Not sure, but i refuse to talk if salesman don't want to send me email before the sign up.

Right, I prefer not having to talk. Email is convenient.

It's almost like they have to log in their CRM that they had a call so it looks like they're doing something? Why doesn't replying to email count? Are they afraid they'll write something that gets them in legal trouble? If so, then shouldn't we avoid all companies that will only communicate verbally?

I've worked at some companies with heavy B2B sales. It is about metrics. Virtually everything you can imagine being tracked is tracked. In a well run sales organization, this is all automatic. They don't need to enter anything and the phone dialer is fully integrated. They're tracking new calls dialed, calls answered, average time on the calls, demos scheduled, demos successful, trials scheduled, trials installed, trials converted to sales... it goes on and on.

It is more difficult to ignore people on a voice call. You get someone's attention, front and center. With everything else that's asynchronous, like text, email... you can just disappear or pretend to be half interested while you browse HN.

I suppose with voice, you can just hang up, but that is considered rude. Ignoring someone's text or email is commonplace.

It's happened twice in the last week. Is it some sort of filter? I've never had a question that couldn't be answered in a few sentences. My questions certainly haven't risen to needing to schedule a phone call yet that's all salespeople ever want to do.

Is there some sales manual that says you can only close people if you talk on the phone?

Maybe because email leaves a trail? Unless the phone call was recorded, it's your word against theirs.

They are much more effective by telephone, so getting just 5 people on the phone is probably worth more to them than spending time emailin bunch of people.