I was reading the other day that statistics suggest that the average person exchanges 107 text messages a day. I wonder exactly what the definition of an average person is?
This leads me on nicely to my own personal texting statistics...
I send approximately 0 (zero) texts a day.
This must mean that someone out there is sending an awful lot of text messages!
Advances in technology
I may be coming across as a Luddite thus far, but I honestly have no issue with technology.
I believe the pace at which technology is changing and evolving is truly amazing and there are many new developments which can help both in our businesses and our own personal lives.
Indeed technology can be great for keeping your name in someone’s mind or providing regular updates with emails. The instant access to information we get via the internet is nothing short of a miracle for many.
But despite all these advancements, when it comes to actually doing business, I still believe there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting.
Old-fashioned selling techniques
People buy people first and product second may be an old adage, but there is still a lot to be said for being able to look the customer in the eye and gauge their reaction to what you are saying.
A large part of communication is actually visual and not, surprisingly, verbal. That is, our facial expressions, body language and tone of our voice reveal a lot about what we are thinking or feeling. Emails and text are functional and useful in many cases to confirm information, but can across as cold and not portray the spirit of how the words were intended. They can very easily lead to a problem if they are not read in the context they were meant.
In these cases, there is only one person to blame: the sender.
Meaningful face-to-face contact
Communication is in the receiving and, in my experience, most people are much better at speaking than writing.
I truly believe that despite all the advancements in technology people still want to interact with real people.
Businesses that continue to provide frontline staff who have time available to spend with their customers will still come out on top in the end.
Dale Carnegie once stated: “There are four ways and only four ways in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: What we do, how we look, what we say and how we say it.”
Whilst technology has a place in any business, it can never replace the personal interactions and doing business today is still usually about people and relationships.
Our ethos
At Skipton Business Finance, we are a people business which takes great pleasure from the quality of our staff and our relationships with our clients.
We never use a “computer-says-no” mentality when deciding whether to fund a business, just sensible commercial decision makers. The key for us is real people dealing with real businesses!
Perhaps it’s old fashioned but we like it that way and so do our clients.
If you’d like to speak to one of our friendly and personable staff about any issues or queries you may have with getting your business funded, please do give us a call on 0845 602 9354. We’d be delighted to take your call today!