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Face-to-Face Interaction—What Is Your Company Communicating?

Rapid progress of telecommunication has rightly forced businesses to focus their resources, time, finances, and staff—on learning to use and implement new technology. Nonetheless, if you find yourself lamenting the days when communication meant a face and a voice, you can rest assured you are not alone.

A study by Chicago’s Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) reveals that approximately two out of three trade-show attendees “place a high level of importance on face-to-face interaction” before making a purchase. Most businesses recognize this need by meeting prospective clients at exhibitions or networking events (such as those hosted by MBOT). These events represent a considerable investment by your business. Booth space and design cost money. Staff posted at a trade show or networking event attend these functions by sacrificing other sales opportunities. However, study after study reveals that such investments of time and money reap rich dividends—provided face-to-face communication is well-executed.

After a well-designed logo, exhibition booth, or Web site draws a customer to your company, your product or service is now represented by people. Therefore, successful managers routinely ask: ‘Since my staff represent my company, what message are they conveying?’ People want to do business with people they like and trust. And they don’t have much time to make their decision. Whether at an exhibition, networking event, or sales presentation—your time with a prospective client is limited. How can you make your time count?

Effective face-to-face communications training teaches more than just the delivery of a sales pitch. What is on the client’s mind? Well-chosen questions accomplish two important sales goals:
Questions get your client involved.
Businesspeople in the 21st century are bombarded with aggressive sales tactics at work and then at home by telemarketers. If you stop to listen to a prospective client, he or she will be more inclined to listen to you.
Questions give you knowledge about your audience.
If you know the needs, concerns, and goals of their company, your first words about your product will already be tailor-made for them.

Face-to-face communication includes not only what is said, but what is not said. Therefore, role-playing exercises for sales staff are a key component of sales training. Another election year in the United States has underscored the importance of nonverbal communication and its impact on voters. What nonverbal cues are read by your clients? Do your staff’s hand movements and facial expressions convey apathy, timidity, or even arrogance? Or do they tell your clients that your company is confident, sincere, and flexible?

These dynamics of conversation are summed up by the four C’s: Confidence, Conviction, Credibility, and Connection. Effective communications training will give your company’s representatives confidence. This will help them to speak about your products with conviction. Others then perceive them as credible, and a connection is made. The aforementioned guidelines regarding questions and nonverbal interaction provide a solid foundation for persuasive face-to-face communication. However, just as the age of telecommunications requires more than just a telephone and an E-mail address, effective face-to-face communications training equips sales personnel with the skills needed to answer questions raised by clients and to adapt their presentation from a standard format to meet the needs of a diverse audience.

The aforementioned CEIR survey found that according to trade-show attendees, the most preferred method of conveying information is “one-on-one interaction with exhibit staff, either in direct conversations or in demonstrations.” Thus, face-to-face communication cannot be underestimated. Both multinational corporations and smaller businesses have found that face-to-face communications training have increased sales at exhibitions by as much as 400 percent.

Effective communication is a craft—it can be learned. And in an age when so many companies are investing much of their resources into telecommunications, it is a craft that may give you an edge over your competition.

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Although both face-to-face and virtual strategies offer strong benefits, savvy marketers are building integrated communications plans that marry the benefits of both approaches.
Adding virtual elements can measurably enhance and extend audience engagement resulting from traditional events. However, you must plan and coordinate your online efforts, just as you would your face-to-face events. Each element will affect the audience’s experience with your brand. Choose virtual components that make sense with your event, your audience, and your goals.
Let’s look at how a combined approach could be applied to a trade show, which is one of the most common face-to-face marketing strategies companies employ. They are popular largely because trade shows are a cost-effective way to generate leads, close new business, and drive brand awareness.



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