Nick Mehta

Face‑to‑Face Meetings Remain B2B’s Untapped Sales Weapon

On the (Continued) Last Art of Face-to-Face Customer Meetings: Jason M. Lemkin has written extensively about this but it's incredible how this still hasn't come back yet. It's the easiest move in B2B. Go see your customers and prospects. I spoke to a startup founder recently (who's great). He asked about category creation and accelerating sales cycles. I said: "How often does your team meet your clients face-to-face?" He said "every now and then if they ask." Early in Gainsight, when we just launched, we were a tiny company competing with other tiny companies. There was a publicly-traded software firm that was looking at tech for Customer Success and we heard they didn't even consider us. I sleuthed to figure out the decision maker and found one SUPER weak LinkedIn shared connection (my former EA). I cold emailed the person referring to our common connection and told him I was going to be in his area later in the week and would love to meet. He said "sure - come by." He was in Charleston, SC. I was in Palo Alto, CA. I immediately Googled how to get to the (lovely) city in SC and bought redeye tickets. Rolled off the plane, freshened up in the airport and met the prospect. Flew home. We ended up winning the deal and amazingly the company is a Gainsight client 13 years later, having spent collectively several million dollars. My guess is no other vendor "happened to be in the area." That was the only reason we won. Over the years, your product becomes the best, your brand is the leader, you have trust, etc. In the early days, all you have is your willingness to get on a plane.