4 reasons you should always have in person meetings rather than phone calls

4 reasons you should always have in person meetings rather than phone calls

Over the years I've done plenty of local work for, you guessed it, local companies in my area or within a reasonable driving distance.  I sell an SEO service that is designed for companies wanting a team to work on a monthly schedule, year round, to gain top rankings for their desired keywords.  I've had plenty of meetings that were in person, and I've gained some knowledge because of this, and I will share it for all of you who are reading

Normally when I schedule these types of meetings I will either go meet up with these companies at their offices or we will go out to a Starbucks.  I do this because, well, I don't have an office anymore because it is pretty much pointless for digital marketing agencies as long as you have a good team who knows what they're doing and you can trust they're doing it   But that's not the only reason I meet at the clients office or in a public place.  I will meet up with them at their offices because they now have home field advantage of sorts.  They will feel more comfortable when talking with me about advancing their companies, and I don't mind being out of the house, so it's a win win

Now there are plenty of ways to get in touch with potential clients such as phone calls, emails, chats, video conferences, etc.  But I snub all of those if I have a chance to meet with a potential client in person.  Below I will talk about the 4 reasons I believe that in person meetings are always the best way to do business


1. Better Conversation
When you're face to face with someone, you can get more in depth when it comes to the conversation.  If you're texting and emailing someone you need to send snippets of the conversation and it can feel less personal. 

Businesses usually have an enormous amount of moving parts when it comes to the day to day operations.  All of this can be lost when it comes to emails and texts because the amount of information you're trading can get lost or simply not mentioned.

Having a face to face meeting will always have a better conversation because you can see emotion and express it yourself.


2. You understand the personality of the person you're with
When you're with someone face to face you get to hear their voice, see their expressions and over all get to know their personality.  With all the other forms of communication you lose that usually and the conversation becomes dull, usually.

Making a great first impression via email or text is never the best way to assess someone either.  Sure you can get an email to their inbox, but do they really know who you are and what you're like?  NOPE!

You can't get back a first impression, so make it a great one


3. You learn a lot from their workplace
When you walk into the persons office or work area, you get an idea of what they are all about.  A persons office can tell you a lot about them from how well they work to if they're organized.  Now I don't shun people who have a messy desk, you should see mine lol, it doesn't mean they run a crumby business.  Being messy in your own space just means you're thinking a lot and you're doing a ton of work, which is always good.  But if the company is unorganized, it will show across the entire work place and not just a single office.

You can also gauge how creative the business is by it's layouts and color scheme.  If the flow of foot traffic is unhindered and you can basically run around if you'd like, that's a good thing.  Restricted offices are always going to create stress because people will feel confined.  Another thing is the colors of the office, and I like to use a simple saying "If it's grey, stay away!" lol.  This is mainly due to the company only focusing on money, so they don't usually update their paint when moving into an office.  Now there are exceptions to this, you can go into an office that has basic colors, but they may have just moved in.  This is when you'll have to assess them based on the conversation you have with them, which isn't difficult to do


4. The Small Talk
I've noticed that when I'm talking with a potential client and we begin to have small talk about the weather, sports teams, vacations, hobbies, etc.  It's usually a good thing.  This is because the potential client is getting to know you better and feels comfortable opening up slightly and talking about random things.  They will understand that you're not out to just gouge their pocket books and that you're a legitimate company, which is a great thing

I remember a few years ago when I was talking to a client about everything we could do for him and his company, we were in a "meeting" for around 2 hours.  Now the meeting could have been around 30 minutes but we started talking about fishing and where we like to go.  Then we started sharing pictures with each other and also telling fishing stories.  Well, after that 2 hour meeting I still have that very same client signed up with me today and we've been fishing multiple times together




In Conclusion:
An in person meeting will always trump the other forms of communication.  You can be more personal with the people and they will get to know you well in a short amount of time.  You never know the power of an in person meeting until you actually try it out.  I was scared to do this my first couple times because I'm not a huge fan of public speaking.  But after the first couple I realized that it's just like talking to a random person who likes what you do, and I got better at it



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Thanks!

Razzy