Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Why Account Executives Should Travel

There’s nothing like an in-person meeting to close deals.
Sales leaders say they don’t need for account executives to travel. Worse yet, salespeople tell me they don’t even need to talk to anyone. Ridiculous, right? I used to think it was because I lived near Silicon Valley, but technology addiction is everywhere. It’s become an epidemic—people typing away and not having conversations.
Digital dependence is an even greater problem for salespeople, because sales metrics actually encourage them to hide behind screens. Reps are accountable for sending X number of emails and making X number of social media connections. Beyond that, I question whether they know how to put a sentence together. (Yes, I know that’s snarky, but if you receive the lame sales emails that I do, you know what I’m talking about.)
Over the past decade, companies have cut back on travel because of the assorted tools that enable video conferencing. That’s