It’s a big day for your business, and your team. You are about to send some of your best to go on a business trip and secure a new client or finish a project. Though you are confident in your team, you want to help them with every step of this process, so you know exactly how this trip will go.
To get your team prepared, you need to set them up them up for success. To do this, you should put all your ducks in a row before they even leave the office for the business trip.
To help you get your team prepared for their success, we put together 5 ways you can prepare your team for the business trip.
Let’s dive in.
Their Transportation
How are they going to get there? It really depends on how far they are going, but it’s up to you to find the most cost effective and efficient method of getting them there. Sometimes you can send them on a bus or in a car, but sometimes the trip will require a flight.
No matter what you have to do to get them there, just make sure it’s cost effective. You don’t want to sink the potential of their opportunity before they leave by destroying their budget on airfare, especially if they are only going 3 hours away. On the other hand, don’t be afraid to let them fly if they will face a crazy drive, like 9 hours or more. A drive that long can be simply grueling.
Their Hotel
When they finally get where they are going, you should already have a hotel that is expecting them. Travel can take the energy out of anybody, so having a place to lay their head ready for them will relieve them of the pressures of finding it themselves after a long journey.
Depending on the size of your team, it might make sense to get less rooms for more people. While this is never a bad money saving tactic, you need to make sure everyone will have a bed to sleep in. You don’t want a weak cog in the gears because that person had to sleep on a couch or pull-out-bed.
Cover Your Team and Their Equipment
I’m sure you have wondered about travel insurance and when it would come in handy. Well, this one of those times when you should buy travel insurance. Making sure your team and their equipment is covered is imperative to the success of the business trip.
If Johnny spills his morning coffee on his computer, having travel insurance means he isn’t simply out of luck. Instead, the insurance means he can head to the nearest apple store and replace that waterlogged MacBook with plenty of time to redownload the entire project onto the new machine.
If you are looking for an automatic crisis diversion tool for your team, here it is.
Provide Contact Details
Don’t just tell your team where to go, tell them who to contact. Giving the contact details of your business connection to your business trip team leader allows them the ability to communicate with the other party if they need to, and they will.
It’s also important to make sure your team has all of the phone numbers of the other team members. Getting lost in a foreign area is never fun, and it’s even less fun when you don’t have anyone to call for help.
Team Meeting
Before you let your team lose, you want to make sure they are on the same page. You want everyone to understand the goals of the business trip, so no one feels out of the loop.
To do this, call a team meeting before they go. Make sure everyone knows the plan, where they are going, how they are getting there, where they are staying, who they are going to see, and what to do in case of an emergency.
This is your time to make sure that every member of the team is ready to go, and understands exactly why they are trying to go there.
Conclusion
Your team is ready to rock this business trip, and that’s because you set them up for success through preparation. If you take care of your part before they leave, they will have less to worry about.
Having less to worry about leaves them with the ability to focus on the task at hand. When they have the time to focus on the task, they will perform better. It’s just that cut and dry.
How do you prepare your team for a business trip? When has a lack of preparation for a business trip come back to hurt your team? Share your stories in the comment below.