In the early 1900s telemarketing was born when a group of American housewives trialled conversation techniques over the phone to sell their baked goods.

From these early beginnings the humble phone call grew to become increasingly more important in the pursuit of new business, overtaking direct mail advertising for the first time in 1981 and continuing to be the dominant method of lead generation around the world for many years to come.

In recent times, numerous digital communication strategies and lead generation channels provided an effective alternative to the well-established phone call. Texting, email marketing, social media and paid internet ads all provided a way to achieve a similar result to picking up the phone.

So why then do we need to call? Surely these new communication methods are more advanced, less intrusive, more private and require significantly less time and effort than a traditional phone call?

While some of this may be true, these methods all lack one very powerful thing, the human touch. It is very hard, if not impossible, to convey attitude and intention through digital communication. It is impossible to fully utilise the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else selling their product or service, your personality.

Finally, it is impossible to have an in-depth conversation and therefore connect with someone beyond a superficial level. Artificial intelligence is a major buzz word in the modern day, we’ve all heard about the power of artificial intelligence. The humble phone call allows us to utilise something that is in many ways far more powerful… Human intelligence.