A survey was conducted of 51 company sales managers in the Los Angeles, California, area to determine their opinion of the importance of the telephone as a sales instrument. The managers were asked a series of questions concerning their responsibilities and their attitudes toward selling by telephone. Results revealed that the managers (1) supervised approximately 17 salespersons, who spent an average of 16% of their time writing letters, 47% making personal presentations, and 34% making telephone contacts; (2) thought that of these three sales approaches, personal contact was the most effective, followed by telephone use; (3) thought that the telephone sales approach was the most cost effective of the three; (4) had a positive attitude toward selling by telephone; and (5) believed that their salespersons also had positive attitudes toward telephone use. (FL)