Sometimes it IS the Journey!

So, the jetlag has finally passed…I think. If you remember from our last blog, I spent 42 hours in a plane a week ago going to Singapore for a five-day seminar where I was a speaker. Yes, that’s a whirlwind trip in every single way, but you’ll never hear me complain about all that airtime.

You can’t get from point A to your final destination without a little (or a lot) of groundwork.

I’ve already told you about what happened at the destination, but that wasn’t the whole of the trip. Sometimes it is the journey that’s just as important.

In sales, we often become champions of travel, but I prefer to think of myself as a student of the road. Instead of rushing here, there, and everywhere, I try to take the few extra moments and stop to look around. It doesn't matter if I'm abroad or in the middle of Des Moines. Sadly, there just wasn’t enough time to explore all of the possibilities in Singapore, but I did have time to enroll myself as a pupil of this exciting place.

First, I was so pleased by the friendly people I met in Singapore. In the few hours I had off, I walked the beach and saw a little bit of this amazing city. In fact, the great customer service began before I even landed. In the Tokyo airport, the JAL club was phenomenal. After flying over 14 hours to Tokyo, I had another 7 hours to go before I hit my final destination. This pit stop before getting on another long flight was a reminder that excellent customer service will always be remembered.

It’s a lesson that’s simple, but often forgotten: As salespeople, you really need to make your customers feel that they’re in good hands and the JAL people made me feel as if my trip was the most important thing in the world to them. The shopping and just the excitement within the Tokyo airport made my pulse pound from all the energy around me.

Once I stepped off the plane, it was clear that I wasn’t in Kansas – or make that Dallas – anymore. Things are done differently elsewhere – and this was a very far elsewhere. Even at the airport, their system was different, but if you keep an open mind you can find systems that are better. For example, instead of forcing weary travelers to stand in one massive line to go through security, you walk right to the gate in Singapore. There is a security point at each gate. It’s a much better, and faster way, of doing the job.

As someone who loves when things work, I marveled that Singapore doesn’t allow a car in the streets that’s over 10 years old. They won’t reissue a certificate or registration after 10 years. It’s an interesting way to make a city appear clean, new and vibrant. While walking those streets, I expected chaos, but I found polite sidewalk vendors everywhere and people who were curious about my journey.

By the way, I haven’t talked to you about sales much in this blog.

The point is sometimes your sales results are second to the experience. When I got on a plane for 42 hours, I knew I would have a life experience.

Even if I didn’t make an immediate sale, I knew that there could be no price put on that life experience. Someday I knew that it would serve me…and serve me well. What a lesson; what a gift.

So, in case you can’t fly to Singapore this weekend, I’ll ask you to do something else: Go out and have a life experience.

Sometimes it’s not the destination, but the trip that makes it worthwhile.