Russ Dalbey's Blog

Seems like no matter where I go these days, all I see are people talking on cell phones, on their lap tops, wearing their Bluetooth headsets, or surfing the net on their iPhones. Everyone seems to be communicating all the time, in all manner of places… in their cars, walking down the street, in meetings, or at the gym.

Emails, text messaging, IMs, Skype… the number of high-tech communication methods has simply exploded. We can’t seem to get enough of it, and the more “techy” and the faster the better. Seems like even regular old phone calls have become passé!

Don’t get me wrong – it’s great that we have all of these modern communication channels available to us. But, I think it’s incredibly important to remember an important fact: nothing replaces one-on-one, face-to-face, direct communication… this is true in your personal life and in business.

Why? Because without face-to-face interaction, vital communication cues are often lost along the way.

We’ve all been there: you sent an email that you thought was perfectly clear, but ended up being misinterpreted. And you probably remember instances when you thought you heard someone tell you something on the phone, and then learned later that you completely misheard the other party’s statements.

Or, even worse – you left an important voice mail or sent a time-sensitive email to a client, only to find out later that, due to some inexplicable technological glitch, it was never received.

So, while all of this technology has made our lives easier and has really opened up the world to us in ways that we never imagined would be possible, be aware that sometimes the old-fashioned way is really the best.

And, to my mind, all of this technology has had an unfortunate side effect. It’s caused a lot of us to lose touch with an important ingredient to successful business: the human element.

The success of your business is intrinsically connected to how well you communicate, how professionally you conduct yourself and the quality of your product. While you will certainly do a great deal of your business over the phone and through emails and other electronic media (especially for your marketing), don’t forget the importance of having “real life” interactions with your clients and customers.

Remember, in addition to being a more direct and “fool-proof” way to communicate important information, face-to-face meetings also afford your clients the opportunity to get to know you. Giving your customers the chance to quickly see what you’re all about as a person is very important, because in order for your clients to do business with you, they have to trust you first, which means they need to get a sense for who you are.

Bottom line: supplement your calls, emails and texts with in-person meetings with your customers – as often as you can.

Warmly,

Russ

Founder of Winning in the Cash Flow Business