Making up for lost face time, the team at XPO Brands are bringing a renewed sense of purpose – and better planning – to their business trips.

With a workforce of 30 full-time staff in Sydney and Melbourne offices, and more than 600 casual brand ambassadors, XPO Brands managing director Sally Tobin runs a team on the move.

On average, they’re now booking around 20 flights a month – slightly less than pre-pandemic but a whole lot more than the past two years have allowed.

“Pre-COVID we pretty much lived in the air,” Sally tells Kochie’s Business Builders. “As soon as those borders reopened, we were really quick to get back on a plane straight to Melbourne. I think we were quite literally the first flight out.

“For us, it was just about reconnecting with our staff making sure that they felt that they had a relationship that extended beyond a Zoom screen – and the same applied to our clients.”

Founded by Sally in 2013, XPO Brands is an award-winning retail activation agency that’s recently become part of the global commerce marketing giant The Mars Agency. They build consumer retail experiences, from digital shopper marketing to in-person events (think sampling, food trucks and roadshows). Clients include major brands like Nestlé, Mars Wrigley, Kraft Heinz, GWF, Woolworths and Pernod Ricard.

With workers, clients and events across Australia, Sally’s business hinges upon person-to-person interaction. She shares a few tips that have helped her get more out of business trips as they’ve picked back up:

1. Plan with purpose

Considering factors like price, time and business need, Sally says her business has become “a lot better” at planning ahead and doing it with more purpose.

“It’s more purposeful travel,” she says. “I think a big part of that is balancing relationships. So the type of meetings that you have, for example, if you’re running an employee performance review, it’s much more engaging and real when it’s done face to face, whereas a Zoom meeting is rather stiff and stifling. [With client meetings] I think you can ask a lot of questions and you can read body language. You can read between the lines a lot easier than you can on Zoom.”

As we all know, plans don’t always go, well, according to plan.

“It’s an interesting world because it’s balancing planned against agility, because equally you can plan a trip as best as you ever could and then someone’s going to get sick or get COVID, so you have to be able to be pretty agile with that as well,” Sally says.

“It takes a lot more care and attention to stay connected than it once did. But it is made easier by the fact that changing flights is now easier.”

WATCH: Sally Tobin, XPO Brands

Post continues after video.

2. Get the rewards you deserve

Sally is a Qantas Business Rewards member, which means XPO Brands earns extra Qantas Points and membership benefits that the whole company can take advantage of, like lounge access and flight upgrades.

“It just takes the pleasure of flying and turns it into a real commercial benefit and adds that little bit of extra enjoyment,” she shares.

“We use it for mostly the discounts on international and domestic flights. We also use it to benefit our team with Qantas Club memberships. And I think the benefit really is the points accumulation for the business.”

Qantas Business Rewards lets you earn points on everyday business expenses with over 50 partners across things like fuel, travel, credit cards and office supplies. The points your business earns can be used for flights, upgrades, car hire, hotels, wine, gift cards or items from the Qantas Rewards Store to save on costs for the business.

Sally adds that the members-only online business travel management tools help her save time on booking travel – especially important for any time-poor business owner.

3. Build staff loyalty

At a time when talent retention is front of mind for employers, staff rewards can go a long way toward building loyalty and culture within a business.

“Most of our team are pretty young and they do love to travel,” Sally explains. “So we take those points and we use Qantas Business Rewards to help fund our XPO Travel program, and in particular, giving people business upgrades when they fly for work.”

Fundamentally, it comes down to how connected everyone in the business feels. You can offer incentives, however, the ultimate test is how you get along as people – not just staff.

“We’re big on dinners when we travel to Melbourne, and lunches when the team come to Sydney,” Sally adds. “I think [they key is] that we all enjoy each other’s company beyond the day-to-day work.”

Find out more about XPO Brands and make sure to join Qantas Business Rewards for free until the end of July 2022.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with Qantas Business Rewards.

Feature image: Kochie’s Business Builders