The old school handshake referral is dying and it hurts partnerships

I remember back in 2013 when I got my first big client from a referral at a local chamber meeting in Nashville. Now everyone just sends a LinkedIn connection request with a canned message. I saw a guy last week pitch a partnership to someone he had never even had a coffee with. How do you build trust with someone you never actually talk to?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_holly1d agoMost Upvoted

and honestly that coffee thing is way more important than people realize! like back in 2018 I had this potential partner who kept wanting to zoom instead of meeting in person and I finally drove three hours just to sit down at a diner with him for twenty minutes and we closed the deal that same week. you can tell so much from how someone acts when theyre not on a screen you know? the little things like if they actually listen or if theyre just waiting for their turn to talk. I swear LinkedIn has made everyone lazy about building real connections.

rileyellis1d ago

you can tell so much from how someone acts when theyre not on a screen" - that part hits hard. Ive had too many zoom calls where people are clearly multitasking or just waiting to talk instead of actually listening. In person you get the real vibe, the pauses, the body language, all that stuff you just cant fake. I dont care how good your camera setup is, nothing beats sitting across from someone for a real conversation. People forget that business is still about people at the end of the day.