Conducting Business Face to Face or In Person Meetings Still on Top
January 10th, 2012 | 
Author: Conducting business face to face through in person meetings still tops using technology according to 2011 survey published in the October 2011 edition of The Wire from AirPlus. Even though many of those surveyed had increased remote conferencing be it teleconferencing, Web Conferencing or virtual conferencing, the effectiveness of these technology solutions remained to be seen.
Only 12% believed that remote conferencing was as effective as meeting face to face or in person meetings while 88% believed its effectiveness was sometimes to never as effective.
In yesterday’s business and sales blog about How Social Media Goes Beyond the Keyboard, I shared about how I met some Facebook friends for coffee (face to face) and had the opportunity to get to know them outside of the social media environments. Granted these were not potential customers (at least I do not think so), but they were business colleagues and centers of influence. Meeting them in person was a definite plus not to mention our get together supported another local business through increase sales.
With marketplace now extending beyond one’s backyard to across the world, sometimes conducting business face to face or in person is not possibly especially for many small business owners with limited travel budgets. However to earn that next large potential sale may require you leaving the comfort of your office and jumping on a plan for that coveted in person meeting or driving a couple of hundred miles.
For the last 10 plus years in the training and development worlds, eLearning through online courses, webinars, etc. has become quite prevalent. However research still suggests a blended environment of face to face training and development (on site) and eLearning is still more effective than just eLearning alone.
Surveys from AirPlus reaffirm that human beings are human and are wired for personal, face to face interactions. Yes it is good to see a face through the use of technology based applications like Skype.com. However, that is still not a replacement for receiving the handshake and actually physically touching someone.
P.S. Tomorrow will be the first guest blogger post for 2012. Each Wednesday guest bloggers from across the globe will share new insights and further help educate the readers of this blog. Your feedback as always is appreciated.
Posted in Sales | 
Tags: face to face, in person meetings, increase sales, remote conferencing, social media, training and development
4 Responses to “Conducting Business Face to Face or In Person Meetings Still on Top”
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Leanne thanks for this post. I find it a bit strange that so many in the sales and marketing space are now singing the praises of social media while not connecting the virtual world with the real world. It is as though they believe social media has somehow changed human nature. Most humans prefer the face to face connection and the Internet hasn’t–and isn’t–going to change that. Social media is another tool and format for connecting, but it cannot and will not replace the most human of all needs—the warmth in-person connection where the communication can take place on levels social media will never be able to go. We need to be helping sellers learn how to utilize social media and then do as you did–take those new connections into our physical world whenever possible.
Paul, you and I, I believe are in the minority when it comes connecting inbound with outbound activities. You are so correct about the human connection as evidence by that first handshake or even eye to eye connection. In some cases this is not possible for example when coaching internationally using Skype even with video it is not the same as a face to face in person meeting. Thanks for your comments,
Leanne Hoaglanf-Smith
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Much appreciate being added to your Google reader. Looking forward to future comments and interactions,
Leanne Hoagland-Smith