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Business Travel RUNWAY TO SUCCESS
FBOs: Meeting Place For Business
 You’re flying into town for a quick meeting with clients and they’ve agreed to meet you at the FBO for your business meeting. The owner of the company you’re pitching is mildly fascinated with flying, and the two of you joke that after cementing your business relationship, maybe you’ll take him up in your 182 for a spin around the city.
You are aglow in the perfect mindmeld of aviation and free enterprise. You think to yourself, “This is how business was meant to be done!”
Except that an early fog and traffic on the way to the airport push your arrival back an hour. In an attempt to rush your pre-flight to make up time, you brush up against the wing and get six month’s of bugs and oil smeared all over your tie and new dress shirt.
When you finally arrive at your destination, you discover that your clients are waiting for you at the terminal on the other side of the airport. The FBO’s conference room also happens to be the flight planning room for their very busy flight school, and the motor oil they call coffee can not be made potable no matter how much drywall mix you pour into your cup.
Oh, and there’s no Internet connection. How do you ensure this nightmare does not become your life? Like everything else in aviation, planning is the key to your success. First, don’t ever assume you will arrive on time. Second, don’t ever assume the FBO will be anything other than the worst FBO you’ve ever been to. And third, don’t assume you’re client’s love of aviation will out-weigh everything that goes wrong in the meeting.
Remember that the purpose of the business meeting is to do business. Aviation and everything else is secondary. So find a place where business comes first, and make that your intended landing.
Before scheduling your meeting, make sure the FBO you plan to meet at is capable
of providing a business-class meeting environment. If that means meeting at a different airport or paying more for fuel from a more expensive, FBO, so be it. It pays to visit prospective FBOs before the meeting, or if you can’t, check out member comments in the AOPA airport directory. At some fields, you can also call the tower or a flight school on the field and ask questions about your target FBO.
Remember, this may be your client’s only exposure to general aviation. You want them to understand that meeting in this way is a productive part of doing business, not some hobby in which their business is secondary to a fuel stop and bio break.
Before we moved the offices for Aviator's Guide to Port Chester, we interviewed prospective new employees at the nearby White Plains airport (HPN) because it was close to where our office would be and we knew the facilities.
The folks at Panorama Flight Service have proven to be an example of what you want in a business-class FBO, so I don't mind using them as an example what to look for in planning an on-airport business meeting.
First, Panorama has a large conference room on the second floor of their large facility. It has a beautiful, picture-window view of the flight line and that makes a great conversation starter when people first walk in. There is free coffee-everywhere. They even have cheesecake in the fridge of the snack room. There are also candies and cookies in the waiting area, one that is on par, I think, with the waiting rooms of some of the most exclusive plastic surgeons in Hollywood.
There are clear directions to the FBO on the Panorama web site. Telling prospects to visit the site so they can find their way to the “private” side of the airport establishes the exclusivity of the meeting, and it ensures they won't be standing outside the arrivals terminal waiting for you to walk down the ramp.
It also helps to give them the telephone number of the FBO's front-desk. No matter where your prospects wind up, chances are the desk staff has guided another lost soul in from the same spot and will be able to deal with the frustrated caller in a calm and professional manner. You don't want to be the one trying to give directions around an unfamiliar airport.
Panorama has a professional front-desk staff, not some gum-chewing high-school student. For each meeting we scheduled, Patty not only asked when we would meet, but also who we were meeting with. The visitor was greeted professionally and almost always by name, “Hello, Mr. Smith, you're here to meet with Mr. Fulton at 11 o'clock. He's upstairs, let me page him.” If you are flying in, you might expect: “Yes, Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones is on his way. There was a delay in his flight but we're tracking him on Flight Explorer and you can see on this computer when he'll arive.”
The conference room is always reserved, with a sign on the door indicating that our company would be using the room. This shows that your guests were expected.
Before the meeting, focus on business. There is a tendancy when you've landed to want to regale anyone who will listen with the details of your flight. Reserve these until the end of the meeting or during lunch. No matter how interested your client may seem in the details, focus on the business purpose of the meeting, and let the aviation talk come later.
All of these subtle touches tell your clients and prospects something about you and the place you’ve chosen to meet them. It tells them you’re not some fly-boy (or girl) dropping in between frivolous jaunts to tolerate a few moments with them. You’re a professional, you’ve scouted your location well, and you’ve brought them to a place where business is done.
—Sean Fulton
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