Telling your counterparty that you're about to get on a plane to meet them is one way to qualify a deal: they may tell you not to.
A bizdev friend of mine taught me another: reschedule a call to a Saturday (make up a reason). If it's a serious deal... like, "you're going to be Powerpoint in our office suite"... they'll bitch, but do it.
Sometimes these things are about followup, but a lot of times they're really about qualification; they may just not be into you. It can be important to know that if you're otherwise going to spin your wheels.
"I'll be in town after visiting a customer on Friday, can we get together?" is much more likely to have a positive response than "should I fly out to meet with you on Friday?". If the meeting is very important to you (high EV, even if maybe low odds?), it's sometimes worth not making it clear how important.
In other cases, being willing to make what seem like big sacrifices (getting a plane the next hour, changing your flight plans, driving cross-country, etc.) will help your case, if known.
A bizdev friend of mine taught me another: reschedule a call to a Saturday (make up a reason). If it's a serious deal... like, "you're going to be Powerpoint in our office suite"... they'll bitch, but do it.
Sometimes these things are about followup, but a lot of times they're really about qualification; they may just not be into you. It can be important to know that if you're otherwise going to spin your wheels.