Gerri Knilans, President, Trade Press Services

Cold calling is an outbound marketing effort many consider outdated. In fact, there are countless blogs and articles proclaiming in large type, “cold calling is dead!” However, 90% of Fortune 500 companies consider telemarketing an effective marketing campaign and are still investing in outbound calling programs. So, the question is why?

One reason is that amidst rapidly evolving technology, human interaction and out reach are more important than ever. In fact, 70 percent of B2B sales come from human interaction, and 56 percent of those sales start with telemarketing. But cold calling takes skill. Here are some keys to turning cold calls into conversations.