Filed under: Competitive strategy , Marketing and advertising , Small business With so much noise about online advertising and social media, the topic of telesales seems kind of outdated, if not obsolete. Yet, in today’s rough economy, telesales may be even more important; that is, it can be an effective way to get someone — who is noncommittal — ultimately to buy your product.

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Entrepreneur’s Journal: Key steps for telesales success

Filed under: Earnings reports , Forecasts , Alcoa Inc (AA) , Chevron Corp (CVX) , Family Dollar Stores (FDO) , Economic data The second half of the calendar year has begun, and earnings return to the spotlight this week. As usual, Alcoa Inc.

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The week in preview: Focus returns to earnings: Alcoa, Chevron, Family Dollar

Filed under: Deals , Oil Now that Iraq is an independent country, the oil ministry has started putting its oil fields up for bid to foreign investors, as reported in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Bidding started this week and is not going well according to oil executives

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The Iraq War was fought for oil — now we have none of it

Filed under: Earnings reports , H and R Block (HRB) , General Mills (GIS) Here are some highlights from last week’s earnings coverage from BloggingStocks: Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL ) posted better-than-expected Q3 earnings due to higher enrollments. Ball Corp

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Earnings highlights: General Mills, Apollo Group, H&R Block, Sealy …