What a blessing to be able to travel to DC as often as I do. Thankfully, AV Concepts (www.avconcepts.com) understands how bountiful the opportunities are in DC and how many great relationships I've established in the more than two years I've been traveling there regularly. After realizing I wasn't going to move there, my boss agreed to a compromise of going there once per month. Now, it hasn't been that frequent because that would be impossible with all of the other travel I'm doing between actual shows, site visits, industry conferences, etc... I'm on the road about 50% of the time as it is. But I have been to DC 15 times in the last 26 months and I'm so grateful! Tuesday night was the perfect example... I went to a Potomac Meeting Professionals International (www.pmpi.org) recruitment event and was able to both reconnect with people I hadn't seen in a while and get to know some people better whom I hadn't spent much time with! Even better? I was able to continue the evening and go out to dinner with four people - three of which are potential clients!! It would be tremendous to get all three as clients, but even if I don't... I know they are friends. I’m reading a book right now called It’s Not Just Who You Know by Tommy Spaulding and he talks about the concept of Return on Relationship or ROR. Your ROR may come when you expect it, but it could come when you least expect it. There is so much value in making connections with every person you interact with because of that potential for the ROR. Getting a referral from someone who didn’t hire me is a perfect example of that (that happened recently with one of my DC contacts). The more people I meet, the more valuable connections I will make and this will potentially come back to me in the form of new business! Lord knows I love to win, but I’m learning there can absolutely be positives even when I don't get a "W".
Of course, it’s not earth shattering news that business is all about relationships, but I think it's nice to be reminded and this concept of ROR is a fantastic one. I'm so fortunate to have built the relationships I have over the years and those in DC are especially great— all of these connections make me feel like I’m “home” when I’m there. I might not be happy with my sales results as of late (despite being ahead of goal for the 2nd year in-a-row with AVC), but I need to remember that all the work I've been doing, and those connections that I’ve made, have established a foundation that WILL pay off :->.
I'm a lucky girl!
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