Once again there is supporting evidence of the value of face-to-face. This was a story highlighted in the B to B Magazine and I wanted to share it with you.
Study: Executives prefer in-person meetings to virtual
Sean Callahan Story posted: August 28, 2009 – 12:05 pm EDT
New York-Despite the rise in virtual meetings, business executives prefer face-to-face meetings, according to the results of a Forbes Insights study released Thursday.
The study, “Business Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face,” was based on June survey of 760 business executives. It found that 84% prefer in-person contact to virtual because face-to-face meetings enable them to build stronger relationships (85%) and provide greater opportunity to “read” another person (77%).
Nonetheless, teleconferences, videoconferences and Web conferences have grown as 58% of respondents said they were traveling less for business now than in January 2008.
Those that preferred virtual meetings cited the time savings (92%) and the financial savings (88%).
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This is some great information, it seems that virtual meetings do lose the face-to-face personal interaction that a physical meeting does, but in current economic times if virtual meetings save time and money-then using creative marketing tools like promotional products can be used to make up for the missing personal touch.
Businesses definitely need that face to face time, although when you can’t be there face to face, promotional items are a way to keep your logo or name in front of someone. Whether it’s a promotional calendars hung in the office or personalized pens, there are a number of items businesses can choose to keep there name in front of their customers when meeting in person may be too expensive.