Focusing on truly being "in the Field" in 2024 - would love your feedback

Jacob Karp

One of the big things I have been prioritizing early this year is being in person, in the field.

Over the last 2 months I have spent around 50% of my time in the field, live with prospects, customers and partners. I have made it a non-negotiable to show up in person regardless of the title of the persona.

Looking back on last year, I realized that I missed out on a lot of really good pipeline generation and conversion opportunities by not showing up and instead just being okay with being virtual. This also effected my ability to deeper develop champions.

I can say without a doubt that I have uncovered two new opportunities already that I would not have if I was on Zoom.

Overall the in-person stuff has required a lot more energy and effort, but has been well worth it. Some of the major themes I have seen already:

- The ability to read the room and body language and pick up on things you don't see/hear virtually

- Using those cues to lean in in certain areas when you hear/see something and get deeper into questioning

- The ability to challenge thinking or "how it has always been done" - not sure why but for me this is easier done in person

- Being told things you wouldn't be told virtually

I am going to push to be on-site or in person every chance I can.

How is everyone else thinking about this in 2024?

Ben Fleishman

I want to start that I totally agree that in-person has been a huge win for us. It's just that travel is expensive and I know most companies can't afford that level of commitment, let alone how taxing it can be on those with families. That said, finding a way to make in-person work for you and your team is valuable for any company. Maybe it's just key accounts, but it's important!

It's really funny timing, too! A few months ago we went onsite with a current customer that we thought had listed as "good health" based on metrics, but when we got onsite their SVP popped into the room. The SVP said he wasn't seeing a ton of value himself from the tool. We would've never heard that had we not gone onsite, because he wouldn't have just "popped" into a virtual meeting! After hearing that we spent more time with him and helped build out specific dashboards. We would've been stunned had they churned and we probably would've had no idea someone so high up the chain wasn't seeing value if we didn't go onsite.