There were a couple of raised eyebrows at a recent Supervisory board meeting when I explained that at a recent sales conference we had targeted a substantial increase in Face to Face meetings (F2F) with our customers. You could sense a little feeling of "increased cost? where’s the benefit?"

By the way, with respect to conferences, it is the only time of the year when our people get together, share experiences and learn from each other. It’s the only time we can challenge them as a group and it’s the only time that they are thanked and publicly recognized for a job well done. It energises and inspires them.

Back to F2F visits, a recent survey by Analytic Services of the Harvard Business School examined how valuable doing business was F2F compared to the high tech alternatives such as video conferencing and webinars (or telephones perhaps)! The survey was conducted with over 2200 business people, 70% out of them being executives that work in a multi-country environment.

Key findings were:
o 79% viewed ‘in-person” meetings were the most effective way to sell to new customers
o 87% felt that “in-person” meetings are essential to closing the deal
o 95% felt that “in-person” is the best way to build long term relationships

There is also no doubt that “in-person” meetings will produce a transaction that has greater profitability than a deal done digitally.