So far this year, I've spent 40 days and nights away from home. It's not that I love travel - in truth, it wears on me and I'm happiest when I'm home. Despite living here my whole life, I'm completely enamored with Seattle and the life that I have here. So why spend more than 1/5 of the year to date away? Why log the hundreds of hours in the air, waiting in airports, driving rental cars and sleeping in hotels?
It's because meeting people in person is so incredibly important. When I sit down with a potential client, address a crowd of folks in person or just spend time with people I'll be working with in the future, it builds a relationship that lasts and creates a bond that enables far greater communication. Once we've spent time together face-to-face, both parties feel both a connection and obligation to one another, and I've been lucky enough to spend time (almost universally) with people whose company I enjoy.
Here's a list of cities I've visited since March of this year (not counting the ones I've passed through):
- Philadelphia, PA
- New York, NY
- San Francisco, CA
- Vancouver, Canada
- Twin Falls, Idaho
- San Francisco, CA
- Toronto, Canada
- London, UK
- Munich, Germany
- Como, Italy
- Milan, Italy
- Venice, Italy
- Nashville, TN
While it looks like a lot, it's nothing compared to guys like Mike, Joe, or Danny. And, in that time, I've met people at all different types of companies and organizations:
- Serial Entrepreneurs
- Financial Analysts
- Film Producers
- Venture Capitalists
- Private Equity Investors
- Dozens of SEOs, SEMs, Web Developers, Designers & Support Folks
- CEOs & Executives at companies in
- Fashion
- Online Auctions
- Wikis
- Email Spam Detection
- Network Security
- News Portals
- Online Job Boards
- Web-Based Identity Creation
- Non-Profit Assistance
- Medical Device Production
- Online Social Communities
- + dozens more
- Real Estate Developers
- Analytics, Usability & Information Professionals
I know that I'm incredibly lucky to have the ability and privilege to build connections like these, but I can't recommend it enough. Not only are in-person meetings excellent for relationships with clients, they're also valuable for anyone that you might be working on a project with (say, as SEO & web developer) or simply people who share common interests & goals. Many of the most valuable trips I've taken didn't produce direct business for months, but the ties creates from direct contact have no equal.
On the flip side of this - every serious problem we've had as a company with a client has come from people that I haven't met in person. We have several contracts with folks overseas or even here in the states that we haven't yet met, and not all of them have created problems. But, of the three times in the past 2 years that we have had contract disputes or the antagonistic issues, all three have been with clients I've never sat down with.
What about your experiences? Do you travel much? Where have you been in 2006? Do you find that strong bonds can be built without in-person meetings? Have you had trouble with "faceless" contracts?
Rand,
I completely agree with you that meeting people face-to-face is invaluable, and it does go so much further than just meeting clients and hammering out deals in person.
1) Group chats. I'd say trying to get more than two people productively and enjoyably chatting together by phone or IM or even videoconferencing is ridiculously harder than doing so in person. There's just no substitute for having food and drinks with folks in person in this situation.
2) Personal growth. I had never left my home country (America) until I turned 26, and now I've made up for lost time. I think I've grown more as a person (professionally, socially, mentally, emotionally) in the months I've lived and traveled abroad than in all the years I've lived in America.
You've been to Nashville, I see. There's not much as far as "SEO Community" goes here that I can find. Are you aware of any groups of SEO experts in my area? Thanks!
We're almost the opposite to you Rand.
I can only think of two of our clients that we have met face to face and that doesn't seem to have affected our business at all.
On the other hand those of our writers that we have met face to face have all turned out to be less than reliable while the others we have never met meet the deadlines and produce the quality we want.
The same with a project that we have on the go at the moment. For once we decided to use a designer here in the same town as us - usually we work with someone overseas.Instead of everything going smoothly their first drafts showed that they hadn't listened to us at all and their second drafts never turned up.
Their deadline for completion was last Friday and now they're fired and we're going back to what works for us :)
Stuart, maybe it is a matter of choosing the right clients and hiring the right people and has little to do with actually meeting someone or not?
In this respect, you may have spent more time and diligence on finding the right oversea worker but have not done that with your local designer?
I unfortunately tired of being away years ago, and we're busy enough that I can't really take much time away in any case. That said, we haven't actually met the bulk of our clients face to face, and loads of them have stayed with us for years. Some stay in touch even if they don't need anything.
That said, our "gig" would seem to be different in we don't usually take on SEO-only projects, and designing market-focused SEOed websites takes quite a lot of communication. The other BIG requirement for me is that we don't take on projects that I'm not interested in doing, as I don't think that's fair either to clients or to us; I think that's a fast recipe for getting tired of it all.
Even though we give our recommendations, as I'm sure all of you do, I think it helps to be communicative, and it very much pays to listen well to what clients have to say, and to be sensitive to what they want and any input they give. That is, we know what we know, but this is where you can find jewels of information. And make friends.
I have to agree with rand on this one. It is very rewarding to meet people face to face, as it can open lot of new business channels and opportunities on the long run. For example, I get a fair share of contact requests from people whom I've met face to face in the past... But all the travelling can also get very consuming sometimes; especially when away with family/friends/home for longer periods or consistently. I'm just happy that my wife & kids are so understanding and open hearted.
As for trust...Meeting people in real life helps enormously, but it is possible to gain that trust otherwise. It just requires huge work compared to what a personal charisma in face to face conversation can do.
Interesting timing of your post. There is a study that came out this week that says Internet use is to blame for a rapid decline in the number of close friends that people have. Earlier this year a different study by Pew/Internet said that Internet communication facilitates online relationships and that Internet users actually have more close friends than non-Internet users. I'm not sure which is the more accurate study, but I think you make a good point that there must be at least some face to face communication.
This digg post has links to the studies/articles.
With that much travel you need to add staff to just get the work done!
As your contracts get more involved it is advisable to get consistent review and legal updates to improve the quality of your contracts (from your perspective).
Better language won't overcome contract problems down the line. It just protects your interests better when disputes occur.
Dave
Contract issues are a whole other matter - basically, it comes down to the fact that people know they won't get sued based on disputes, because the pursuit of the dispute doesn't provide a positive return. Hence, for us, trust is of the utmost importance.