In Your Face – Marketing
We have, since the pandemic started, become recluse. Withdrawn from the world outside of your own Bio-bubble. Minimum contact with others has been hard on our personal lives and this made me think of the effects our exclusion, from business life, has had on our working relationships. By Theunis Botha
Some of us were used to working with a team, a very good team in daily close-quarter combat, but some have been taken hostage by a seemingly never-ending pandemic.
Some of our troops will preferred being kept out of the action. They are more comfortable isolating with only required contact from time to time, via a phone call WhatsApp or email. Surely at some point this too will become tedious even for the hardest hermit.
As an example, the telephone manners of most people are shocking at best. You will decide in the first minute of a phone call if the person is worth talking to. Are they interested in what you have to say, sell, or support? After meeting the same person that you might have marked off as rude or incompetent and spending 10 minutes shooting the breeze, you will find a huge change in your attitude towards this person. I can promise you their attitude will change towards you as well.
Recently I have had the opportunity to go and see a few clients out on the road again. Our clients are spread far and wide, and on the most recent trip all the way up to Mbombela (that’s close to Nelspruit). What a joy it is to see everyone again and them being so appreciative of someone coming to visit them. I think it is more that the effort is appreciated than the actual conversation that is taking place – I went to deliver bad news. The personal touch made it more acceptable, I guess.
Over the years I have done many face-to-face visits like this and can honestly say that this is still a very effective marketing method. There is only one you in the world, so go show them who you are. Clients are more likely to create a lasting working relationship with you if they know you personally.
At this point I feel I can give some pointers on how to proverbially nail your next face to face appointments. These are simple tips to help you not get stuck in a conversation you don’t want any more or at least get the other person to talk.
Make an actual appointment with someone, even if you are aiming at the CEO but only deal with a salesperson – make that appointment and stick to it. Don’t show up unconfirmed and don’t be late or overstay your welcome. As soon as you inconvenience the listening party you have lost the battle. People value their time, you should too. Who knows, you might bump into the CEO and get an introduction. If you are doing several appointments on a day, have an exit strategy! If you get stuck at the first appointment you will never see that time again, and most certainly be late for the next appointment. Let the client know how much time you have at some point during the first few minutes.
Be prepared. If it is an existing client, see what their best-selling products or services are. You will find that you only need to talk about what they like. Make sure you know more about these products than the client. If you must study user manuals and brochures, do it before you go. Also, some info about the history of the company or client will be useful, order information, lead times recent issues they raised, all of it. Information is your best weapon against a conversation that is heading in the wrong direction. It is easy to find interlinking topics if you know what you are talking about. You control the conversation.
Make sure to have an agenda. Share it with the client before meeting if possible. This gives them time to prepare. They might have questions to ask and will only get the information when you arrive. Also, they might not be interested in your agenda, making the meeting useless. Again, then you are wasting everyone’s time. Having your talking points will help the conversation flow better.
When visiting anyone, even a social call. It is best to not arrive empty handed. If you have marketing material, bring that along. If you are introducing new product or concept, try and bring a live demo of it. I have found that nothing gets grown people excited like new toys. Make it your own mini roadshow if you must. Several times I had to do the demonstration more than once because they had to call someone not in the meeting to see. The same with services. If there is something you do that is unique, demonstrate to the client.
While the office environment has changed and will probably never be the same. We need to rebuild our relationships on a personal level. I for one will try and insist on a personal visit where possible. It is time to reconnect with our humanity. Back to some form of ancient herding instinct, that pulls us towards other humans. Desmond Tutu said it best: “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together”