Making lasting business connections in 2021

2021 requires hybrid thinking across all your customer touch points

The pandemic has shifted the way we work. Working from home means that some people who started a new job over the past 12 months have yet to meet their colleagues, managers, and clients in person.

Conferences and events have moved online, making it challenging to network and create new meaningful relationships with prospective clients.

Usage of paper business cards is down 70%, and 67% of people report that they regularly do not answer calls from unrecognized numbers.

So how the h$#! Do you make new business connections in 2021?

The good news is – people are social animals. This means that we are and we will find new ways to interact with one another in a post pandemic world. In fact, networking and connecting with people will be much richer than in the past.

The old-normal is dead. But the new-normal is exciting and full of new opportunities!

The question is – is your organization ready to take advantage of the new opportunities? Do you have the right tools to give your sales and BD teams so you can outpace your competition?

During the pandemic we figured that location restrictions are no longer valid. Suddenly conferences can have more and better experts as many of them can join remotely without the normal logistics constraints. Many businesses and customers realized that getting the right service provider is about substance – and not about whether they have a local office where I live.

As the world emerges from the pandemic, we are waking up to a hybrid reality (or ‘omni-channel’ as the retail industry likes to call it).

In our new hybrid reality, there is no physical vs. virtual. There is no choice for organizers as to whether they want to organize a meeting in person, or via teleconference. The reality for businesses and event organizers is that we need to cater for both, and let participants choose their mode of participation.

This new thinking will challenge businesses to adapt and require them to adopt a new set of tools that will help them deliver hybrid experiences seamlessly. But for businesses that are able to adapt quickly, there is a real opportunity to grow revenues, market share and a loyal customer base.

So what should you do to prepare your business to a hybrid reality?

Adopt a multi-channel mindset

Leave the linear thought process behind. It is no longer as simple as “we need to organize a meeting, so let’s book a room, send invites, order light refreshments”. We need to now consider a multi channel approach where we offer the right facilities for both physical and virtual attendees – we don’t want to penalize a client just because they couldn’t be in the room in person (and yes, penalizing means using the old dial in infrastructure where the virtual participant can’t hear everyone in the room properly, and their voice quality is normally as if they are calling from Guantanamo Bay).

Re-assess your customer facing business processes

Your processes of meeting, onboarding and servicing of clients is likely skewed towards the physical world. While during the pandemic many moved to 100% online, running a hybrid model, where the client can choose their method of interacting with you and your business is much more challenging.

Think about it, a simple gesture of giving your business card to people in the meeting and not giving it to the virtual participants is another penalty point for clients joining remotely – how do you streamline this process, so it works well in all scenarios and for all participants?

You will need to change your processes so that your business is ‘open for business’ in both physical & virtual manners and there is no one way you prefer to do business in or infer as the better way – it is now your clients’ decision based on their particular situation at a particular point in time.

Select the right tools

If we really gone back and re-assessed our processes and client touch points, it is likely that our set of requirements from our technical and digital tools has changed, and therefore we need to select better tools that are up to the new task. Do we issue all sales and BD personnel high quality noise cancelling headsets? Do we issue updated codes of conduct for virtual meetings (What should you wear, don’t dial in while driving, Mute etiquette. Etc)? How do we network with people remotely? If people don’t pick up an unrecognized number when we call them – how do we make sure they have our number saved to their contacts before we call?