There are times in personal or professional life when living the experience is incomparable. We need to experience it firsthand to be able to draw the best conclusions. I remember, several years ago, when I decided to run a marathon, my first 42K. Everything I felt in each of the kilometers and the emotion after crossing the finish line, something I have never been able to fully tell or convey. I feel that no matter how hard I try, no one will know what happened to me and the lessons that this experience left for my life from that moment on.
This same thing, applied to the car owner database professional field, in any area ─and now focusing on those of us who are in the commercial world─ is applied to how important it is to do constant field work.
Throughout my experience, I have found that it is very difficult for marketers or those in sales management positions, for example, to leave the office; there are and will always be reasons that tie us to it. We believe that if we are not there, nothing will work properly; or, it is difficult for us to get our shoes dirty, which does not allow us to become aware of what is really happening with our brands or products, what is happening with the merchant, with the buyer or consumer, what the distribution channels are experiencing, their sales forces, as well as what our competition is doing.
Everything that we hear on the street is not taught in any business school, in any text, and much less will we find it sitting at our desk in front of our computer, no matter how complete our Excel spreadsheets are or how sophisticated our ERP (enterprise resource planning) or control panels are.
It is essential to make an opening in our agenda that gives necessary space to various visits to the market; a conversation with our clients, in case, for example, our direct relationship is with large retailers; contact with their sales team and a visit to their sales rooms, will give us a complete overview of the performance of our categories and we will find out what is happening within them.
On the other hand, if our world is in the traditional channel, walking through the supply markets, going to the warehouses, sharing with the direct or indirect sales force, talking with the shopkeepers and the general public, will nourish us and bring all the necessary material to confirm that we are correctly executing our commercial strategy, or if necessary, make changes to it.
In all cases, the more frequent our visits to the market, the quicker we will notice the successes, errors, as well as the corrections to be applied, and most importantly, the opportunities we have in front of us, which will lead us to act in search of the results that the organization expects.
The important thing is to have contact with the different actors, listen to them, see them, and experience them, in order to process, analyze, and compare them with our numbers, model, and action plan. Let's compare opinions and thus draw our own conclusions, which, when discussed as a team, will open our eyes as we seek to reduce uncertainties in order to make better, more timely, and more accurate decisions.
Today, those who work in harmony by visiting the market will make a difference, both personally and professionally; they will have an important competitive advantage. Furthermore, if they are people who occupy an important hierarchical position within the organization, they will go from having command ─which is given by the organizational chart─ to having authority, and this is highly valued, since it is a characteristic that every leader must possess among other qualities.
In conclusion, let us dare to go out, face the market and our reality, open our eyes to all the opportunities that are presented, let us be different: Street professionals in a market that is dynamic, that is alive, that is constantly changing.
