Crazy or brilliant? A 3-week road trip/customer tour

One van.

4 crews.

18 stops.

5,207 miles.

That’s the anatomy of an epic road trip that my company executed last summer.

The idea was simple: get out of the office and connect with members and potential members.

As a start-up company, suffice it to say that this was not in the marketing budget. Not in the slightest. But we’re scrappy and found a way.

We partnered with an established, global organization for the road trip. Our expertise in video production and willingness to do a lot of the legwork, combined with their thirst for new content proved to be enough to get them to sign on and take on the lion’s share of the expenses.

Here was the plan:

Gainesville, Florida (our HQ) to Chicago (partner HQ)

Chicago to Austin

Austin to Las Vegas (no stops)

Las Vegas to Albuquerque

Albuquerque to Gainesville (no stops)

We would make visits to offices, manufacturing plants, educational institutions and other organizations where IT professionals – our target audience – are hard at work. We would also host happy hours in the evenings in larger cities to see members of smaller teams and companies where we could not make an official stop.

Going into the trip, I thought my biggest take aways would be

• We’d take a few bites out of churn. After all, we were visiting members in their workspaces with food, drinks and swag to show our appreciation. How could they not renew?
• We’d get some great case studies from IT professionals who are doing the hard work every day.

After spending 6 days on the road, I was truly blow away. As part of the leg 1 crew, my biggest take aways were:

• A deeper understanding of the challenges facing IT professionals every day. Hearing it in their own words, face to face was powerful.
• A better idea as to why members choose our IT training platform and how transformative it has been for so many of them (e.g. a better job, a better life, a rewarding career)
• A few really great leads! There were visits to organizations where our partner had an established presence, but we did not. We turned a few of those into sales. Nice bonus.
• A ton of laughs with fellow team members who I didn’t know very well going in to the trip, plus those from our partner organization. Long days, late nights, and tight quarters make for bonding experiences.
• An appreciation for the consistency within the Marriott chain of hotels.

Don’t think you can make this work for your organization?

Think again. If a small start-up can do it, you can too.

Figure out a way to get yourself out of the office and on the road.