PROSPECTING YOUR WAY TO SALES SUCCESS: How to Find New Business by Phone

An engagingly pragmatic guide that could prove valuable for securities, insurance, and real-estate brokers, fund-raisers, or anyone else whose livelihood depends on cold sales calling. Good takes a refreshingly contrarian approach to dialing for dollars. Unlike most traditionalists, he recommends bailing out almost at the first sign of resistance and going on to the next possibility. In his book, the big idea is to unearth qualified prospects, those ready, willing, and able to do business, in the shortest practicable time span. To this end, Good offers a step-by-step series of uncommonly sensible means. His advisories range from scripting presentations (which distinguish between features and benefits) through compiling fruitful lists, closing deals with likely candidates, obtaining referrals, and replacing dropouts. The author provides tricks-of-the-trade tips. One such is to ""mutilate"" the written material sent to potential customers with circles, arrows, or other attention-grabbing graffiti. He also makes suggestions on ways to finesse ""office-queen"" secretaries and to mimic the grandiloquent pacing of newscaster Paul Harvey in certain pitches. In brief, then, genuinely useful counsel.