have everything that they need.

The First Quarter is a memory, and the 2nd Quarter looks good....

So I can say that we've made it through the first quarter of 2011, and while it was not as good as I would have liked it wasn't bad. I was successful in closing my 2nd deal and several smaller engagements. Why is this good you ask, that's easy, it shows replicability and the fact that my big sale in January wasn't a fluke.

We are now on to the 2nd quarter, and it is looking like a big start. I have two deals that I am working on which I expect to be closed within the next couple of weeks and I will be assuming repsonsibiliy for an existing account that has a contractual upgrade of about $300,000 in commissionable revenue some time this year. On top of that, I am tracking already more than my quota's revenue if everything breaks the way that I think it will. I have been in this game long enough to know that things never break exactly the way that you think they will, but all in all these are encouraging signs.

On top of the work stuff, Hannah and I are really getting excited about the arrival of our 3rd child and looking forward to what the future holds. While moving to NYC 9 months ago, and shortly thereafter finding out that we were expecting again was a major shock - everything seems to have worked out for the best. This is a really big city, and when you are strugguling it seems even bigger. On the other hand when things are going well the city seems a little smaller, and a lot more welcoming. Here's to hoping that everything continues to go well, and that 2011 is the best year of our lives!