Face-to-Face Meetings in the Internet Age
Do you think face-to-face meetings are no longer relevant for the internet generation? A recent client experience indicates they are still very relevant.
A client who develops custom software recently became a technology partner to a large internet-focused company in the Bay Area. This company is selling licenses to its platform rapidly and they need help customizing it for their clients. They selected my client based on their reputation for excellence.
This work is great because it in the world of custom software development, it is often feast or famine, and this partnership provides consistent work. In addition, my client knew there was more opportunity for them to expand the work they do with this partner.
The problem was that despite getting 5 developers certified and numerous emails letting their partner know they had the resources, my client was unable to get a greenlight to help with these additional projects.
So, they brought me in to help.
Face-to-Face Meeting
Shortly after I started working with the client, they had an opportunity to meet with the partner at an event. Before we left for the meeting, we established clear objectives for our visit:
- Who we wanted to meet
- The message we wanted to convey
- The outcome we were looking for
Both being high tech companies, they were happy to communicate frequently with each other via email, text, video conference and live chat. However, my client was not getting a response regarding growing their relationship, regardless of all of the online communication. Here is what we learned when we met face-to-face:
- My client was well position to take on additional work.
- The division they were working with was in flux.
- There was a backlog of work that needed to be taken care of.
- My client was one of the bigger partners they had and one of their most trusted.
In addition, we figured out that the account managers were tasked with taking care of the backlog. By leveraging those relationships, we got an introduction to the person in charge of sourcing these types of projects.
Within weeks, my client was supporting them on these projects and had opened up the opportunity to be an end-to-end partner – taking on larger projects and helping both companies succeed.
Get Out from Behind Your Computer
Do you want to improve relationships and increase sales? Even if you are dealing with very tech savvy people, get out and go see clients, partners and prospects. You will connect differently — more deeply. They see you as human, not just an email address or video image. It makes a positive difference with the youngest, most technology savvy people in the world!
