WHY FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS ARE STILL RELEVANT
WHY FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS ARE STILL RELEVANT
There was a time when you had to be in the same location as your colleague, client, or business partner to have a face-to-face meeting. But with technological advances, we’ve seen the rise of many new ways to have personal meetings with people, regardless of location. This brings about incredible opportunities for professionals like financial advisors, who need to have consistent communication with their clients.
With that said, the reality is that online face-to-face meetings aren’t quite the same as in-person ones—and when you’re working closely and need to develop trust with someone, nothing can replace that true face-to-face contact. This is why in-person appointments and seminars are still the preferred methods for advisors, despite the wide array of digital alternatives. These physical meetings allow advisors to make a personal bond with their clients—but there are numerous other benefits, too.
Client engagement
Client engagement is at its highest with face-to-face meetings, though phone calls can also help support strong engagement. Both are vastly superior to print newsletters, radio, and webinars, which are far less personal. Though other methods may have certain advantages over face-to-face meetings, both advisors and clients tend to prefer to meet in person for the initial meeting.
Networking opportunities
Seminars allow advisors to create engagement and a personal connection with a wider audience. But they’re also excellent for networking opportunities, which are essential to business success. Seminars bring like-minded people together, facilitating communication that can help build connections with potential business allies. And while some may argue that webinars also offer networking opportunities, there really is no comparison. Online meetings as a whole lack many of the factors that make in-person interactions so genuine and compelling.
Building trust
When it comes to establishing trust, nothing tops an in-person, face-to-face meeting. Why? It has to do with the details that accompany a physical encounter and let you know more about a person—details like body language and gestures, small talk, and the general feeling you get when you’re around someone.
Final words
There are a wide range of tools that now allow us to conduct business from anywhere and to anywhere, and it’s easy to forget the effectiveness of face-to-face appointments and seminars. But in-person meetings hold an important place in business, as they allow us to build stronger relationships and offer greater engagement than online meetings. In many instances, leveraging both digital and in-person means to interact with clients may be the right way to go—so get familiar with the tools at hand and use them to your advantage.