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How Travel Helps Your Sales
By Laura Posey
It’s no secret that I’ve been traveling a lot lately. In the past 4 weeks I’ve been in 3 countries and countless cities. In addition to having a great time, I’ve discovered that being away from the office has actually increased my sales. Here’s why.
Getting out of the office and recharging my batteries is, of course, a wonderful part of travel. A chance to get away and stop thinking about work is a terrific break for the brain.
The best part, though, is that travel breaks you out of your routines and makes you question why and how you do things.
For example, when I was in London a few weeks ago I almost got run over by cars several times. In England, they drive on the left side of the road, meaning that when you are crossing the street as a pedestrian, oncoming traffic in the near lane is coming from your right, not your left as it is here.
So, I would take a look to my left as I always do, see no traffic and start into the street only to get almost killed by the speeding driver coming from the right.
As my brain worked to keep me from becoming roadkill, it also started to question lots of other habits I have.
• Why do I go into the office at 9am when I have no appointments for the day and could work from home, saving gas and time by doing so?
• Why do I check email first thing in the morning when 90% of what comes in overnight is just spam? The real emails don’t show up until at least 11am.
• Why do we only publish our information in one language when our readership is worldwide?
The answer is that these are just my habits and I’ve never really thought about them. I have done them for so long they are just part of my life.
Since coming back from traveling, I’ve begun not only questioning everything but making changes to some long held habits. For example, I’m writing this article from home today because there is no reason for me to go into the office.
My dog loves it and I can get just as much work done from the couch as I can from an office chair.
Since making a few other changes, my summer sales have gone up 4% over last year. While that’s not a ton, they also went up $15% after a trip I took over the New Year’s holiday this year.
If you get a chance this summer, take a vacation to someplace that is really out of the ordinary for you. Skip Nags Head and take a quick trip to Montreal or Puerto Vallarta. It will give you a chance to hear a different language and experience a different culture.
And it will kick your brain into questioning mode.
Who knows what kind of future you can fashion for yourself just by challenging the status quo and making a few small changes to your routine.