Cold calling techniques

Ken's Review - For the past 30+ years, this classic book written by Frank Bettger never leaves my side. When you have had a tough selling day and you're feeling like quitting sales, do yourself a favour and sit down over a cup a coffee while reading this book and in no time at all you will be ready to make that next sales call. This is one book no sales person should be without ...

Ken's Review - A great read when you are in the need a bit of a pick me up. Covers all the key aspects of improving your sales career.

Sales are the lifeblood of any company. Sales are closely tied to financial statements. Sales success usually means financial success.

As the title suggests, Schiffman has what he calls 50 rules. I agree with almost all of them but some of them I feel more passionate about.

Rule number 35 is spent at least 75% of your time gathering information. One of the things I've learned in both sales and negotiation is that the person with the information has the advantage. The Internet makes information gathering extremely easy. There's no reason not to lose on this one.

Rule number 24 is to make calls for an hour a day. One thing I have often seen in developing company says they simply don't spend enough time making sales calls. Without spending the time clearly the sales will never happen. And although he suggests making calls for an hour a day, I think double or triple or quadruple makes more sense.

I was interested to see rule 30 was to live off-peak this is one of the rules I use all the time. Like some of his other rules, sales are tied to good time management.

One thing I like about the book is that each one of the 50 rules basically stands on their own. This means the book can be read gradually over a long period of time and the benefits will still be derived. The book is concise and easy to read and I would recommend to anybody who wants to increase their sales.