Well, it's called "predictive dialer software", and it is used with the free voip software skype to make calls out to their buyer lists. Let me explain further with a couple of examples:

Ever have this happen to you? You get home from work, a bit worn out, and settle down to watch some television when you notice that your answering machine has a few messages waiting.

You press the playback button, and listen to your mother saying she misses you and would appreciate a call, then a hangup call, and then a recording asking you to call back to receive some more information on the items you had purchased earlier that week from the recent guru product launch...

Or you're surfing the net, applying what you learned from the great traffic generation course, when your cellphone goes off. You answer it, and a recorded voice politely asks you to hold for an important call.

Within a few seconds, a female answers saying she is calling from the company who sold you the course, and just wanted to make sure you didn't have any questions or concerns. Once you've answered her query, she lets you know that there is a new course that the guru is working on, and that they could use your help.

Surprised, you eagerly agree to assist them, and she asks a few simple questions on what you would like to know regarding web 2.0 tactics and the like. Upon completion of the short survey, the call ends with the woman offering you a coupon code, good for 25% off of another product, good for the next 72 hours only...

So, what just happened here? To begin with, the Guru hired out a couple of cheerful-sounding agents who loaded up skype and the Predictive Dialer software, then proceeded to have the program call down the list given them. Anytime the program received an answering machine, a message recorded earlier by the guru is left, then the software proceeded on to the next caller.

However, any time a caller picked up, the software would ask them to hold while it transfers them to one of the customer service representatives. The rep then would follow a script given to them by the guru, first answering any questions with the FAQ sheet they were given, or emailing support for any questions they cannot answer.

Next, they conducted market research through a short survey, entering the received information into a database. Finally, they gave out a coupon code to generate more sales for the guru, thus increasing the guru's business.

All in all, this tactic has been one that only major corporations, or those smaller businesses that had a lot of money to pay out in software licenses and monthly or yearly fees, could only afford to utilize. However with recent increases in technology and the invention of skype, predictive dialer software is now easy to use and even affordable to invest getting -- even for the little guy!