Back to In-Person meetings to drive business growth

It has been close to 2 years of pandemic and by now we have got accustomed to working in the virtual mode. There were lot of challenges initially, however as we grow and face adverse situations, we tend to adjust ourselves along with the changing environment. The more we adapt and learn, gives us the capability to face the challenges and come out as a winner. A sense of achievement is what we have successfully aligned ourselves with, in the “New Normal” while still growing the business even when we are working remotely.

Before the pandemic, every organization was striving to achieve excellence by investing in platforms, Teams, Process governance and businesses were aiming to centralize the operations to cut down the cost and increase efficiency. But who knew that one fine day, all of us will be forced to sit in our homes and work. ?In the process of becoming more adaptable and overcoming the odds, we are indirectly creating huge gaps in the way we are working. One such important aspect which I wanted to highlight today is the importance of in - person client meetings.

Virtual meetings are an alternative to in - person client meetings but cannot replace the value of Human touch which gets lost in the process. Human beings are driven by emotions, and you cannot be at your best when you are constantly sitting in front of a computer while attending meetings in a mechanical way.

Five Major things that I could have done better with “In - Person Meetings”

1)?????Striking a great Rapport: - One of the important aspects of carrying a good conversation is striking a rapport. This sets the stage for a great meeting. The sooner you can strike a Rapport, the more interest you create in the participants listening to you. All of it depends on how presentable you are, small talks that you do, how spontaneous you are in discussion. This personal touch is impossible while being on virtual calls.

2)?????Deep understanding of Client’s needs: - In order to understand the needs of the client, it is important that one should ask open ended question and should have excellent listening skills. Sometimes, this becomes difficult on the virtual call because of technical issues. Multiple restructuring of sentences may end up losing its essence and compromising the quality of conversation.

3)?????Building Trust and Confidence:- Setting up in - person meetings demonstrate how one values client’s time. The efforts put in to meet a client, booking a conference room, setting up presentation deck and meeting the client in person builds a lot of trust and confidence. It also shows that one is personally involved in the project, and this leaves a long-lasting impression.

4)?????Reading the Non-Verbal cues:- Non-Verbal cues are very important in a meeting which lets you know whether the client is interested or not and helps you carry the conversation in a positive manner. In fact, psychologist?(Jonathan Taylor)?noted that in a 10-minute conversation, people can show up to 150 positive or negative micro-behaviors in facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, and body postures.

5)?????Closure and follow up action: - It is comparatively easy to partner with clients in the face-to-face meetings and come up with a defined plan of action for future needs.

Recently, I got a chance to do an in-person meeting after a long gap. I was too excited to meet the stakeholders at the Client’s place. I felt serving clients online, created a gap which made me understand that this is an underserved market, and this meeting was worth all the efforts. Clients and us - could partner better to review and plan out the future course of action. We could understand, connect well, and got an overwhelming response from the entire team. I could feel the happiness amongst my colleagues for this meeting.

Time and again Studies have shown that “In person Meetings” leave a long-lasting impression and helps to bridge the gap created by virtual meetings.?I am sure you are equally excited to see world getting back to normal and attend “In Person meetings”.?