Learn how to get the most ROI of business travel by considering the key objectives and outcomes of your team's corporate trips.
Business travel represents a significant expense that can deliver strong ROI when managed well, strengthening client relationships, boosting employee retention, and driving revenue growth. However, without proper management, travel costs can quickly exceed budgets and impact the bottom line.
In this guide, we’ll look at how to maximize the return on investment (ROI) of business travel and how to strategically execute corporate travel to see the utmost returns on the time, money, and energy that these trips often demand.
Simply put, the ROI of business travel refers to the financial value that undertaking the trip has added to your organization. Being able to predict these outcomes before and assess them following a business trip is the basis of business travel justification within your organization.
Where the ROI of business travel is low, stakeholders may not offer buy-in for future travel; but, when it is high, ROI on any corporate trips can pose as a compelling business trip justification due to more than just financial gain. It can also objectively prove why business travel is important for your ongoing business goals.
What is the value of business travel?
The ROI of business travel can be measured in multiple ways, the most objective and important of which is simply its impact on your bottom line. Here are the ways you may want to measure the success of your organization’s corporate travel:
Business travel justification, as with justification for any business decision, needs to be supported by positive revenue figures. Have the meetings, deals, or pitches undertaken during your latest business trip secured more work? With studies showing that 40% of deals are closed in outside sales, this is a key metric for understanding your ROI.
It’s been shown that face-to-face meetings are 34 times more effective than virtual communication. For long-term client relationships that you want to continue to foster and grow, a personal connection like this is a must. Even in the case of traveling between your own business offices, if you have a distributed team, being present and approachable in-person helps minimize any sense of isolation some office locations may feel. In terms of employee morale, this should be business travel justification enough.
If your business is looking to enter new markets, then in-person experience of your chosen country and culture is invaluable. By being in your chosen market, your employees can better understand the local culture and habits, and how this might impact your own business plans. It can also help shape your marketing efforts, as such trips give a better understanding of the localisation needed. Ultimately, a single research trip might be well worth the investment compared to the money that might be lost due to a cultural faux pas during your expansion.
Our survey shows that 75% of workers were positively impacted in terms of personal development by corporate trips. With this in mind, your ROI of business travel may be evident in the figures surrounding worker retention. 52% of those who answered our survey said the opportunity to travel positively impacted their mental health, while 82% cited it as essential to professional development.
As mentioned above, business travel holds massive potential for employee satisfaction, and therefore retention, as well as client acquisition and the nurturing of business relationships. While the ideal business trip is one that comfortably breaks even, there may be times when upholding the trust and loyalty of a top-tier client needs to outweigh cost. After all, keeping an existing customer is 25 times cheaper than acquiring a new one.
While the above features of business travel are all key considerations, you should endeavor to calculate real figures and metrics to best understand why business travel is important to your company’s development and future plans. To do this, consider the following figures.
How many deals were closed during the trip? Was it equal to or greater than the cost of the trip itself? You might also wish to look at the cost of taking these same meetings virtually to help decide on business travel justifications for the future. Remember also to include incidental spending and payments made during the trip, such as dining. Our savings calculator can help with this.
What was the cost of each individual contract? Do you have reason to believe that an in-person meeting led to a greater final figure and stronger negotiating power compared to meetings that might have been taken online or over the phone? Look over your historic performance of online vs in-person deal closures to get a fuller picture of how business travel did or didn’t play a key role.
Did things move along quicker in person? 40% of prospects have been shown to convert to sales via in-person deals meets, which may mean that a budget pointed towards a one-week business trip is still more cost-effective than several weeks of virtual back-and-forth.
Do relationships that facilitate business travel feel stronger, last longer, or generate more profit than those without? This can be a simple way to show why business travel is important to keep these relationships nurtured.
Keep track of how many new clients and partnerships have been acquired and forged during travel. Metrics for business trip justification, such as to a conference to present the company, can also be in the form of talent acquisition.
If you travel to customers, then the ROI of business travel for your organization should consider customer satisfaction as a key metric when it comes to business travel justification. This can be easily measured by using tools such as customer surveys and feedback requests. Studies show that 46% of customers value a human touch in an era when many brands utilize chatbots and other cost-cutting measures, so this may be a crucial way to bring value to your audience, and to your bottom line.
While an online presence is essential for any business, omnichannel marketing remains in high demand, with 7 out of 10 customers using multiple touchpoints to engage with a brand. Pop-ups, conference stands, and other in-person, real-life brand experiences can really strengthen your organization’s reputation.
Business trip justification doesn’t always have to be about how many deals you can close, in terms of conferences and development opportunities, the ROI of business travel will be shown in the growing knowledge and skills of your team, making your business future-proof.
Being away from the office is a key reason why corporate retreats feature strongly on many corporate calendars. Stepping away from the stresses and expectations of the office allows for new ways of thinking and collaboration. Keep track of just how many valuable ideas and insights have come out of your corporate travel events to better understand the value they bring to your teams.
Positive return on investment can never be assumed for the majority of business decisions, but with the correct knowledge and foresight, your organization can certainly strengthen its chances of a successful and cost-effective business trip. Here are key things to keep in mind to decide if a trip’s gains were worth its expense:
Planning and preparation are key to any trip. To define your business travel justification, you’ll need to understand what it is you’re looking to achieve from the trip. Decide which measurable goals you’re working towards, whether that’s a deal closure, market research, or client relations and the metrics you’ll use to measure how successful these were. You may also wish to mark certain thresholds that need to be met in order to consider the trip a success – Tripeden.com for Business’ travel policy builder makes this easy to do.
In-person meets are valuable, but not always necessary. For example, over 66% of people reported that they preferred to be initially approached for sales via email. Take the time to truly consider if travel is a requirement of each particular project, or if maintaining the relationship virtually is sufficient. For client relationships or teams that cover multiple time zones, you may find that, in terms of cost and work efficiency, a virtual relationship is, in fact, preferable to both parties.
Assigning a corporate travel manager may be an effective choice if your organization has multiple offices. They can help you plan effective multi-stop trips for maximum efficiency. For example, if you have multiple offices in Europe and you’re required to visit your Paris office, they can arrange half a day’s travel to visit your office in Milan, then Berlin, Dublin, etc. Strategically, a multi-center trip like this will be more cost-effective than visiting each of these locations separately, though do be sure to plan in a way that guards against travel fatigue.
You don’t have to wait for a trip to be over to understand if your ROI is likely to be positively or negatively impacted. Whether it’s simply a business meeting where your values didn’t align or a world event beyond anyone’s control, staying connected and updated may be the difference between calling time on a trip before it starts making a loss, or not.
With the correct travel management, such as using platforms like Tripeden.com for Business, you can also understand and track your budget. This includes setting a budget to guide your team as they book, without excluding them from decision-making, so even before you leave, you can have effective oversight of costs for flights, accommodation, and car hire.
Traveling to clients or to different markets is a key starting point in new relationships and business decisions, but a start is all it is. Remember to build on this progress once the trip ends, and don't let the competitive edge travel can get lost.
A strategically planned business trip can give measurable benefits that can far outweigh its initial cost. By ensuring that you’re focused on core objectives and desirable outcomes for the business, as well as understanding that the ROI of business travel comes in more than just pounds, business travel can be a key way to boost your business.
Ensure the best start to your next business trip with booking management solutions from Tripeden.com for Business, offering savings and rewards on over 3 million properties, as well as search options for travel and car rentals.
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