Why face-to-face beats digital

It is often easier to just send over a quick email to a client, but it’s not always the best thing to do if you want to develop a strong relationship. We can never underestimate the power of actually meeting someone and doing business face-to-face. Here are six reasons you should ditch the desk for some face-to-face communication.

1. We need physical contact
Even in this digital age, us humans are not programmed to do everything online. Being in a room together with elements like eye contact and being able to express ourselves is still the most productive way of working and producing ideas. By just sending emails, you don’t look human and people will struggle to connect with you., or want to work with you.

2. There’s no feelings involved
It’s easy to appear like a robot online and it’s difficult to tell if someone is truly passionate about something. Whereas if you’re spending time with someone, you can tell from their body language and enthusiasm if they really care about something.

3. Much easier to negotiate
If you’re trying to negotiate, then ditch the laptop as you’re never going to get anywhere quickly over email. Negotiations are better done face-to-face as you can see how someone reacts to what you’re saying and it’s difficult to dance around the subject or ignore the question. If you negotiate online, clients will have time to talk themselves out of working with you. In person, they don’t have as much time.

4. Appear sincere
We all make mistakes in business, but if you’ve really messed up, you’re much better off meeting up with the people you have got on the wrong side of and apologising in person. Apologising online is far too easy and doesn’t appear sincere. But by meeting with that person, you’re putting yourself out there and you’re willing to fix what you can.

5. Celebrations are much better
If you and another company have done particularly well at something, you probably want to celebrate! But it’s a bit difficult trying to celebrate over email or on FaceTime. Take each other out for dinner can help to strengthen the relationship.

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