‘Face Power’ and Relationships in the Digital Age

In this digital age, speed is the keyword when planning to accomplish goals effectively. However, the speed that digitization offers also removes some — or even most — of the benefits of true face-to-face interaction, or Face Power. This is the power that is generated when speaking to someone in their live presence — and that doesn’t include FaceTime, Skype or Google Hangouts.

Why is this “primitive” way of communicating still important when there are so many other ways to interact? The answer is simple: Face Power is important because it is how we truly build relationships, and relationships determine why we buy and who we buy things from.

“It’s harder to follow cues, such as expressions on people’s faces in two dimensions,” said Dr. Carlos Ferran, an assistant professor of Management Information Systems at Penn State University.

An accurate perception of all these facial cues and body language is what we need to form a relationship, which hopefully will be followed by trust. It is then and only then that we can ever begin to influence someone’s perception and lead them toward an action, such as buying our product or service.

Face Power invariably gets you to your “yes” faster. Why? This is because our service is customizable to every individual. If you had to wade through emails and digital messaging to sort out all these intricacies for each individual, it could take forever. A conversation full of Face Power will get you there infinitely faster and with better results for future sales, due to the trust you are building.

“You can’t beat face-to-face meetings for opening the relationship or closing the decision,” said Tom Shaughnessy, who runs Sprint’s small-business segment.

So, use digital all you want to complement relationships and share information, but never, never discount the true magical power of meeting someone face to face, shaking their hand, smiling at them or sharing a meal.

Linda Mitchell is the director of public and government relations for Newtown Athletic Club. Email her at linda@newtownathletic.com.