Don’t you hate losing your keys? It is one of the most time honored modern struggles. You are late, you need them, and you can’t find them. If it is not your keys it is some PDA or phone thing you’ve grown attached to. Or, if you are really absent minded, like me, it is your wallet, … and keys.

A recent informal poll of air carriers in the hardest hit economic zones offered a resounding revelation that made us think about keys. Sales. Finding new customers is a bit like looking for your keys. When you need them, they are hard to find. Then we got a slug of these responses while doing the informal poll: “Things are slow.. we can’t / won’t advertise now…”

To any person this would, objectively, strike you as a patently dysfunctional - it *is* a chicken and egg problem and you need to go find a chicken … now. Yes, you are or feel broke, we know times are hard. But without a new customer, or two, life is a lot more depressing. And with a new customer per week, month or even one big one per year, it is really rewarding.

Find Your Keys after Losing Your Keys

When you lose your keys, it is best to look where you last left them, not where the light is.

But a genetic deficiency that many humans and air carriers suffer from, is to hunt in the light. Why not, right? Let’s just do what you have always done. Unfortunately, this means that you generally stay away from the dark areas, where…. your keys are waiting - patiently. The reality is that when you have a problem (it is quiet and you aren’t flying enough) you need to take a quick assessment of your current situation:

a) Do you feel comfortable getting so much revenue from one source, like a big broker?
b) Is your # of customers shrinking?
c) Are you open to the possibility that there are untapped pathways to new customers?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you might want to spend some time researching how charter is purchased these days. From jet card / fractional owner, to corporate admin to the master of the universe themselves, getting in front of the right decision maker is easier in 2009 than it was in 1999. Much easier.

But you need to make a commitment that you are ready to try some new methods if you really want to grow.

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