I am just sick and tired and exhausted of having to travel all around my country in order to meet clients

Well, should I be complaining about that given that my clients pay me a fat paycheck for the consultancy services they receive from me...?

But more importantly, I would like to know how you guys actually meet up with your clients?

- Do you meet up virtually? (E.g; on the phone? skype?)
- Do you go to your clients? (E.g; Just like what I do!)
- Do your clients go to you? (E.g; your office)
- Do you and your client schedule a meeting place (E.g; at the beach?)

I was thinking of going with the "meeting up virtually" approach as it is an extremely flexible and efficient means of communication as compared to the rest where you have to be present physically

Anyone has any views on this?

I meet local clients (within 15 miles) either at their place of business (preferably, so I can get a feel for their business) or at a third-party location we both agree upon, usually a restaurant.

Long-distance clients are handled via e-mail and occasionally IM (AIM/ICQ) if she has IM capability on her computer. I am in the process of getting hooked up with Skype (the voice portion) so that will be another option too.

Bailey

She? Do you exclusively accept female clients?

Nah, it just so happens that most of my clients are female. I didn't plan it that way, I'm sure it's just the "circles" I'm in online, which has attracted that particular demographic.

My future marketing plans are most certainly targetted towards both genders. LOL


Bailey

I never meet most of my clients. I get most of them through marketingtool.com or referrals, and they're usually too far away to meet.

Sometimes we handle everything through email. Often, they would prefer a phone call. And sometimes we need to talk on the phone to clarify everything.

I hope this is helpful.

Janet

I do all of my communication via email and IM. On occasion we talk on the phone, but I don't think I have actually gone on-site once in the past 6 months.

Hope this helps,
Kim

I've only met face-to-face with one client who happened to be in my local
area but all others were done virtually, mainly through email. A small
number would insist on phone contact, but I always prefer email--less to
worry about losing important information.

It's nice to get out of the office every now and again and you can learn
a few things this way that you cannot through email. For example, the
client that I did meet had my sales letter printed out up to 3 months
before he contacted me. This shows that's important to encourage
your site visitors to PRINT your website.

Regards,

Ray L. Edwards,
Copywriting Secrets From One Of The Most Successful online Sales Letters Ever Written

Meetings with clients and meetings with prospects are two different things, and I seldom meet with either. Traveling to and from meetings just chomp up too much time and my productivity takes too much of a hit.

Almost all of my business comes via referrals, and usually by the time a prospect contacts me they're already sold on working with me. They are usually ready to move forward, and since most of them are not local to me, meetings are not possible anyway. Occasionally, a local prospect will request a meeting because they want to find out more about what I can do for them. I always say no, but offer a free 30-minute phone consultation instead. In my experience the type of prospect who insists on meeting in person before committing to working with me just wants to kick a few tires and get a bunch of free ideas. Seldom are they serious about taking action. Whenever I break my own rule on this, I end up kicking myself for wasting time.

Having said that, I know some very successful copywriters that regularly meet with prospects and it works well for them. That's what's great about being your own boss - you can do what suits you best.

I meet in person only rarely with clients. Mostly I communicate via phone and email and the occasional fax. I have a client in Australia, and when we need to talk, we talk via Skype. Since most of my clients are out of state, meetings don't come up very often.

However, once I've done some work for a client, I will meet with them to strengthen the relationship. In one case, I knew going to a client's location to meet him in person (an hour's drive away) would cement the relationship further and uncover a bunch more business - and it did. In another case, a client from 600 miles away was passing through and we met for a few hours. But when it comes to discussing concepts, interviewing, and exchanging information, the phone works just fine.

Same here!

In fact the only client I met paid for my consultation time but wanted me
to work on spec even though he swore that he was sold on my copywriting.
(He loved the copy I did for a similar product that he said he could just use
as a 'fill in the blanks' for his product.) Yet he wanted to try me out first.

I refused.

I refused to meet another client local to me and he still hired me. We used
the phone instead.

But I say "Amen!" to that Eileen.

-Ray L.,

Clients? Who are they?