Stop Cold Calling Forever

As I picked up this book to start reading, the telephone rang. It was a young lady, well she sounded like a young lady, and I like to talk to young ladies. Since they were going to have people in my neighborhood anyway (in my small town, if they're in town at all they're in my neighborhood), why didn't they come by and install a free satellite TV receiver. We chatted and chatted, it was a delightful conversation (at my advanced age I don't get to chat with many young ladies). Then when I asked her if she would give me a free TV set because I didn't have a TV, she didn't want to talk to me any more. I then went back to the book. Lo and behold, the basic thesis of the book is "don't call prospects at random, only call those who are predisposed to buy from you." If the young lady on the phone had done just a little bit of qualifying - "Do you have a TV?" - she would have saved a lot of her time. The book is filled with good common sense advice on how to narrow down the suspects into real prospects. It's the good old fashioned basics of how to sell. If we could give a copy of this book to all the people who call, we could eliminate an awful lot of wasted phone calls. But then I wouldn't get to talk to the nice lady who wanted to give me a free satellite dish. If I only knew her number I'd call her back and talk to her some more.