In a world where the convenience of digital communication is the norm, it can be easy to dismiss the importance of having face-to-face meetings.
Business partnerships are built on trust, understanding, and relationships. Meeting your clients in person is one of the best ways to solidify these basic foundations.
Keep reading to find out how face-to-face meetings positively impact your business relationships and the potential of closing deals.
1) Deals are Closed Faster
Communicating through emails and what seems to be a never-ending game of phone tag can make the entire process take months.
Meeting a client face to face allows you the opportunity to bring all information directly to them in a professional and organized manner.
In your meeting, you will introduce your presentation clearly and effectively. All of your client’s questions can be answered on the spot instead of being spread amongst days of digital back and forth.
If you are a good salesman with great knowledge of your business and a beneficial opportunity, your client will be happy to close the deal with you that very day.
2) You Can Gauge Their Reactions
Yes, digital communication is convenient, but even the best A-I program can’t gauge a person’s genuine reactions through text.
If you are a people person or have a basic understanding of how to analyze body language, you know the importance of talking with someone in person.
Knowing how to analyze body language can help you determine a client’s true feelings because a person’s body language is the way their subconscious participates in the conversation.
Gauging a person’s reactions may feel like a sneaky way to get the upper hand, but it is a great way to safeguard your own company and redirect a conversation going south.
You can safeguard your company because analyzing a person’s body language can help you detect deception, and you can redirect the conversation because these skills also allow you to detect their level of Interest or concern.
If you notice that a client gives a nonverbal cue that signifies concern, you can quickly take hold of the situation with reassuring information.
3) It Proves Commitment and Builds Trust
Emails and phone calls can be seen as a lazy and complacent attempt to create a partnership.
Traveling to a foreign area and spending thousands on a face-to-face meeting proves to your client that they can trust you’re committed to working together.
These travels create trust in your commitment and knowledge of the business.
Face-to-face meetings allow you to prove that you know the details of your proposal and the business inside and out.
In an in-person meeting, your client has the opportunity to place your team on the “hot seat” by asking many hard-to-answer questions. Some clients will use this tactic to test your knowledge of the information you are providing. In-person you don’t have the chance to research the best answer.
If you have an in-depth understanding of your business and proposal, these questions will be answered with ease and you will gain your client’s trust.
4) You Can Create a Meaningful Relationship
Partnerships rely heavily on good relationships and naturally, meeting your client in person is the best way to create that relationship.
Adding the human element is essential to creating a valuable relationship. Your conversations go from text on a screen to personal interactions filled with personality and emotion.
A great way to build a relationship with your client is by inviting their team to have dinner at your business hotel. At the hotel, you can get to know each other in the facilities restaurant and then move on to a meeting room to discuss business deals in a comfortable yet professional atmosphere. For help finding the perfect business hotel, visit Hotelengine.com.
With the help of small talk and the satisfaction of a good meal, you have the opportunity to create a genuine connection. This type of connection allows both parties to converse stress-free. If you have a ton of charisma, your personality alone might be enough to close a deal and develop an admirable partnership that lasts for years.
5) Staying on Track is Easier
One of the hardest parts of communicating virtually is trying to avoid the disruption of distractions.
In a face-to-face meeting, you have your potential clients’ full attention. No children or animals are running through the background of zoom calls or co-workers dragging you away from your conversation.
During your business trip, you have one task- the task to prepare for and attend your meeting. While attending your meeting neither party is faced with outside distractions or the urge to multitask.
Having the ability to meet distraction-free is crucial to the outcome because you are less likely to forget any of the important details.
When you maintain a continuous train of thought, you get on a roll and offer your client a clear and precise representation of your ideas and the company as a whole.
