Thanks to modern communications technology, there are many different ways to make a sale. You can use inbound marketing online, email on your smartphone, phone calls to prospects, and social media for expanding your network. But despite all these innovative ways to communicate with people, selling in person is still the best. Face-to-face interaction will always have an edge over other forms of communication, especially when it comes to selling. Here are 7 reasons why selling in person is superior to any other method.

1. People Are Easier to Read in Person

There’s a dimension to in-person communication that is impossible to capture any other way. Communication is much easier when you can listen to the inflection in a person’s voice and watch their body language and hand-gestures, and this is critical for sales. Over the phone or through email, it’s nearly impossible to ascertain a prospect’s readiness or hesitations when it comes to buying, but it’s easy to discern in person. Selling in person gives you a definite edge.

2. Relationships Grow Deeper Much Faster

You can learn more about a person in five minutes face-to-face than you can in weeks of emailing back and forth. In person, you share laughter, smiles, looks of concern, and other gestures that are impossible to convey with other forms of communication. Additionally, it’s easier to find topics of conversation when you’re with the person you’re talking to. Selling in person helps you to build lasting relationships with clients and customers.

3. You Get a Better Understanding of Your Prospect’s Problems

It’s easy to stay hidden behind a phone or a computer screen, so it can be difficult for a sales person to get a firm understanding of a prospect’s problems and challenges. Without this understanding, selling becomes much more difficult. In person, however, prospects are more likely to open up and confide in you about the challenges they face in their work.

4. You Prove That You’re a Real Person

It sounds funny, but selling in person reminds your prospects that you’re a real person with concerns and cares of your own. This can be easy to forget when your prospects only see your name on so-called junk mail or in their email in-box. Selling in person helps them to see you more as a colleague, a person in their business network who can be helpful–and to whom they can help as well.

5. It’s Easier to Make a Good Impression

How can you differentiate yourself from the pack over the phone? It’s definitely not easy. All you have to work with is your voice and your words, so most sales people try to cram as many exciting things to say as possible into their introductions. This can come across as overeager or even annoying, but what are your alternatives? Introduce yourself in person. You can present yourself as a polished, prepared, put-together professional who is ready to solve problems and overcome your prospect’s challenges.

6. It’s More Interactive

Selling in person allows you to have more interactive conversations. Pauses, questions, and comments are all more natural when you’re speaking face-to-face with a prospect, and this makes your conversations more interactive and productive. When you’re in person, you can see confusion on a person’s face if you haven’t explained a concept clearly enough, prompting you to back up and try explaining once more. Over the phone, you miss these cues and possibly miss the sale.

7. It’s More Real

Desk jobs are simply less satisfying than jobs that get you out there among the people, and that’s definitely true in sales. Selling in person is dynamic. It’s energizing to have face-to-face conversations with the people you’re trying to help, and it keeps you more invested in your work.

Selling in person is clearly superior to selling any other way. If you’ve neglected selling in person, brush up your skills and try it.