Learning how to pack right

You would think after all the traveling I’ve done, I would learn how to pack.   Nope- I still don’t get it. Here I am in Amsterdam freezing and thinking of everything I left behind. I have a hooded coat with fur, big heavy boots, thick cashmere scarfs, wool tights and every hat imaginable. Where are they? Neatly folded in my closet back home.

So what goes through my mind when I have to fill my suitcase? I look out my window and see a sunny San Francisco day and an ocean view and believe the whole world looks like this. I’ve been known to dress in what I hope the weather will be and not by what it is.  I have to admit that I pack lighter now but the down side to packing light is when all the wrong things are sitting lightly in your suitcase, you have blown it.

I can relate this to our qualifying efforts. After dialing for hours, we finally get someone live on the phone. We are so excited to speak with them and qualify the opportunity that we fill up the time with conversation that doesn’t help move the sale forward. After we hang up and we are ready to document the call, we realize all the critical and essential questions we left out. We kick ourselves because we are so much better than that, we know better but haven’t learned how to pack the right things and keep it light.