Do you meet your Customers and Prospects in person?

Recently we put a poll question out on Social Media, “Do you meet Prospects and Customers in Person?” We asked this question because virtual meetings have become increasingly popular what with the Covid 19 Pandemic and technology becoming so advance that you can do business with anyone, everywhere in the world, at any time! Personally I think there is still some merit in meeting face to face as it builds a more personal relationship but there are several benefits to the virtual meetings too. I was keen to find out what everyone else thought on this matter! The results from the poll are as follows: 33% said Yes, 44% selected sometimes and 22% voted No.

So we have a great mix in answers. Showing that the virtual meetings are definitely becoming more popular but that there is still a place for face to face meetings. I think it is great that we have the choice now as this opens the pool of customers you can work with. On another note, it also means you can employ people from anywhere in the world due to remote working, you can focus more on skill and attributes as oppose to location of the person as this may not always get you the best candidate.

Being able to virtually meet fellow businesses, frees up travelling time and saves money which means you can be more productive during working hours!

Similarly, during the pandemic, these virtual meetings showed us that we can still be productive and complete tasks in a safe way and this has transpired to the way we work today. If a member of staff or client is afraid of passing an illness on, you can still virtual meet them and get issues resolved.

There is still a place for good old fashioned face to face meetings though, sometimes its good to break things up from online and actually meet people as the meeting will run differently, you can read peoples facial expressions and build bonds and trust that can necessarily be made through Zoom/ Teams etc. Having a mixture of virtual and face to face will definitely ensure you get the best of both worlds. You can have quicker zoom meetings more often and then meet up every so often to maintain a more personal relationship.

According to Great Business Schools, “Nothing is more effective than in-person interactions” as it’s not what you say but how you say it and your facial expression and body language when you do. You will learn more about a person from meeting them face-to-face than online.

Face Squared – The Numbers Behind Face to Face Networking – Great Business Schools

From this blog, I hope you can take away the benefits of both virtual and face to face meetings.

As always, please comment with your thoughts as it is great to hear from you!

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