4 min read

Email Down? Pick Up the Phone.

Henna Haroon Published November 13, 2026

Articles

With Microsoft 365 experiencing widespread outages this week, sales teams around the world have been reminded just how dependent we've become on email. For some, it's an inconvenience. For others, particularly those whose entire sales process revolves around automated email sequences, it's practically a work stoppage.

I have a suggestion: pick up the phone.

I'm increasingly struck by how often salespeople will spend weeks trying to get a response by email when they have a perfectly good telephone number sitting in their CRM. And I'm convinced that some of this comes down to human nature. Email is comfortable. You can take your time composing a message, follow a familiar template, and avoid the possibility of an awkward conversation. Once you've pressed send, you can tell yourself you've followed up.

But have you actually moved the relationship forward?

Your prospect gave you a phone number. Use it.

Consider what happens at a typical industry conference. You meet someone, have a genuinely interesting conversation, exchange contact information, and agree to stay in touch. A few days later, they receive a carefully worded follow-up email. Then another. Eventually, they're enrolled in a sequence that bears little resemblance to the conversation you had in person.

This is particularly common in aviation, where relationships are central to how business gets done. People remember who took the time to understand their operation, who followed through on a promise, and who was willing to have a substantive conversation.

If someone has given you their direct number, especially after meeting you, there's a reasonable chance they're willing to speak with you. That doesn't mean you should call them relentlessly, but it certainly gives you a good reason to try.

And if you're nervous about calling, remember that you already have something to talk about. You met them. You know something about their business. Presumably, there was a reason you wanted to stay in touch.

The cost of avoiding the telephone

I remember an audit where we discovered that a company was losing opportunities worth several thousand dollars apiece, and the problem had very little to do with lead generation.

The company was receiving inbound inquiries from prospective customers who were interested enough to pick up the phone. One employee had been assigned responsibility for responding to those calls, but that person had developed a habit of following up by email rather than calling people back.

On paper, the inquiries were being handled. The employee was responding, and there was a record of the communication. From a process standpoint, everything appeared to be working.

Except the customers weren't buying.

When we looked more closely, it became apparent that prospects who had initiated contact by telephone were being moved into a slower, less personal exchange. Some never responded to the emails. Others went elsewhere. By the time anyone realized what was happening, multiple opportunities worth thousands of dollars had slipped away.

It's a particularly frustrating kind of revenue loss because the company had already done the difficult work of attracting interested customers. They were calling of their own accord.

The lesson has stayed with me because it's such an ordinary problem. Nobody had made a dramatic strategic mistake. A seemingly harmless communication preference had become an obstacle between customer interest and revenue.

It also illustrates why commercial audits need to examine what actually happens to a lead, rather than simply whether the CRM shows that someone followed up.

Why salespeople retreat to email

I understand the appeal. Email is efficient, particularly when you're dealing with large numbers of prospects or need to communicate detailed information. It's also indispensable for documenting commitments, circulating proposals, and coordinating decisions involving multiple people.

But it offers a degree of emotional protection that a telephone conversation doesn't.

When you call someone, you have to be prepared for whatever they say. They may challenge your assumptions, ask a question you can't answer, tell you your pricing is too high, or explain that they've chosen a competitor.

That's useful information, even when it's uncomfortable.

An email sequence allows you to postpone that moment indefinitely. You can keep sending messages without ever learning why the prospect isn't responding.

There's also reason to question the assumption that buyers don't want telephone calls. In its research on sales prospecting, RAIN Group found that 49% of buyers preferred being contacted by phone, a figure that increased to 57% among C-level and VP respondents. Those findings don't mean everyone welcomes an unsolicited call, but they do suggest that the telephone deserves a more prominent place in the sales process than it often receives.

A little judgment goes a long way

I'm certainly not suggesting that salespeople abandon email or start dialing every number in their databases. Good salesmanship has always required judgment, and the communication channel is part of that judgment.

If a customer emails you requesting a detailed proposal, send the proposal. If they tell you they prefer email, respect that preference. But if someone calls your business with a question about your services, calling them back should be the obvious first response.

Similarly, if you've had a promising conversation with someone at a trade show, there's nothing unreasonable about calling a few days later to continue it.

The key is to have a purpose beyond checking whether they received your last message.

Perhaps you learned something that could help them. Perhaps you have a question that would clarify whether your company is a good fit. Perhaps you simply want to understand where their priorities stand after your initial conversation.

A thoughtful five-minute call can accomplish quite a lot, especially when both people have something useful to say.

And if they don't answer, you can always leave a short voicemail and follow up by email. The channels work quite well together.

What I'd do while Outlook is down

If you're in sales and today's Microsoft outage has disrupted your usual routine, I'd encourage you to spend some time looking through your existing contacts.

Find the people you've actually met or spoken with, particularly those who expressed interest but haven't responded to your recent emails. Look at the inbound inquiries that haven't progressed. Think about the customers you've been meaning to reconnect with.

Then choose a handful who have a genuine reason to hear from you and give them a call.

You may reach voicemail. You may discover that the timing isn't right. You may also find that a relationship you thought had gone cold was simply waiting for a conversation.

Microsoft will get its systems running again, and we'll all return to our inboxes soon enough. In the meantime, the telephone is still a remarkably effective piece of business technology.

And it might be worth remembering that even when email is working perfectly.

Henna Haroon & Associates works with aviation and B2B organizations on commercial strategy, go-to-market execution, sales infrastructure, and customer engagement.

Sources and further reading