Radio Sales Café

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here's this week's poll question:

Setting aside in-person sales calls, do you prefer to contact clients and prospects by phone or by email?  Why?

Looking forward to reading your replies!

I prefer the phone on cold calls, and after I establish a relationship with my client, then email is used. I find my clients prefer email as to answering the phone, just because they are so busy and can answer email on there own time.

That depends on the client and the relationship. People I've dealt with over a long period of time who are "regular" advertisers with the station will almost always prefer email as a contact. Email intrudes on busy people's days less than other communication.
Face to face is important when you are in the "building" faze of a business relationship. There are an awful lot of clients out there these days that just do not have the time for a lot of phone activity so unless it's a personal firend or it's a very important message, I try to use email as my number one communication form.

I prefer to email, because when calling on most potential clients by phone it opens up the option for them to say take a message or they are not in, would you like their voice mail? I can't put any visuals in front of them and it is intruding on their time and day to me...
Email is wonderful!!! the client can read and reply when ready and able. I am able to put our products in front of them via attachements...
I have found that I get more returns on email then I ever get on call backs.
Thanks... Jessie

I like in person the best you get the best read on body language. After that depends on client those who are extremely busy email works the best and emailing at odd times like late and night or early morning--those who are busy are always checking email and your email will stand out if its after hours. In some cases even text messages work the best! On phone calls same thing odd times (not too odd) but a business owner most of them start early so call at 7:30am or 6:30pm more than likely you will reach them then.

As with everything it depends on the client. By the time they are willing to share their e-mail address with me, they are usually a pretty solid client. But even then, I have some that are a bit old school and prefer a phone call. On the other end of the spectrum, I have some who prefer to message back and forth on facebook. It all depends on their preferred form of communication. I even have some who still prefer a fax, believe it or not. It usually ends up being a two-prong approach. Starting with e-mail, fax, or text, and then if I haven't heard back, follow up with a phone call.

As so many have already said, it depends on the client. With new clients/prospects- I do not email. I always call first. Once the relationship is established, you go with whatever they prefer. For example I have one client who refuses to do ANY business over the phone or email. He is a strictly face to face--if you dont come see him--you dont get the buy. Works to my advantage because so many other media reps are lazy and wont go see him! In general, I myself prefer email, but I always go with what the client wants.

Telephone is a poor substitute for face to face. However, when compared to email it's no contest. The phone lets you converse, get a sense of each others and exchange ideas. Email is a good option once the relationship is on firm ground because it can be used to confirm ideas, proposals, copy, etc. I wouldn't use email first.

I do a lot of follow up and even a few presentations by email. Email is perfect for getting produced ads and scripts approved before they air. 95% of my clients prefer email to phone calls. If I make a sale over the phone, I always email a copy of our agreement to the client for their records. I do have one client that not only does not use email, she doesn't even have a fax machine. After a first call I always ask, "Do you have an email address that you check regularly? Do you mind if I use that email address to contact you?" With a very few exceptions, almost everyone says they would prefer email.

This is a great question!.. With so many ways to reach out to clients these days...ie: phone, fax, text, Facebook, email etc we can reach our clients easier than ever before. That in turn also gives them more access to us than we're perhaps used to (Us older guys anyway). I love it, ,,,but there used to be a telephone commercial with the Jingle "reach out, reach out and touch someone". There really is something about the human voice and the way we connect through conversation. If you can't see your client face to face, call them up. Chances are if you developed a great relationship with them, they will be glad to hear your voice.

by e-mail...If I try calling it always goes to their voice mail...If I e-mail I usually hear from them in minutes..phone can be next day or never.

Hi everyone, that's a good question.

For the first contact I prefer a phone call we get a sense what the clients may want.
If client don't come to the phone, their assistance ask me to send the info by email, which it's
OK, that way I have all the info on file. Also, after one or two days I call to confirm if they receive
the info, but must of the times clients didn't response.

I prefer phone calls on cold or even warm calls. We've been practicing this at our stations first after targeting a potential client by researching their business online or thru other methods to see whether they can afford to advertise, then finding something pertiment to their business before calling so that we can then discuss this with them rather than calling purely to try to "sell them some ads..." I was somewhat skeptical of this approach initially, but after having done it for almost a month, find it works quite well, especially with some folks who we don't traditionally think of as advertisers. I guess its more of a consultant approach and works better on the phone. E-mails are fine, once the initial contact has been made or if you just can't get thru by phone.

Agree. One of the first things I do is ask the client what method of communication they prefer and how often. Most prefer email and this includes the start of the relationship.