New survey: Body language important in business deals

New survey: Body language important in business deals Personal meetings are important when conducting business, not least of all in order to see the body language of the person one is meeting with, according to a new survey conducted by Gallup on behalf of SAS. One thousand Swedish businessmen/women were interviewed regarding the significance of personal meetings in their business. Similar surveys were also conducted in Norway and Denmark. "A majority of business people in the survey believe that technical alternatives to a personal meeting - such as e-mail, teleconferencing and videoconferencing - are worse than meeting in person. You lose out on body language when you are unable to meet face-to-face. Three out of four respondents felt that a major disadvantage of new technology is not being able to view the body language or other reactions of people you are conducting business with," says Odd Guteland of Swedish Gallup. The Gallup poll indicates that eight out of ten Swedish businessmen/women felt that it is important to meet the person you are conducting business with. Over half also stated that it is difficult to establish a trusting relationship with someone that they have never met. Only a few percent felt that teleconferencing or videoconferencing are the best alternatives to a personal meeting. The exception was at large companies with over 200 employees that utilize videoconferencing to a greater degree than smaller companies. Just over one in ten felt that e- mail is the best alternative. Most, however, prefer to replace a personal meeting with an ordinary telephone call. Businessmen/women in Stockholm prefer to meet face-to-face to a greater extent than in other regions, and they were also the most likely in the entire country to emphasize the disadvantages of technical alternatives to meetings. The biggest gap was between the Stockholm region and the Western Sweden/Göteborg region, where replacing personal meetings with new technology was perceived the least negatively. People in Northern Sweden have a greater preference for using the phone if they are unable to meet the person with whom they are conducting business. In Stockholm, people take advantage of e-mail, video and teleconferencing to a greater degree than the rest of the country, as a replacement for personal meetings. The survey was conducted among businessmen/women at Swedish companies that have more than five employees and who frequently attend business meetings and travel in their work. A total of 3,000 persons were interviewed in Scandinavia. "As one of the largest travel companies in Scandinavia, we consider it our responsibility to contribute to the advancement of knowledge surrounding travel in our society and finding out what it is that motivates people to travel. We conducted this study in order to draw attention to an area about which there is currently no substantial knowledge," says Jens Willumsen, Senior Vice President at SAS. The entire report can be found at: www.gallup.se SAS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/08/01/20030801BIT01030/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/08/01/20030801BIT01030/wkr0002.pdf