Better Meetings Day #10: Foundation of Face to Face

Sometimes, it’s very healthy to take a step back, have a deep breath, and make sure you’re not missing the forest for the trees.

At Qworky, we know that we can’t forget the bigger picture as we try to make meetings better. This is why we’re following up our posts about online meetings and practices to get more value out of emails with an analysis of just what makes meeting face to face so valuable in the first place.

The Value of Meeting Face to Face

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services has a very useful report in this department, entitled Managing Across Distance in Today’s Economic Climate: The Value of Face-to-Face Communication (PDF), where they examine the results from their global survey of 2,300 Harvard Business Review subscribers about their views on face to face meetings.

Despite the influx of meeting technology, 79% of those surveyed believe that in-person meetings are still the most effective way to meet new clients to sell business, while 89% agreed that face-to-face meetings remain essential for “sealing the deal” in particular.

Also, an overwhelming 95% understand the “high impact” of in-person communication and say that face-to-face meetings are a key factor in successfully building and maintaining long-term relationships.

In fact, although sales and business development were identified as the areas most dependent on face to face meetings, the importance of face to face communication for relationship building remains central. It is especially emphasized for bridging cultural gaps, and “93% agree that in-person meetings are helpful when negotiating with businesspeople who have different language and cultural backgrounds.”

Making Relationships Deeper

Roger Rickard, the Chief Business Solicitor of REvent, says “face to face interaction is the driving force in building lasting relationships and creates a bond that enables far greater communication in the future. Once we’ve spent time together face-to-face, both parties feel both a deeper connection and a stronger obligation to one another.”

This experience is also described by Karen Leland, President of Sterling Marketing and Consulting Group, when she explains how face to face encounters provide her a “deeper sense of who they were, how they operated and their personalities” while also helping her to “see their faces in my mind’s eye” whenever she emails or talks to them on the phone afterwards as well.

A Foundation to Move Forward

“When you find yourself face-to-face with someone, you realize you can explore, ask questions, keep asking more questions and get to the heart of the matter,” author Joanne Black explains within Leland’s post.

Learning how we can best develop relationships and environments where we feel safe enough to push to get to the heart of the matter—whether we are communicating in person or not—seems to be a key to a future of Better Meetings, and we’re on the case developing the tools and practices to get there!

What say you?