Reasons to set aside time for meeting people live

Over the past four years most companies have delegated additional workloads to their employees as they cut headcount and reduced costs.

The resulting battle for additional time in the work day to complete assignments has caused fewer meetings and less flexibility regarding time.

The increased use of technology has allowed us to believe that we can adjust, but it is still imperative to get live meetings.

Live meetings actually increase productivity and they are not only applicable to people who are in the fields of sales or purchasing.

Firstly, human interactions are good for a healthy body and this is not even referring to the argument that it is required for biological reasons.

I am often told by clients that they always feel guilty about taking the time to meet with someone live but that they usually feel remarkably satisfied after the meeting and find that the meeting produced good thoughts/ideas and that they also felt they had more energy.

Sporadic human interaction is an uplifting part of the day.

It often allows people during a discussion to feel proud of their work and what they are doing and it also allows

the opportunity to stand back and reassess situations and get informal unbeknownst input from people who are not directly involved.

Physical meetings are still the best way to get information.

Written emails are on the record and the sender is always cognisant of the paper trail being created.

They feel the need to closely guard personal and company information and to say as little as possible.

Candidates and clients are absolutely amazed at what they can learn from a personal meeting without even asking in depth questions.

It does not even have to be a senior person relaying the information as bright and observant people exist in all levels of an organization.

The common denominator for my clients whose businesses are in growth mode is that they are all very in tune with their customers.

They set aside time for store visits as well as working with operations people on how to improve things.

It not only builds unbelievable employee morale, but it raises the comfort level for all levels of employees to put ideas forward that can improve processes.

The suggestion box hanging in the HR office lost its relevance in the 1950’s.

Employees no longer go out of their way to contribute if they don’t see reciprocal efforts made by management.

Technology is a great tool but it is not the only tool.

You still need people to make a business transaction.

“Consultative selling” has been the buzz word for over a decade now which really means, put the product catalogue down and listen to the customers’ needs and then deliver the solution.

With this homogenized approach used by most companies now, there are now many competitors in front of one buyer and unless there is some cutting edge new technology offered by one company, there can be a few companies offering very similar solutions.

A savvy “old school” sales candidate of mine in his 70’s and still acting as a director for a major retailer said to me that “you still need a person to move a product from point A to point B.”

He is absolutely right and that is probably why he is still working at his age.

People want to work with someone that they identify with and companies will often give preferential treatment to someone who doesn’t just show up when there is an RFP invitation.

People also tend to want to work with people that enhance their lives or share common interests.

This common ground is only truly discovered and matured through in person meetings.

Live meetings display body language, confidence, empathy, sincerity, energy level and they also show personality.

If you are an executive in career transition you should be doing a minimum of three live networking meetings a day.

Farewell,

Mike