How to get more face to face meetings

For this first episode of the Luxury of Choice Podcast, host Steve Vaughan is joined by fellow trainers Jayne Green and Pascal le Floche. Since the pandemic, getting face to face meetings with prospects has become more difficult, with an increase in virtual, remote meetings instead. Whilst sales calls over Teams, Zoom, etc have their place, there is no substitute for visiting the customer. Meeting face to face allows us to build trust, get a fuller understanding of their challenges and needs, and to have a good look around their lab or factory. In this podcast the team discuss why face to face meetings are important, and how to get more. 

Steve Vaughan, Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton, Christian Walter, Pascal le Floche, Jayne Green and Jonathan Slasinski are Sales Trainers from george james ltd. You can email the show at: Podcast@georgejames-training.com

The trainers on LinkedIn:

Steve Vaughan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-vaughan-salestrainer/
Jonathan Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cooper-18716b1/
Pru Layton https://www.linkedin.com/in/pru-layton-b46a3528/
Christian Walter https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-walter-a1857b1/
Jayne Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-green-salestrainer/
Pascal Le Floch-Riche https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-le-floch-220ba46/

Jonathan Slasinski https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-slasinski-449a655/

george james training website https://georgejames-training.com/

Transcript

Steve Vaughan (00:00.974)
Hello again and welcome to the Luxury of Choice, a B2B technical sales and business podcast brought to you by the training team of George James Limited. My name is Steve Vaughan. I'm one of the training team here with George James and I'm also the host and producer of this podcast. And amazingly it's 2026 and it's the first podcast of our new year for us. And I've got my two colleagues with me today, Jane Green and Pascal Lefloque. So Jane, Pascal, how, I know it seems a long time ago now, but did you have a good Christmas? Did you have a good time?

Jayne Green (00:30.151)
Yeah, lovely and quiet actually for me. So no big partying or anything like that, but just what was needed. So yeah.

Steve Vaughan (00:39.15)
Good, good. How about you Pascal?

Pascal Le Floch (00:41.325)
Yeah, let's say very relaxing one and the time to reflect, time to have some rest. yeah, that's good to have sometimes.

Steve Vaughan (00:47.436)
Yeah, always a good time. Absolutely. Yeah, I had a great Christmas present. had a new granddaughter. So that was exciting. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant news. And they're all doing well. Fantastic. So what is our topic today? So it's something that's come up, I know, for all of us in the training team here as a concern or observation, shall we say, for salespeople in the sort of life science, technical sales lab, those kind of fields really. And that is

Jayne Green (00:53.656)
congratulations.

Steve Vaughan (01:17.024)
increasingly a requirement, it seems at least, from the customer to not have them come and visit or have us come and visit them in their lab or in their factory or in their office, but to default to a Teams, probably a Teams or a Zoom call. Now, whether that's a real or perhaps sort of an observed phenomenon, we'll perhaps knock that around really. But what I would like to explore today on this podcast is, well, first of all,

Is that something that's really happening? And if so, why? And then if that's an issue or a problem, and again, let's explore that. What can we do to try get more face-to-face meetings as opposed to getting those meetings over Teams? So Jane, Pascal, know, is it, well, first of all, is it something that you're hearing when you're doing training that people are saying to you as a challenge? You're nodding, Pascal, yeah?

Pascal Le Floch (02:11.161)
Yeah, definitely. mean, since the last two years, let's say after COVID period, we can see more and more sales teams coming at us and saying, yeah, I have some hard time to organize face-to-face meetings for different reasons. yeah, that's still a point to be addressed today. yeah.

Steve Vaughan (02:33.323)
Sure. And the same for you, Jane.

Jayne Green (02:35.015)
Yeah, definitely. think salespeople can find actually they might be able to get some quick wins it feels like getting some Teams or Zoom meeting in, which feels like success, but very few or can be limited at getting some face-to-face meetings, which can also be challenging if you don't get those. So I think it's a real thing.

Steve Vaughan (02:55.982)
show.

Steve Vaughan (03:00.844)
Yeah. Okay. Interesting.

Jayne Green (03:02.329)
I think from COVID it's a real thing, possibly for people wanting to buy and for salespeople.

Steve Vaughan (03:07.576)
Sure. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. So I don't want to go into getting the appointment because we've done a lot of that in the past on the podcast. So, know, how do you get an appointment? You know, go back and look at some of our previous shows. Really. This is more about handling the sort of pushback and says, I'll give you 10 minutes on Teams really. first of all, if the customer says, I can give you 10 minutes on Teams, is that a problem? You know, why is that not a good thing?

Deadly quiet.

Pascal Le Floch (03:40.105)
How long do I have to answer?

Steve Vaughan (03:42.766)
About 30 minutes, think, Francois.

Pascal Le Floch (03:48.791)
Yeah, let's say depends on the value you bring during first these 10 minutes because I would not oppose remote meeting to a face-to-face meeting. Both could be, let's say, useful, could be powerful, but it depends on the value you bring to any of them. So my first point would be here before answering your question, would be another one, say why would a prospect...

Steve Vaughan (03:52.832)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (04:06.306)
Yeah. Right.

Pascal Le Floch (04:19.147)
accept you on site rather than having a Teams or Zoom meeting.

Steve Vaughan (04:25.046)
Okay, okay, that's a good point. on the face of it, a Teams meeting is quick, it's convenient, know, and when we're using remote technology today, you know, you're in Nottingham Jane and you're in Brittany, Pascal Armin, Oxfordshire, know, amazing technology, but what's the downside? What's the drawback perhaps then of just having that 10 minute Teams call Jane as opposed to getting into the lab or getting into the office?

Jayne Green (04:27.175)
Hmm.

Jayne Green (04:39.356)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (04:49.521)
We can miss out on so much, I think, if we can't get in to see a customer directly face to face. There's something very powerful about meeting people face to face. Sharing the same space is something that builds, it's much easier to build trust, build rapport, build confidence. So as a salesperson, for somebody to have a conversation with you, there can be that element where you build that sense of confidence in you.

Steve Vaughan (04:59.874)
Mm.

Yeah.

Jayne Green (05:18.021)
and your organization because you're present in that space. Because what of course we don't see so easily, we see each other's heads and shoulders here. I'm waving my hands around, nobody can see that on the podcast, but that's what I do a lot. But we miss out on that whole sense of body language and the way the customer is actually responding and who else might be around.

Steve Vaughan (05:21.083)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (05:27.758)
Me too. That's why I knocked the microphone.

Jayne Green (05:45.115)
you know, so if that's a team who is just out of sight but actually could be very much an influencer or part of that. So we miss out on the other people, the environment, the body language that we're picking up on. I love going on site, personally always have done, because I just want to see what's in their lab and what's in their space. What their, if you're in their office, what their office looks like, it might tell me more about the person, you know, than I actually see this tiny little square.

Steve Vaughan (05:45.375)
Mmm.

Steve Vaughan (05:57.197)
Hmm.

me too. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (06:11.737)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I'm the same. I'm nosy. I want to go over, dig around in the lab and see what they, what they've got. So come back to what you said, Pascal, then the word you use, which I think is super important here, which is value. You know, is it perhaps that the customer doesn't see the value of us coming into their lab? Because it's, it's obviously more involved. You know, totally takes a bit longer.

Jayne Green (06:14.567)
on a team school.

Steve Vaughan (06:36.718)
for you to go and see them. They probably have to get you signed in and all that stuff. But is it perhaps that we don't or that the salesperson isn't positioning the value to the customer of coming to see them face to face?

Pascal Le Floch (06:48.153)
and you named it Steve. So it's all about the value you bring. So why someone would give you more time or even invite you on site if he cannot see the value you bring. So to me, it's more about, okay, first of all, run your search. Make sure that you catch information about who the customer is, what he's interested by.

Steve Vaughan (07:11.23)
Hmm.

Pascal Le Floch (07:15.331)
how he is selling or buying things. All the information you can collect about his behavior, his motives, whatever they are, but when this is about business. And then first of all, you can make some connection with him that first of all, you demonstrate him that you understand him or her.

And then this is where, as Jane said, the trust aspect comes into the equation because you bring more credibility and confidence and this is where you start to open the door to the connection and the value you could bring. But it's not only about this, you it's about the value you bring.

Steve Vaughan (07:42.158)
Hmm.

Pascal Le Floch (08:04.309)
as a person representing a company. So you don't bring products. No. You bring solutions to the customer. how personalized your approach is, how do you answer his needs or her needs, what sort of differentiation you bring compared to any other vendor.

Steve Vaughan (08:08.161)
Great wood. Yeah, great wood.

Jayne Green (08:12.912)
Yes.

Steve Vaughan (08:14.798)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (08:28.007)
So true.

Pascal Le Floch (08:28.939)
So this is all about this. And for sure, if you have only 10 minutes to demonstrate this, to me that sounds short. So the key here is to find a way to leverage the conversation so that instead of this 10 minutes time in a remote way, the customer accepts to see you on site so that you can articulate all the value you can bring him or her.

Jayne Green (08:38.257)
Yep.

Steve Vaughan (08:48.685)
That's a great point.

Jayne Green (08:56.039)
I think that's a really good point, because that 10 minutes, if people are, you're only having a 10 minute slot, you are going to have to have many more of those 10 minute slots, ideally longer, to actually, you know, get to the real discussion points and have enough information to understand fully the full challenges or, you know, the pains that people are going through or the workflow that they need to be really understanding and looking at.

you could observe so much more face to face. So that 10 minutes slot, you might need 10 of them. We think it's efficient, but actually long run is it really? Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (09:28.401)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (09:33.712)
No, I don't think it is. And I think, unfortunately, think customers have been educated probably by salespeople over the last few years that what we're going to do is just turn up and pitch product at them. We're going to turn up and tell them how great we are and how great our latest XYZ product is really. to bring the value to the customer really is to be able to...

Jayne Green (09:45.605)
Yeah, true.

Steve Vaughan (09:55.863)
put ourselves in their shoes really, and to understand what their challenges might be, what they'd like to do better or quicker or faster or cheaper or whatever. And that's where the preparation comes in, I think, guys, in terms of preparing before we go and see the customer really by being able to do our research. It's never been easier, I think, to do our research than it is now with the technology we have available to us really. So it's being able to bring that value again, isn't it, Pascal? Yeah.

Jayne Green (10:02.375)
Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (10:23.673)
It is and you made me thinking about the following idea is that let's not fall into the trap of becoming lazy. Meaning that it's easy to organize a video call both for customer and for any of us. The point is that if you stick to this,

Steve Vaughan (10:36.407)
point.

Pascal Le Floch (10:46.105)
then you are losing time at the end of the day. And back to what Jane said, yes, a good argument is that video call is easy to set up, but we will need probably a number of video calls to explore your needs, if I talk to the customers and reach a point where we can move on. So instead of this, I propose you to go inside and in one meeting, we probably save four or five follow-up meetings.

Jayne Green (10:49.254)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (10:57.953)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (11:08.167)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (11:14.301)
Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Great point. I looking for a quote that I found before as part of my prep for this show and I found it now. was trying to find it before the show and it says, know, what mistakes do sales, no, wrong one. Buyers don't reject visits. They reject poorly defined visits. And that's a great quote, isn't it? Really that it's that the customer doesn't see the value again.

Pascal Le Floch (11:16.013)
remote meetings. So, saver.

Jayne Green (11:18.789)
Yeah, it says.

Pascal Le Floch (11:36.92)
Mmm.

Steve Vaughan (11:44.011)
or the benefit to them of us going on site as opposed to having the 10 minute team call really. let's explore that. then, and I know Pascal, you came up with some great thoughts as part of our prep before the show really, but when the customer says, I'll give you a 10 minute, you you can't come on site, but I'll give you 10 minutes on teams. That's an objection. you know, we have a whole training program on handling objections, don't we? But in the specific objection here,

How do we handle it? How do we deal with it, guys? What kind of things can we do to respond to the customer saying, I'll give you 10 minutes? Okay, we can just say, great, thank you. But if we really think the benefit for the customer is for us to come aside, how can we handle that? How do we deal with it?

Pascal Le Floch (12:28.429)
Yeah, probably. Yeah, I have no yet say firm answer to this. But the first thing is, of course, is to accept the objection as it comes, you know, reformulate it. So are you proposing that we spend 10 minutes on such a key project as the one you just described? So first of all, you make the customer realizing that is it really serious about spending only 10 minutes on such a critical topic?

Steve Vaughan (12:32.621)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (12:37.225)
Hmm.

Jayne Green (12:37.756)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (12:46.459)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (12:56.577)
Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (12:56.973)
So this question itself could make the customer thinking twice. If not, then you can, as you prepared the meeting, you can come with argument and say, of course we can go through a number of points, but according to you, what do you think we could better cover if we meet rather than doing this remotely?

Steve Vaughan (13:07.105)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (13:21.795)
Love that.

Pascal Le Floch (13:22.105)
because then you orientate the conversation towards where you want to go and that you know being more beneficial for a customer. Because it's not just to get the on-site visit itself. No, it's because you know that it will be more beneficial for the two parties.

Jayne Green (13:27.046)
Yes.

Steve Vaughan (13:30.987)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Vaughan (13:41.079)
So we should acknowledge their sort of pushback, but then ask the question, why do you think it would be better to have a Teams call or what do you think we could achieve more if we would see you face to face? Almost putting it back to the customer, Jane, yeah?

Jayne Green (13:44.625)
Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (13:55.725)
Yes, yes, yes.

Jayne Green (13:56.219)
Definitely. I think certainly acknowledge that if a customer, and again, it's that check, isn't it? Are we saying, hey, I can do a quick 10 minute Zoom Teams call with you, or is the customer saying, let's set this up for a quick 10 minute call? And I think it's really good to acknowledge it, to say, hey, I hear that you're saying a 10 minute call would be good. Is that because it's really pressing today, tomorrow? What is the?

Steve Vaughan (14:11.435)
Hmm.

Jayne Green (14:24.955)
the timeline available for that. But I really like to, in my experience of speaking to other customers, again, we just acknowledge that, but also then, you know, is that important to you? You know, how much of a decision and discussion do we need to take so that we haven't got incomplete information to be able to, you know, take this further down the line with you? And I think it's really good to frame that with a customer, you know, to understand that actually you want to get a full picture, a full understanding.

Steve Vaughan (14:31.052)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (14:42.664)
Yeah. Because the people we're visiting and our listeners are helping in the field, they're customers, they're dealing with complicated things. They're dealing with, you know,

Jayne Green (15:03.697)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (15:05.805)
laboratory processes, industrial processes, life science processes, often dealing with multifaceted technology, different outcomes, different requirements. might be high value projects, multi-million dollar installations really. And these are complicated things really. And surely complicated matters deserve real proper face-to-face deep dive understandings that just a quick 10 minute call will never be able to.

help us do really. So perhaps we just need to explain that better to the customer almost in that respect.

Jayne Green (15:40.539)
Yeah, and also say what we believe is right for them because we're trying to find a solution fit for them, not just about presenting our products. And I think that's really important. It's about the valuable time. Earning the right to be on site with them is proving the value that we would bring. So I used to sell large equipment. There was absolutely no way I could get away with a 10 minute call without actually seeing the space.

Steve Vaughan (15:56.486)
I that.

Steve Vaughan (16:08.525)
Hmm.

Jayne Green (16:10.395)
you know, actually walking that space, understanding, you know, the requirements of it, actually, where would it fit? Could it actually even get in the building? Just before we even start some big conversations. It's really important to understand that. And that was earning the right to be in there. I'd love to speak to 10 minutes over, you know, over Zoom, but I'd also love to be able to just make sure we could get this equipment into your building before we have more of a conversation. And that was always a way in for me.

Steve Vaughan (16:32.749)
Yeah. Great point. Okay.

Pascal Le Floch (16:40.153)
you

And thanks, Jane, because I would like to give an echo to you just said, especially for industrial installations. Because how can you figure out what's going on if you cannot see the equipment there, in the lab, and how it fits, different types of issues if you don't visit them? So my question to the customer would be then, if he's still reluctant to an on-site visit,

Okay, in that case, what would give you greater confidence in your decision? A presentation or a field observation?

Steve Vaughan (17:20.742)
I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Just tell us more on that because I think that's a great point. Yeah. Just, just, just elaborate that a bit more Pascal. Yeah.

Jayne Green (17:21.095)
That's brilliant. Yeah, love that.

Mmm.

Pascal Le Floch (17:28.633)
Yeah, I mean, this is about according to the way you operate and the limitations you could have noticed so far, what you like to see improved in your installation. What about running diagnostics together, know, meeting together and then we could run a sort of a check of different points related to your project.

Jayne Green (17:45.574)
Yes.

Steve Vaughan (17:46.625)
Yeah. So what we're doing here then is that we're not asking for a meeting, we're asking for an outcome or we're offering an outcome, I say. Yeah, a real outcome. it's not a...

Pascal Le Floch (17:54.442)
And we can do this on-site, for sure, but we cannot do this remotely. So would you agree to go ahead with this type of questions?

Jayne Green (17:59.312)
Yes.

Jayne Green (18:10.767)
Yes, yes.

Steve Vaughan (18:14.829)
Can I have a meeting so I can come and sell to you? Can we look at how we can save you money? Can we look at how we can improve your efficiency? Can we have a look at how we can reduce waste or whatever the scenario would be? You're nodding on that, Jane? Is that something you'd see working?

Jayne Green (18:21.401)
Yes. Yes.

Jayne Green (18:32.665)
Yeah, definitely. And I think that whole journey of, know, walk me through your process. And then we have that ability, you know, particularly if we've done our research with a customer, you know, we know the outcomes that they can expect, you know, and whether it's some sort of return on investment calculation that we can help them to make some savings. What is it really important here? You know, what time are they trying to, you know, minimise?

Steve Vaughan (18:36.599)
Mm.

Steve Vaughan (18:56.269)
Mmm.

Jayne Green (19:01.531)
you know, in terms of what personnel are they wanting to make sure are doing the right thing, walking through a process with somebody is never going to happen on a team's call. But it's very much, you know, that value. I think if we can explain that to the customer and look at the solution and a fit for them, they're going to be more than than welcoming, you know, on most sites. Now, some sites, of course, you know, if they are a CRO or they've got some real challenges getting in, course, there's going to be some

Steve Vaughan (19:01.709)
Yeah. No. Yeah.

Jayne Green (19:31.405)
know more difficulties within that but that ultimately those kind of walkthroughs are going to be needed and that we may be able to save ourselves time you know by getting that early on.

Steve Vaughan (19:37.769)
Hmm. Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (19:43.725)
Is there a time when a face-to-face call, sorry, I'll ask that question again. Is there a time when a remote call might be good enough or might be appropriate to think in this situation?

Jayne Green (19:55.815)
I mean, if you've got multiple decision makers that are spread across the globe, so, hey, we're all here in different places here. So if you've got multiple stakeholders that are in and decision makers that are in different locations and you need to get some level of consensus and alignment, then of course, something like a Teams or a Zoom call is ideal. know, being able to have people that may not be able to be in the same space on a site.

Steve Vaughan (20:02.327)
That's a super point.

Steve Vaughan (20:18.315)
Hmm.

Jayne Green (20:24.475)
because there may be across the globe, that's really, really powerful.

Steve Vaughan (20:28.617)
Yeah, because you probably would never get those people together, or at least would take a lot of organisation and probably a lot of cost as well. Would it depend also where the project is in the sales process?

Jayne Green (20:30.491)
Yes.

Pascal Le Floch (20:42.317)
Sorry, Steve, are you asking about the on-site or remote?

Steve Vaughan (20:45.889)
Well, I'm just thinking, let's say if we're a long way down the sales process, so we've had some onsite visits, we've had some meetings, we've perhaps looked at how we can help the customer, the customer's on board with that, we perhaps even sent a proposal. But we know it's going to take three or four months before, because that's how long it takes to things to go through their organization.

Would there be a benefit perhaps in then a video call as just a touch base or a check in or a see how things are going? Would that then perhaps be a good use of the technology or am I perhaps overthinking it?

Pascal Le Floch (21:25.145)
Yeah, definitely. mean, after on-site visits and at the end of the on-site visit, it's even better to already schedule the follow-up call and it could be a team's visit or a team remote visit, whatever. then the follow-up would be brilliant.

Steve Vaughan (21:35.009)
That's kind of what I'm thinking. Yeah. Yeah.

Jayne Green (21:38.545)
guess.

Pascal Le Floch (21:47.129)
It could be with multiple people, independently, especially when you know that this is a strategic sale with a lot of influence within the project. So you can be aware of some political games or influence war or whatever. So it's good to have those independent conversations through teams. But, but, there is a but.

Steve Vaughan (21:49.762)
Yep.

Jayne Green (21:55.537)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (22:08.973)
Yep.

Pascal Le Floch (22:16.761)
Again, back to, and this could appear as a paradox here, but when you have multiple stakeholders, there is a real, let's say, strength to have many of them in the same room on a home-side visit to really move and progress on the deal.

Jayne Green (22:31.239)
True. Yep.

Steve Vaughan (22:32.306)
I think that's a really important point.

Yeah, yeah, you know, sorry, Jen, you can say. Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah.

Jayne Green (22:41.029)
Well, and absolutely in that case, you need to be able to read the as well. You know, being present, it's very hard sometimes we can, you know, gauge what's happening possibly, but we might be so busy, you know, looking at one part of our screen when we're on a Teams call or a Zoom call that actually we miss kind of what really is going on. And actually when you're in a room of people, your peripherals tend to work a lot better in terms of the way you see.

Steve Vaughan (22:53.207)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (23:08.749)
That's a really important point.

Jayne Green (23:10.661)
particularly at that crucial point. I think it's great for when you've had a call, a visit on site with a customer, a team's call is a great check-in to see how things are progressing along when we're getting down to some real decision-making moments and we're getting down to the detail. Having that meeting in the room with those key influencers is really important.

Steve Vaughan (23:21.611)
Hmm. Yeah. Sure.

Steve Vaughan (23:35.455)
Hmm. Go on, Pasco.

Pascal Le Floch (23:37.037)
And yeah, I would like to add to this is we have all been exposed to strategic deals where there are multiple players and you have the champion and we have different decision makers as well.

Steve Vaughan (23:46.712)
yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (23:52.725)
At some point there is a need to have several people in the room to make sure that things are moving. And as today, being present in person requires more effort than ever, it's a good way to check how involved or engaged the people being part of the opportunity are. And this is something you can check. You can better check on-site, rather than...

Steve Vaughan (24:14.189)
That's a really good point. I love that.

Pascal Le Floch (24:21.889)
offline.

Steve Vaughan (24:22.014)
Yeah. So if we've got reluctance for people to attend this key meeting to progress the deal forward, and you think this is looking really good for us, and then people push back and say, no, I haven't got time. Probably telling you something, isn't it really? Yeah, that's a super point. One last point I wanted to sort of just come back on on this before we wrap this one up really. And I asked the question right at the start, is this a real phenomenon? And we all said,

Jayne Green (24:30.663)
Mmm.

Jayne Green (24:34.311)
That's a good tester. Yeah, that's very good. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (24:47.969)
Yes, it is. Are we also sometimes the root cause of the problem as well, as salespeople, including ourselves, because we have to sell as well. Are we sometimes too willing or too eager or too quick to offer the remote call because we think we're more likely to get acceptance if we ask for a face-to-face meeting? Or am I being a bit cynical there?

Jayne Green (25:11.313)
No, I think you're right, Steve. It's because it's easy, it's comfortable, isn't it? I might be able to do lots of remote calls in one day, but of course, when I'm driving around the country trying to see people, then it may take me a little bit longer and that requires effort. And so I think, know, Pascal mentioned right at the beginning, you know, the last few years, and I think a bit of a throw.

Steve Vaughan (25:16.333)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (25:27.991)
harder.

Jayne Green (25:37.479)
a throwback still from COVID of where we had to do that, there's still that, we easily adopt a habit, don't we? And a habit could be, actually makes life a little bit easier for me. So, you know, do we actually still maintain that? Whereas actually that may not be best practice every time. You know, and it's getting that right balance of the value between both. There is value in both a video call and there's value

Steve Vaughan (25:44.311)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (25:55.083)
super point.

Steve Vaughan (26:01.133)
It is.

Jayne Green (26:07.02)
much, much value in on-site visits and it's finding that...

Steve Vaughan (26:08.981)
Yeah, you can't be nosy on a video call. You can't have a good nose around and dig around and... That's a great point. Yeah. What's that shiny box in the corner? I don't know, somebody bought it five years ago. We never used it. Yeah, that kind of stuff, which I always love about the job. Yeah.

Jayne Green (26:12.793)
No you can't. You can't see where your competitors are.

Jayne Green (26:23.845)
Yeah, or somebody else's equipment stuck in a lift somewhere that's got wedged in. You miss all of those lovely things.

Steve Vaughan (26:29.333)
Yeah.

You do, you do. And I know that many salespeople are under quite high expectations in terms of activity levels, number of calls. know, there's all KPIs are often said about call rates and things, but I think I can say with some degree of confidence that every sales manager out there would recognize the benefit of four great field calls as opposed to six average teams calls in a day. I think I'm right saying that guys, yeah.

Jayne Green (27:00.603)
Yeah, and you know what you don't do on a Teams call? When you're walking back down the corridor to reception, you don't have the opportunity to bump into somebody on a Teams call. So what about the other people that you possibly didn't expect to see, that may be on your hit list, that may be somebody that you'd like to get in contact with and all of a sudden you're walking past their lab or their office and you may have an opportunity?

Steve Vaughan (27:08.525)
great point.

Steve Vaughan (27:22.569)
That's a super point because you're not going to, in a teams call, you're never going to say, oh, I wonder if that guy could just join us quickly for 10 minutes on teams. But you might see a door say, oh, I wonder if that guy's available as you walk past. That's a really good point. Yeah. Yeah. Great for sharing that one. One last thought from both of you on this one, Pascal, you want to go first on this one last wrap up point?

Jayne Green (27:28.039)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (27:40.831)
yeah, probably, yeah, just to wrap up on this, I would say that you cannot obtain more onsite meetings by pushing harder. You obtain it when the client understands what they lose not having one.

Steve Vaughan (27:52.439)
That's a point.

Steve Vaughan (27:59.597)
That's great point. Yeah. So they really need to see the, understand the benefit of you being on site, having a proper understanding of their challenges and their workflow and their issues. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, great. One final one from you, Jane.

Jayne Green (28:12.869)
Yeah. Well, it's hard to top that, but I would say, you know, differentiate yourself from, you know, the competition who may still be hiding or, you know, mainly do things over a team or a Zoom school. know, be present. There is something incredibly powerful of meeting people face to face. Our first impressions, you know, the way we greet, the way we...

Steve Vaughan (28:16.301)
Right.

Steve Vaughan (28:28.267)
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Jayne Green (28:40.497)
position ourselves when we're in a meeting is very powerful. Don't miss out on that opportunity.

Steve Vaughan (28:41.069)
I know it's cliche, but people buy for people, don't they? And people buy the people that they know and get relationships with. And it's harder to do that over tea. not impossible, but it certainly is harder to do that, certainly. And we want to move away from being seen as the salesperson to being seen as somebody as a trusted advisor. And again, far easier to do that when we're actually in the lab or in the factory having a good look around.

Jayne Green (28:47.707)
Yeah, they do. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (29:08.193)
Pascal, Jane, thank you both very much for your thoughts on that topic. So dear listeners, if you've enjoyed that episode, but you would actually like to come on the podcast moving forward, then you have the opportunity. So new for this year, we're inviting you, the listener, know, working in the field would be interested in joining the panel discussion on a future podcast. So a sales manager, you know, experienced salesperson, or somebody starting out on their sales journey, all of those situations would apply.

and you'd like to come on, not as a guest interview, but actually to be part of the panel discussion like we have here. We wouldn't ask you anything confidential. We wouldn't ask you to tell us about your best customer or anything like that, but to actually contribute some, if you like, here and now, presence, thoughts, would be great to have that on the show. A number of you have already expressed interest in doing that. So in the weeks ahead, we will be having some guest panelists, but there's room for more. So if there's something you would fancy doing.

then please investigate to get in contact with any of us here at George James through any of our social medias, our LinkedIn profiles, our email addresses, or you can just email the show at podcast at georgejames-training.com. That's podcast at georgejames-training.com. We'll be back again in a couple of weeks time with another episode of the Luxury of Choice. Until then, happy selling and we'll talk to you soon.