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83 of 85 found the following review helpful:
 This book has already doubled my income this month! Oct 08, 1999
I have read all of the "sales 101" books, Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, even Hurb Cohen's "you can negotiate anything" and I feel from my personal experience that this book not only gives you the tools to become more sucessful, but gives you the confidence in yourself to "get back on track". I sell ATM machines to business owners, and have recently moved into a new town with new prospects, requiring me to get back in "the field" to knock on some doors. This book helped me get over the uncomfortable feeling of cold calling, and put everything into prospective. It also helped me remember the basic elements of the sale. This guy is great, and I just bought the follow up book, CLOSING TECHNIQUES that is equally helpful-I just wanted to pass on the info, sales can be tough, this just makes it simple, as well as more rewarding!
48 of 48 found the following review helpful:
Excellent for business to business sales Oct 02, 2004
By Saleen8927
"Saleen8927"
I am aware of the reviews here that say that this book is very basic, and that's true, but that's what Steven Schiffman intended, and that's the beauty of it. It is a bare-bones, very basic guide to using the telephone effectively to secure an in-person sales appointment. I have to think that the negative reviews may be mostly from people who do phone sales, where the techniques in this book would not apply, and in which case they should purchase Steven Schiffman's telemarketing book instead (I think that perhaps the 'Cold Calling' title may mislead people to think the book is about how to make telephone sales, which it isn't). I can guarantee that anyone who does intend to get a face-to-face appointment and who thinks these techniques are too simple is overcomplicating their phone calls. The absolute best piece of information in the book is that you are not trying to sell anything over the phone other than a meeting. Nearly every salesperson I know tries to sell the customer on thier product or company over the phone in order to secure an appointment, but I can say that my appointment rate is higher than any of those people when using the simple approach that is outlined in this book. Common sense? Absolutely, most sales books are. The problem is that 9 out of 10 salespeople don't practice common sense, and Steven Schiffman's books help you to see that the sales process shouldn't be a hard and complicated process.
I've been in business to business sales for a long time, and I've read many sales books by many authors (and every salesperson should do the same), and I think they're all good, if nothing more than to learn more about other people's methods. However, I've gotten the most out of Steven Schiffman's techniques, and for me they have worked. If you do enjoy this book, or Steven Schiffman as an author, check out Brian Tracy also. He has a similar, easy to read style of writing as well.
52 of 55 found the following review helpful:
Implementation is KEY! Oct 17, 2001
By James Carter
I picked up this book, and several others, on cold-calling because I knew I just was not doing it the best way I could. I have been in sales for years and I HATE cold-calling. Who doesn't? This book helped me focus on what is really important - setting appointments and getting in front of the customer and provide personal contact. I lost that focus somewhere and my cold-calls were flat.I sell HR and OD consulting and getting senior executives and HR Directors to give you the time of day is very difficult. Since reading the book and implementing his suggestions, I am much more comfortable cold-calling and setting 2.5 times as many appointments. The book is easy to read and full of simple ideas and solutions, but if you don't implement the ideas, even the greatest of ideas won't work. Give this book a read. ... it is the best money I have spent in a long time. Also, his ideas about getting people to call you back are so simple and effective, I almost laughed when I started receiving so many call-backs. Just goes to show you, give his ideas a chance, even if you think they won't work.
27 of 27 found the following review helpful:
 Not bad, not great Nov 13, 2002
I have read several cold calling books and I was delighted to find that someone has tried to simplfy the cold-calling process. There were some features in the book that I have overlooked in the past in my calls. However, the indended audience of this book is not telemarketers and the book never claims to help this group of people, so I dont know why everyone else is crucifying it in their reviews. The book is intended for sales consultants who need to set up in-person meetings to demo a product or service, nothing more, nothing less. Where the book fails is to assist people who need to make cold calls to sell, but do not have the luxury of being able to go on face-to-face meetings. Much of my business depends on selling smaller accounts over the phone and for this the book is useless other than to perhaps begin a dialect. The author is simply trying to assist salespeople who want to set up more meetings to do so and his short and direct approach I think accomplishes that and there are several corrections to mistakes that I constantly made before I read the book. Its worth 9 bucks, but like I said, it was not meant for telemarketers or phone only sales. Besides, am I to believe that anyone with any real sales skill is selling via telemarketing to peoples homes while they are eating dinner.
21 of 23 found the following review helpful:
Love the way Stephan writes; concise and to the point Dec 11, 1998
I've read many books. This one was fantastic. I have been in sales for 17 years; am in a new position and a friend recommended the book. I have already recommended it to several friends. What I loved the most was that it was concise and to the point. It gave me small steps to practice. I wrote information on 3X5 cards to remind myself about the Ledge, the 3R's and FUDH. You need to read this book if you cold call or sell on the phone. Getting the appointment is the focus of this book and Stephan tells you how.
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