Happy late July everyone!

Last year’s summer was slow and each day dragged out.

This summer? Not so much! My kids start school on August 12, less than 3 weeks away!

Everyone seems to be literally on vacation, not for a week or 2, but for the whole month! I see the auto-responders from marketing emails and people are gone, which makes connecting with decision-makers even tougher.

Last summer, many people weren’t able to go on planned vacation and PTO, so they are making up for up it this summer. Kudos to them!

My long-time rep, Patti, recently celebrated a birthday so I drove up to Omaha this past Friday and met up with her. Kansas City to Omaha is 3 hours away and I hadn’t seen Patti in person since last Labor Day. She’s been with me for 10-12 years and I’m grateful for her contributions to Connect 5000 and she is the model of what a business development rep is. I’m proud to have her on my team.

Patti and I grabbed dinner at Mahogany Prime Steakhouse in Omaha, drove around the city, and even drove by Warren Buffet’s house. It was wonderful to see her and get quality time in person. Zoom and phone calls are great. In-person meals are even better.

On an unrelated note, I follow Mark Hunter, a sales expert who I admire and respect from a distance, on social media and email. We had exchanged emails a while back and he said to look him up whenever I was in Omaha. After Patti and I finalized plans, I reached out to Mark and we made plans to do breakfast Saturday morning before I headed back home. I referenced one of his books in my list of resources for a book I published last fall on Amazon.

We had a wonderful breakfast on Saturday morning, the 3 of us, and nice again to connect with Mark in person, talk shop, and get to know him in a smaller group setting. I highly recommend you check out his university here: https://learn.thesaleshunter.com/

Here’s the obvious, uncomplicated truth about sales and relationships: People like dealing with people. Yes, I know that technology and the pandemic have complicated things. BUT, there’s no substitute with connecting with others!

My breakfast with Mark was a social call. Not much work discussion planned. We talked about trends and patterns in the marketplace with pandemic but it was nice to spend some time with Mark and have no hidden agenda.

Bottom line: If you have BDR’s or SDR’s or remote employees, make the effort if possible to meet with them in person and stay connected to them.

If there are social media sales leaders that you follow and are nearby, reach out to them and connect with them. Get to know them on a personal level. Don’t try and sell them anything.

Towards the end of our time together, Mark brought up the question of how to work together and we generated some ideas.

Stay connected folks! I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.