If you’re friends with me on Facebook, there’s no way you could have missed the trip I took last week to look at colleges with my 17-year-old daughter, Emily. Over eight days, we visited six schools, drove 1,838 miles and met lots and lots of terrific people.

Visiting one school after another gave us a chance to make comparisons, and not just of their academic offerings, either. We assessed everything from student life to food plans and dorm room size. We also got a good look at the way they each manage the admissions process.

It was fascinating – and varied. And it got me thinking about how we, as professionals, manage our own “getting to know you” phase with prospects.

Here are some issues that caught my attention:

• Preparation. Some of the tour guides were extremely well prepared. They had a set route and were filled with interesting facts and information. Others were clearly winging it, wandering around and telling whatever stories they thought of in the moment (some of which, I’m sure, the school would not appreciate!). Some ended the tour at the bookstore; others left us in the middle of wherever, leaving us to find where we had parked on our own!
  
  How about you? Do you have a set approach to speaking with prospects about your business (or do you just wing it)?

• First impressions. Some of the schools had beautifully designed welcome centers: Cushy couches, computer screens with images of the school and drinks galore. None of this has anything to do with the quality of education my daughter will ultimately receive, of course, but I have to admit, in the moment, it’s hard to separate the two.
  
  How about you? Is your web site professionally designed, error-free and up-to-date? Here too, it may have nothing to do with the work you do, but people do judge a book by its cover.

• Eagerness. Three of the tours ended at the Admissions office, which were filled with lots of staff standing by to answer questions, meet the kids, facilitate the admissions process and give us cold bottles of water (did I mention that it was crazy hot?). Two of the three made a point to give Emily business cards with the names and email addresses of the tour guides, as well as the counselors who would be assigned to her should she decide to apply. Clearly, they wanted “our business.”
  
  How about you? Do prospective clients get all of your upbeat and eager attention when they get in touch, or are you quietly checking email in the background while they talk, wishing they’d get to the point faster?

You get the picture. This “soft stuff” matters. And while none of it replaces the need for you to do a wonderful job with your clients, if you lose them during the “campus tour phase,” you may never get that opportunity!

Last Wednesday, a nor’easter hit the east coast. It started with light snow and at first, I thought maybe the whole thing had been blown out of proportion by the weather channel. But by mid-afternoon, the flakes started getting bigger and the snow started to accumulate.

I’ve heard plenty of stories about New Canaan snow storms and the havoc they wreak with tree limbs falling on power lines. Still, I felt sure it wasn’t going to happen to us. But at 4:50 Wednesday afternoon, and smack in the middle of a client conversation, our power went out.

I went to find Greg (a seasoned veteran of New Canaan snow storms) and asked what was affected in our house when the power goes out. He said “the electricity.” (I knew this.) But then he added, “the water, the heat and the toilets.” Needless to say, this was not good news.

Fortunately, my laptop and portable hot spot were fully charged, so I emailed the handful of clients waiting to hear from me and finished up a little early.

Then, I began wondering:

• How long will the charge on my laptop and portable hot spot last?
• Could I work at the library using their Wi-Fi and electricity (will they be open?)
• If the outage lasts a long time, will it be worth it to find a place to set up my desktop (with my larger screens)
• How much does a generator cost?

I realized I was so happy that everything I need is in the cloud (Gmail, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Calendar, my CRM, project management software and time tracking).

How about you? What would you do – and how could you make things easier – if the power were out (for days?) at your house or office?

Granted, there comes a time when we just need to surrender to Mother Nature and sit by the fire until something like a power outage passes. But, if you have real deadlines and clients you don’t want to disappoint, it’s a good idea to give this some thought beforehand.

We were lucky. Things snapped back on less than an hour later and I was back up and running at full power! (But I’m still glad to know I have a pretty solid back up plan.)