When should you push for a face-to-face meeting with a customer?

When budgets are tight, virtual meetings abound. Should you still push for a face-to-face meeting if it involves extra resources? Here is a neuroscience perspective.

We conducted a neuroscience research study with B2B buyers and compared four modalities of presenting a sales pitch: virtual, face-to-face, hybrid, and over the phone. During the study, we recorded buyers' EEG (electroencephalogram) and ECG (electrocardiogram) signals to determine their level of attention, cognitive workload/working memory, fatigue, and motivation (cognitive variables) as well as their valence and arousal (affective variables). Two days after exposure to the content, we also calculated buyers' recall of the most important parts of the presentation.

During the experiment, the buyers were first paired up, and each pair was randomly assigned to one of the four presentation modalities. All pairs listened to the same introductory sales presentation related to a tech platform, and the presentation included a combination of a "why change" and "why you" story.

The "why change" portion of the presentation introduced buyers to trends in their industry and the consequences of not addressing those trends or addressing them with a flawed approach. This segment culminated with a pivot point - an aha moment related to why change was critical for business success. During the "why you" portion of the presentation, buyers were presented with a solution that addressed the trends and introduced three power positions that buyers could adopt, with positive and well documented results.

A "why you" story has power only when a "why change" message fuels it.

This research was one of my most challenging experiments because typically, my neuroscience research involves 2-3 experimental groups. This time, I had 4. Typically, I scan only one person's brain at a time. This time, people participated in pairs. And typically, I observe the brain's reaction to a pre-recorded stimulus. This time, a live presenter delivered the sales pitch. However, a challenging experiment does render exciting and surprising observations. Read on.

On average, analyzing the impact of the entire presentation, the virtual modality performed best and hybrid performed worst. However, there were two nuances in favor of the face-to-face modality. Knowing them will help you determine if it's worthwhile to meet prospects in person.

Consider face-to-face meetings if you are only sharing a "why change" story

When we analyzed the EEG and ECG signals for the first part of the presentation that introduced the "why change" story, we noted statistically significant differences between the four modalities regarding buyers' emotions. Specifically, buyers in the face-to-face condition experienced a positive, relaxed affective state, while buyers in the other conditions attended this segment of the presentation in a negative emotional state.

Regarding cognitive variables, analyzing the EEG signals, we noted that, qualitatively, the face-to-face group experienced the highest level of attention during the "why change" segment.

So, if your initial meeting is intended to only inform prospects of current industry events and inspire them to take action, our hypothesis is that the face-to-face environment will perform better for this "why change" context.

Meet face-to-face if you want customers to remember nuanced details about your solution

If you're delivering a "why change" and a "why you" combination of stories, and it is important for buyers to remember not just a few general elements of the presentation, but also nuanced details about the solution, the face-to-face context is better. Compared to the virtual modality, for example, the recall performance for extra specific details related to the solution was 42% higher in the face-to-face condition.

BUT...

Avoid hybrid if you can!

The hybrid modality (where some buyers are "here" and some buyers are "there") has often been seen as splitting the difference between being fully face-to-face or fully virtual. Our neuroscience experiment indicates that in the hybrid format, buyers are neither here, nor there. Hybrid participants seemed to be in a state where they wanted to withdraw from the presentation. Worse yet, this state of withdrawal was most apparent during the presentation of the vendor's differentiator - this is a segment during which all presenters hope that buyers want to approach the stimulus, not withdraw from it.

Buyers in the hybrid condition also had the lowest memory scores for nuanced details of the solution.

If the conditions outlined so far match your context (a "why change" story or a "why change+ why you" and nuanced details), schedule a face-to-face meeting; but take a reality check to identify the odds that someone from the client team might surprise you at the last minute, "calling in virtually," while the rest of the team is in person. If the likelihood is high, opt for fully virtual. If the likelihood is low, take the show on the road.

Carmen Simon, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer at?Corporate Visions?and author of?Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions. She uses neuroscience tools to research how the brain processes business messages, remembers them, and decides to act (or not). The research is translated into practical guidelines for sellers and marketers, and available in the CVI advisory platform.