Balancing summer vacations, travel, family and work w/ Bridget Gleason [Episode 486]

Sometimes travel is just a part of the sales life. How do you balance work travel, personal travel, and life?

Bridget Gleason is VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner on Front Line Fridays.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

About the seasonality of sales: Does the summer have to be flat, due to vacations? Bridget ideally would sell more in 2Q to cover in advance for 3Q.

Preparing for summer is a purposeful strategy. Different nations and cultures have different known holidays and preferred vacation months.

For Logz.io, specifically, the sales cycle can be 30 days or 60-90 days in some cases, and months, for enterprise sales. Bridget refers to a quote: “Pipeline creates confidence.” If you have enough pipeline, you won’t have much of a dip in 3Q.

Andy considers the quote in light of research showing that 80% of pipeline ends up in no decision. But Bridget has more confidence in having pipeline than in no pipeline at all.

Andy remembers summer sales traveling. “The amateurs are out traveling in the summer.” Bridget suggests the time to travel is when the clients are available to meet. Just keep moving along the plan. She presents an instance of that.

Bridget explains her policy for vacations, and time off for life events, where the date is set. She does not have a policy of taking vacations in ‘slow periods.’ Slow periods have their purposes as well, such as planning.

Germany passed legislation that employees are not required to answer emails after hours. Bridget wants people to separate from work on their breaks, and delegate to others to follow up, or at least, set a time ahead planned for check in.

Andy would like managers and reps to discuss this ahead of time, so expectations are set. Bridget tells reps to be fully present with their family, and not worry about checking in daily. Or, they can block out work time purposefully.

Global businesses have their own concerns. Bridget, when going to Hawaii, has to think about East Coast time and
Tel Aviv time concurrently. Bridget does not fully unplug.

It’s a good time to figure out how you will share you mind between family, vacation, and work. Entrepreneurs often stay in touch. So, schedule time, if you can. Bridget wants to be fully present in family time, and also in blocked work time.

Bridget has no vacation planned at the moment, except some weekends. Andy gives her an assignment to plan a vacation, and report back next week on the location and date. Andy likes TripIt for travel plans.

The Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul was formerly Accelerate! with Andy Paul.