Starting the last week of June I have been visiting several customers per week and will continue through the summer into the fall. I have been visiting with all different customers from large to small and this has been effective for several reasons:
To often management becomes very inwardly focused. It is important for senior leadership to get out to many clients on a regular basis. One challenge I have had in the past, was trying to figure out what clients I should visit and how to organize the scheduling of the meetings. The strategy that is working for me now is to target every client in a geographical area. I have an inside sales person call down and line up the meetings in that area and then move to the next area. They end up with a random sampling of clients based on who they are able to contact and who is willing to meet that week. This experience has been very rewarding and gives me energy!