I’ll admit, I’m pretty old school in many ways. But, like many in my industry, I accept, embrace, and adapt to new tools and technology all the time. Most make life easier and reduce costs to the client.

Whether it’s keeping up with software changes, design trends, web technology, and of course all the happenings with AI, we either adapt or we fail.

However, while chatting to a sales friend (who I’ve known and worked with for years) in the print industry we got on to the subject of Teams vs face-to-face meetings. He mentioned that he’d picked up an account from a colleague who was retiring. When he contacted the client (now staffed by much younger individuals than previously) there was a strong reluctance to meet face-to-face. They simply didn’t see the point. In fact, they couldn’t understand why someone would want to drive for a couple of hours to meet them.

My friend pressed ahead and did his best to insist on a visit. In the end they accepted. What my friend noted was how much he learned in his visit and from walking around the business. That experience and the conversations that naturally flowed from there, enabled him to then ensure he recommended the right product for the client. He strongly felt this would have been much harder without that personal visit.

Our discussion then turned to whether a Teams meeting, in a sales workflow specifically, could ever create the same loyalty and relationship between supplier and client as a face-to-face could.

While I love the productivity boost that video conferencing has brought to my business (and of course the environmental and social benefits to not driving everywhere), it would seem that eschewing the traditional face-to-face means you’ll never quite build the same rapport with a client. 

From there I decided to have a chat with a few other business contacts in different markets to get their thoughts and see if they matched up with my previous conversation.

Unanimously, each agreed that relying entirely on Teams as a sales tool leaves something to be desired. An important aspect that really stood out was one client explaining how she no longer has sales reps visit her much. In turn, that has meant that when someone else pitches a product or service (personally or via email or Teams etc) she has a much lower loyalty to the existing supplier—now that she doesn’t see them face to face. This came as a surprise to her initially.

While I love the productivity boost that video conferencing has brought to my business (and of course the environmental and social benefits to not driving everywhere), it would seem that eschewing the traditional face-to-face means you’ll never quite build the same rapport with a client. 

While the ‘modern’ is powerful at times, there are many more traditional tools and approaches that still have great value and shouldn’t be ignored. Rather, by carefully blending the two you can ensure the very best that both have to offer.

Jeff

Caffeine Creative are an experienced team based in the Cardiff area. We help with graphic design, web development, company values, social media, video, branding and more. To know more please contact us, we’d love to chat.