Why face to face meetings still seal the deal

Russell Wardrop, Co-founder and chief executive, KWC Global - Croner-i

In the age of Teams and Zoom, Russell Wardrop, co-founder of KWC Global, argues that the ‘last four feet’ are critically important and nothing can replace meeting clients in person.

I once heard the moment of truth in a pitch described as ‘the last four feet’. Or, if you prefer, ‘face to face’. The last four feet is real, kinetic, and human - it’s eye contact, pushing the agenda aside, saying yes to more coffee, and accepting another biscuit.

We all know contracts are won in the last four feet, on the day, in the room. I’ve got two decades of proof, having helped businesses by teaching reluctant professionals how to pitch and persuade. It’s where data, strategy, and preparation connect, where phones stay in pockets because you’re holding the room with a compelling proposition. 

The last four feet is not just the pitch meeting. It’s every in-person moment along the way that builds trust - the coffee before the chemistry meeting, the shared cab after a conference, the lunch that moves you from ‘supplier’ to ‘partner’. These moments simply cannot be replicated from behind a screen. 

Seven real-life plays 

1. The extra-effort trip - taking the earliest flight to London for face-to-face meetings before a conference the next day. That extra day doubled a contract, opened doors to the leadership team, and unlocked a stalled project over lunch.

2. The instant coffee invite - messaging a distant prospect the moment they liked a LinkedIn post, meeting for coffee and jump-starting a relationship that would have taken months over email.

3. The cheap week tour - booking low-cost flights and hotels in a quiet week, visiting every possible prospect in London and Birmingham. A decade later, some of that work is still coming in.

4. Breakfast in the canteen - a Big Four partner spending one early morning a week in his biggest client’s canteen, simply to be present. Unglamorous, yes. Effective, absolutely.

5. The boardroom shocker - walking into a Friday afternoon boardroom where the decision had already gone to another contractor… and walking out with the deal.

6. Burning the deck - stopping the habit of sending a 27-slide deck before the chemistry meeting, and often not even screen-sharing it in the room. Conversations flowed, and so did contracts.

7. The missed opportunity - Arriving early, ordering in advance, and getting the perfect table for a difficult but vital face-to-face conversation. The deal didn’t happen that time but face to face three months earlier might have saved it. 

In each of these, the win wasn’t down to a tighter proposal or cleverer slide design - it was about human connection in the last four feet.

Don’t get me wrong - I like artificial intelligence (AI). It is ideal to prep faster, research deeper, and spot patterns. I’ve been using tech to save time since Excel formulas rescued my Easter holidays back in my academic days. AI is efficient, smart, and increasingly capable. 

But here’s the rub: AI cannot replicate emotional connection. It cannot notice the flicker of doubt in someone’s eyes. It cannot choose to hold back a killer slide because it senses the mood in the room. It cannot decide to spend 27 minutes on small talk because that’s what’s needed before going in for the close.

AI can’t lean across the table and say, ‘I hear you. Let’s fix this. Together.’ 

It might book your flights, but it won’t choose to take the 06:30 instead of Zoom. It won’t decide to show up at a client’s canteen at 7.30am. It won’t read the temperature of the boardroom and ditch the deck. And when things are tense, it cannot give that combination of empathy, conviction, and shared purpose that makes the other person believe in you. 

Think of AI as the autopilot. It handles altitude, route, and speed brilliantly. But when a storm hits, or the landing is tricky, you want a pilot - hands on the controls, calm voice, lived experience. In business development, that’s you. 

High value, relationship-based sales still need authentic intelligence, the hard-won, creative, emotionally intelligent, human-led decisions that happen in the moment. It’s about credibility, reliability, and trust…with self-interest firmly in check.

That’s why the last four feet matter more than ever. In a world where trust is harder to win and easier to lose, you cannot delegate those moments to an algorithm. The stakes are too high. 

So bring the research, bring the prep, bring the insight - but when the last four feet arrive, bring yourself. Because the deal is still done face to face.