I don’t see business travel returning in the same way—and especially not if your company’s sales force is actually GOOD at online meetings/communication. You can’t simply handle a zoom meeting like an in person appointment, and if your workforce isn’t adapting to best exploit the digital meeting platforms, you’ll be left in the dust. Better camera angles, slicker integration of video content/sample demos, better use of on screen info like titles, headers, etc.

It’s not going away: better get good at it, stat. Go hire some communications consultants to retrain your folks on how to sell in the digital realm.....the younger the buyers are, the more comfortable they are with zero F2F interaction.

This post was edited on 1/21/21 at 1:52 pm

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Posted by baldona

Florida

Member since Feb 2016

23453 posts

Posted on 1/21/21 at 4:59 pm to LSUfan20005

quote:
3.) Virtual meetings get rid of the constant booking of meeting space

Explain this? Virtual meetings with people at a desk suck. Constant back ground noise, connection issues, etc if you have a 10 person meeting with everyone in a different place. If you mean someone that doesn’t have a personal office, certainly. But are meeting rooms really in that high of demand? Especially if more people are wfh that frees up office space for meeting rooms.

Imo it all depends on where you are located. There’s plenty of people that are ready to get back to normal, and I think plenty of executives but they can’t due to liability and HR.

This post was edited on 1/21/21 at 5:01 pm

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Posted by Paul Allen

Montauk, NY

Member since Nov 2007

77880 posts

Posted on 1/21/21 at 7:43 pm to baldona

quote:
There’s plenty of people that are ready to get back to normal,

You’d think that 100% of salespeople being extroverted and sociable would be dying to get back out there but apparently this is not the case as several have mentioned on here that virtual meetings are going to be the norm.

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Posted by go ta hell ole miss

Member since Jan 2007

14581 posts

Posted on 1/21/21 at 8:55 pm to Teddy Ruxpin

quote:
I would think some will become low income or homeless housing in major metros.

That’s already a given in NYC. It’s already been happening for a while.

Homeless move in Upper West Side hotels

This post was edited on 1/21/21 at 9:06 pm

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Posted by baldona

Florida

Member since Feb 2016

23453 posts

Posted on 1/22/21 at 6:46 am to Paul Allen

quote:
You’d think that 100% of salespeople being extroverted and sociable would be dying to get back out there but apparently this is not the case as several have mentioned on here that virtual meetings are going to be the norm.

A lot of it is due to local politics though and feelings. There’s plenty of areas of the country people are over Covid, and plenty of areas people are still scared out of their minds and don’t want to leave their homes. I’m being serious about that. Furthermore, it’s not okay for many people to be vocal against WFH and virtual meetings so we are really only hearing one side. I certainly agree though it doesn’t matter if the salesman want to go if the buyer doesn’t want them, but again I think that can change quickly.

We need to consider local vendors will have a short term advantage too. If you are in Atl and one vendor is in Atl and one in Chicago, the local company would have a travel advantage for awhile before traveling is back to normal.

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