Going back to the question about what works best, I believe it's about taking measurements on the communication tools you use and figure out what works best for what type of interaction. If I were to get specific based on experience, here is an example of how I might organize to come to categorization for measurement:

Sales Interactions communications means consist of:
Face-to-Face Meetings:
Phone:
Conference Calls
Email:
Requests for information from the customer
Providing information to the customer
IM:
Blogs:
Website:
Social Network sites:

In a perfect world, I would then make sure I capture these categories in the SFA tool in a way I could report on. My goal would be to report on which activities and/or combo of these activities drive the most sales in the shortest time span. I would find out which sales people use those the most and why. Then, if I have the budget, I would look to find out from a research firm to find out in my industry based on the products/services I sell what customers prefer, then implement a process incorporating the best communication tools with the expectation I will need to revisit this bi-annually since the technology changes so quickly.