Five ways to improve your travel as a traveling Sales Engineer

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One of the several responsibilities of a sales engineer is traveling to meet with customers and/or prospects. I can still remember my first business trip to visit M&T Bank in Buffalo, NY. M&T confirmed the meeting two days before. The sales rep immediately called me and just said, ‘book your flight and hotel asap’ and I’ll meet you there. I quickly had to figure out how the company booked travel, what the policies were and how to make it convenient for both myself and do my best to follow company travel policies. While in Buffalo, there was a snowstorm that canceled my flight which forced me to find a hotel and re-book my flight for the next day. Overall, my first business trip didn’t go smoothly but I learned a lot of valuable lessons. Since that trip, I have traveled hundreds of time by air, rail or car and each tripped I have picked up one or two things to make my travel easier. Below are my top five tips that help me with my travels:

1. TSA pre-check:

If you never heard of TSA pre-check then you are missing out on having the fastest way to get through the security line at the airport. Just to help illustrate how valuable this program is to me, I can recall two situations where my Lyft picked up my rep and I at a customer site and dropped us off with ~30 min prior to my plane departing (Delta @Altanta Airport). Thanks to having TSA pre-check, I was able to make the flight while unfortunately my sales rep never made his flight and was stuck waiting for the next flight to go home. Alternatively, depending on where you’re flying, Clear is a great alternative, or to have in addition to TSA pre-check. The main difference is cost as TSA pre-check is a 5 year membership fee vs clear which is an annually membership fee.

2. Loyalty Programs:

My first year as a sales engineer, my manager at the time Nik Boman advised me to research each company across the various means of transportation and stick to one per each mode of travel. In other words, sign up and become a loyalty member to preferred airlines and hotel chains and stick to it. I did my research and became a loyalty program member to the following:

Having consistency with these companies has rewarded me with many perks that help make my travel easier. As an example, with Delta, I have been able to achieve Gold status, which unlocks a few perks such as 1 free check-in bag, SKY priority boarding and if traveling on a shuttle route, I can change my flight time with no fee attached.

3. SE tool kit:

SE tool kit is a collection of stuff that I need to have on me to be successful while traveling. The SE tool kit can be thought of as a swiss army knife that can handle every type of situation possible. I have built this tool kit over the years through the various meetings where I awkwardly couldn’t connect to the A/V system, or had run out of battery prior to the meeting, or need to present away from my laptop. Therefore, every time I join a new company, I immediately go to amazon and buy a series of adaptors, battery packs, clickers, headphones etc that I need to ensure that no matter where I go, I will always be ready to present.

4. Minimalist Travel bag:

When I first started traveling, I always had the impression that I had to travel the day before the meeting. This was great at first as I was certain that I wouldn’t miss the meeting due to flight cancellation, weather etc. However over the years I have learned that there is a certain radius from where I live (New Jersey) where I can fly in and out the same day and still making the customer meeting (taking weather and time of year into account of course). Today, I do my best to make most of my travel same-day trips (unless we have customer dinners or marketing events). In order to make this easier, I have invested in a nice minimalist bag (Tumi)that is both TSA approved and can help ensure I carry just enough to be prepared for the day (e.g. laptop, notebook, SE tool kit).

5. Pre-schedule Everything:

Time is a valuable commodity in life and one area where I failed over the years until recently is scheduling ahead of time as much as you can. One or two days prior to my travel, I make time to preschedule the things I need to make that travel day as optimize as possible. Now I schedule my Lyft(s) (or car service) to pick me up earlier then I need them (5-10 min earlier). The idea is I rather them wait for me, then for me to wait for them. Also, I have a routine of food services where I always get breakfast, lunch or dinner, so where applicable, I have saved my favorite meal selection and order it via the app for pick up on my way there. Again, since time is valuable, I rather have the service wait for me than the other way around. I also do this at the customer meeting where I set a reminder for myself 15 min before the meeting ends to schedule my Lyft to pick me up (again all pre-saved and at a click of a button). This new way of planning has helped me save time and optimize my travel experience.

Let me know if you have any travel tips that I might have missed?