Sometimes, machine learning can sound pretty high tech. But in a post on their blog, Schibsted Media Group—a company headquartered in Oslo that does business in 22 countries—makes a clear case for it. They used machine learning to develop a more targeted group for subscriptions and increased their telemarketing conversion rates by 540%, winning first prize for "Best Use of Data Analytics" at INMA World Congress 2017. (The photo is from a previous award win.)

Make sure [your sales people] ask for what they're calling about," said Christina Karabetsos, executive vice president, QCSS, Inc, a telesales and solutions company. "I don't know how many times I've met with sales teams, and they don't ask for what they came for! I can't express that enough. They're scared to get rejected. Guess what? We get rejected 49 times, but that 50th time..."

Sometimes I actually miss talking on the phone. I still do with my brother in New Jersey and for interviews, but that may be it. Between texting, email, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc., you can almost forget Alexander Graham Bell’s original purpose. And I don’t think I’m alone.