In the past couple of weeks, salespeople have claimed that their clients don’t want to meet with them face-to-face. One proudly declared that her clients love their virtual meetings. Another suggested their clients prefer emails. My own experience doesn’t reflect these beliefs. One of my clients asked me not to email him because his internal emails are more than he can manage. Instead, if something comes up, I call him directly between our face-to-face meetings, which happen every two weeks.
The more we turn to technology, the more we use weaker mediums. This encourages our clients to avoid more effective communication methods that could strengthen relationships and get great better results faster.
A List of Mediums in Order of Most Effective to Least Effective
- Face-to-face: This is the platinum standard, the most effective medium available to salespeople and their clients. It provides the richest experience and the best possible interaction.
- Telephone: The telephone is the second best, even though it has no visual component. You can be certain your contact has their phone within reach. You need a lot fewer virtual meetings by calling your client.
- Virtual meeting: If you are a long way from your client, using a virtual platform can provide a better experience because you can see one another. If you live in the same city you would be better off going to their location and meeting face-to-face. If it’s a pop-up meeting of five minutes, it may make sense.
- Text: When you can text your client, it’s certain to be a short message, but even this can be a better medium than email because it feels more intimate.
- Email: Email is the weakest and most transactional form of communication for communicating with your clients. You are placing your communication next to the many emails your client receives every day. Your communication is likely to be lost or overlooked.
Why Your Client Would Avoid a Face-to-Face Meeting
You should worry if your client avoids meeting with you. It may mean you don’t create enough value to deserve a meeting, or because you overstay your welcome. When a client doesn’t want to meet face to face, it is evidence that you aren’t important enough for them to spend time with you.
When a salesperson believes their client doesn’t want to meet with them, they leave the door open for a competitor who could create the value the existing salesperson fails to deliver.
Here is a truth worth considering: The time your client will give you tells you how valuable you are to them. More time means you are important enough to deserve a face-to-face meeting. Less time means you aren’t enough for the client.
Why Your Client Goes Virtual
Typically, your client chooses a virtual meeting because it is faster. (Exceptions are if there is only a need for a short meeting or if distance makes a face-to-face meeting difficult.) The amount of time a client is willing to give you provides feedback on your relationship and how valuable you are to them.
Virtual is the transactional version of a face-to-face meeting. It’s not all bad, but if you don’t ever meet face-to-face, you may not have the relationship you want or need.
Here is another truth worth considering: The weaker your relationship, the easier it is for another salesperson to displace you and your company. See Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition.
Why Your Client Wants You to Email Them
When a client asks you to email them, it isn’t because they want to fill their inbox. The average knowledge worker receives 140 emails each day. The reason a contact asks you to communicate over email is because the conversation isn’t important enough to command their time and attention.
Email is not a priority for leaders and decision-makers. A client who asks for an email is suggesting your communication doesn’t deserve a better communication medium.
The Continuing Regression to Transactional Approaches
By choosing more transactional approaches throughout the sales conversation, we distance ourselves from our clients and settle for relationships that are not as strong as they need to be to retain and grow with the client. Without the relationship, you are exposed to being removed and replaced by another salesperson who is happy to meet with your clients.
The more you rely on transactional approaches, the more certain it is that you will not be your client’s trusted advisor. Perhaps, even if you sell copy paper, you’d have a better chance of keeping the business with the relationship than without it.
Another truth worth considering: A competitor will do anything you refuse to, so if you don’t want to meet with your client, someone else will. If you refuse to create value for your clients by helping them improve their results or speaking on the phone, another salesperson will be willing to call your main contact and remove you.
People Buy from People
People don’t buy from companies. They buy from the salespeople who work for companies. Selling is a people business. There is a saying that the “r” in relationship turns a contact into a contract.
Were you to improve your relationships and retain your clients, you would need to spend time with your contacts. The risks of failing to communicate in a way that supports strong relationships and value creation are steep. Relying on less effective modes of communication and failing to invest in relationships with your contacts exposes you to potentially losing a longtime client.
Here is another truth worth considering: When you meet a contact in a way that requires effort on your part, it suggests that you believe they are important enough to see. The opposite is also true. Should you decide that it is too much trouble to go see your client, you project that you don’t care enough to put forth the effort.
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