1. “Het kost te veel tijd”
At least that’s what we think, no travel time, oops no preparation done so just a quick look up the company on the other screen, half present during the call and then on to the other teams, zoom, google meets.
The end of the day we had two other calls, multiple phone calls, emails read and…. no idea what we were talking about in those video calls.
You read through the notes and wonder what was really discussed. Does this sound familiar?
This is because your brain works a little differently when you are busy, it takes in information what it needs at that moment and if you go straight into the next action your short-term memory becomes full. “Processing” the information and moving it to your hard drive 🙂 is not complete because you are absorbing new information again.
You “used to” do this when you got in the car or rode your bike towards the office. Apart from the fact that you get a less personal relationship with your customer, you also miss a lot of nonverbal communication to really get behind the customer’s need.
2. “Wat moet ik zeggen als het gesprek doodvalt?”
This sounds crazy for recruiters or sales professionals to say this, but because so much is communicated via whatsapp, email, social media and not face-to-face anymore, it’s not at all weird if you have a little less practice in responding directly to a question or saying something yourself if the other person doesn’t say anything. So the fear of silence is even worse than before.
Training on open-ended questions, interview techniques and preparing for meetings is no luxury in this regard.
3. “Ze zitten er niet op wachten”
Yes and no, the client wants to solve the problem. Especially within recruitment, confidence that you can solve the problem is the first obstacle, perhaps you sometimes feel that you “have” to prove yourself before you can come along by sending profiles or CV?
It is only difficult to really match the personal fit if you have not been to the client’s office. If you did go to the office and met in person and were able to taste the atmosphere, the match is many times higher and you often have the familiar ” Aaaaaah NOW I get it, yes no… he doesn’t fit here at all” reaction while the candidate was a match on paper.
Unfortunately, you often get this two weeks later after the candidate has interviewed, if you had been there you could have avoided this.
What are your tips or experiences with face-to-face meetings?
PS: Doing cup of coffee? 🙂
