Creating Business Connections: Face-to-Face vs. Virtual

In today’s world, it is more common to connect with others online than in person. Networking is done via LinkedIn and Facebook as is marketing for potential customers. Webinars provide a medium for educational and informational seminars without ever having to leave one’s office. With Skype and Facetime, business can be conducted from anywhere, virtually. According to this article from The Street, employers must be flexible and offer work from home alternatives in order to attract top talent.

Millennials are taking this to the next level by working remotely while traveling the world. These are young entrepreneurs who want the flexibility of running their own companies from any city in the world. As exotic as this sounds, it can also be lonely. However, digital nomad programs, like Remote Year and We Roam, bring together like-minded individuals to work remotely and travel together creating a balance between face-to-face and virtual worlds.

This type of work environment can work well for those looking to expand their business internationally as well, but it’s important to remember that you must create relationships.

When conducting business internationally, this balance is critical. People will only do business with you if they know you, like you, and most of all, trust you. So, to gain that trust, you need to meet your international prospects in person and get to know each other first, before any business is conducted. This means, you will need to travel to countries in your target market several times, learning the culture and how business is done in that culture before you can take advantage of the virtual world we now live in.

Companies definitely save time and money conducting virtual meetings since the need for travel is eliminated but there are other important benefits, such as collaboration. With virtual meetings, you can bring the entire team together, more often, for brainstorming, presenting new product lines, and solving complex problems, just to name a few. This is a great benefit because employees, partners, customers, vendors and the employers are rarely in the same place at the same time.

Internationally, this will be extremely important, as you need to maintain contact and continuously build that relationship. In Mexico, for example, it could take up to a year of rapport building before you make that first sale. For small and medium-sized enterprises, it’s just not realistic to maintain the travel expenses needed to obtain that first contract.

So, face-to-face or virtual?  I say both; first, second and maybe even third meetings, definitely face-to-face. Then, go virtual as often as possible.