I love visiting clients.  I love participating in the sale.

Conference calls are incredibly limited when the meeting is important.  Emails are useless.  Meetings - good meetings, with a clear understood goal - are gold.  It is too bad that there are so many bad meetings.  We should fight bad meetings with every ounce of our existence.  Help people define the meeting.  Make it successful. 

In a good meeting you get to see expressive human beings.  You see their reactions to comments.  You see what they pay attention to.  You can see skepticism, a question, agreement, understanding, disagreement.

Sure you get to talk with a real person but there is so much more.  The individual handshakes and introductions.  The prospective client's office space.  A very clear understanding of who is looked to by others in the meeting.  Smiles, wrinkled foreheads, intensity.  What an invigorating experience.  A great meeting is a great performance in the best sense of the word.

In person, they see you, hear you, ask you questions.  They get a feel for you.

I even like tough meetings.  If someone is unhappy, I would much rather meet with them in person than talk on the phone or exchange emails.

Whenever possible go in person.