Reflections on a Holiday in Germany

Jeremy Clarkson once said “Germany is to holidays what Delia Smith is to spot welding”. Although I am normally very fond of Jeremy Clarkson’s work, on this occasion I choose to disagree with him, having spent several very pleasant days staying with German friends in the lovely old town of Hofheim, just west of Frankfurt, and which is the spiritual home of the Baha’i community in this part of Europe, as it is the site of our European House of Worship, which is situated in the Taunus hills just outside the town.

This has been my third visit to Germany in recent years and on every occasion I’ve found my hosts and their friends very hospitable and full of fun – and their fluency in English has put my total lack of German to shame!

And the German countryside is not bad either. Mind you, the Rhine Valley is only a short trip away: the views from the Loreley are spectacular; and the number and beauty of the castles and picturesque towns on either side of the river is breathtaking.

The only problem was the weather. No, it wasn’t the rain. On the contrary, we only had one thunderstorm all week. The rest of the time it was hot and sunny – very hot – sweltering, in fact! So hot and humid that the sweat poured off us. We would have welcomed some rain just to cool us all off.

But guess what! As I write this post at home in England, the sky is grey and cloudy, and the wind and rain make it feel more like October than the end of July. Ah well, time to return to the grindstone to earn an honest crust – and pay for that Rhine cruise I’ve just promised myself!

Don’t neglect face-to-face marketing!

A few months ago I explained that I had started working on a marketing campaign to promote my business that involved signing up to many of the well-known social networking websites. And recently, with the launch of my new business website I’ve been investigating ways to attract to attract more visitors to it (and, hopefully, more new clients) by developing a web marketing strategy. As a result, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of material, advice and tools there are to implement such an Internet-based marketing campaign.

However, according to a recent survey carried out by Vodafone UK, face-to-face meetings are still the most effective way to secure new business. Apparently, only 33% of those surveyed have won business solely via e-mail or Internet marketing, compared with 57% who used the traditional method of face-to-face contact. About 20% of managing directors wouldn’t do business with anyone they hadn’t physically met, and over a quarter of them would refuse to buy from someone they hadn’t at least spoken to on the phone.

About 47% of business people expected to be treated to lunch, 25% preferred to discuss deals over a round of drinks and 10% said they were happiest building a commercial relationship with a prospective client on the golf course.

It seems that online marketing is most popular with younger people – almost half of those in their twenties prefer to do business this way, whereas two-thirds of all business people prefer to network with others face-to-face.

Therefore, the results of this survey seems to indicate that it is important for you to mix old methods of networking with new ones, or else you could be missing out on obtaining that vital contract you were seeking. This also probably explains the popularity of business breakfast clubs such as Business Network International, 4Networking and The Business League, but so much could be said about that it could be the subject of an entirely new blog. So watch this space!