Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success [Hardcover]

Bill Good (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1997

Whatever good or service you're selling, five likely customers are worth a hundred random names. No one can help you find new business by finding those five -- or five hundred, or fifty thousand -- best-qualified customers better than Bill Good.

For over a decade, Bill Good's guide to increasing new business by finding the right prospective customers has been an invaluable resource to people in every imaginable profession involving selling. Now completely revised and updated to include lessons on how email, fax machines, and the Internet can be incorporated into an effective prospecting and selling campaign, it is the most valuable tool a salesperson can own.

Anyone who does any prospecting or selling by phone -- from securities, insurance, and real estate to fund-raising -- knows the frustrations and rejections inherent in "cold calling." Many people come to fear it. But why should this be so? Certainly there are people out there who need and want the product you're selling. If only you could more efficiently generate a list of just those people, weed out the hopeless cases, and launch a simple and highly effective campaign to win them to your side. Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success shows you how to do just that. Bill Good draws on all he's learned from a long, successful career teaching companies and individual entrepreneurs how to create successful prospecting campaigns. He jettisons the stale, old-school, don't-believe-a-customer-who-says-no philosophy for a plan of attack that finds good prospects while quickly screening out unqualified, uninterested customers. From the first contact to the final close, Bill Good will help you design a complete, customized prospecting campaign.

In this new revised edition, bursting with fresh ideas for incorporating new media and new technologies into his proven campaign strategies, Bill Good has updated a classic and given salespeople everywhere a book they can't afford to live without.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Finally a selling system that doesn't depend on psyching up your ego. Bill has created a system that really works. Good is great." -Al Ries, co-author of The Origin of Brands

"When it comes to prospecting and marketing, Bill Good is the master. He prospected me until I had a one inch thick file of "Bill Good letters" and he had me sold. Bill Good taught me and mentored me to master my own unique system of prospecting. I have no doubt Hot Prospects will help you live and finish rich -- it certainly has helped me. Find what you like and apply it today!" -David Bach, # 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire and Go Green, Live Rich

"If you want your sales to pick up, you need to pick up this book. Crack it open and get ready to work! Bill Good, the master of marketing and prospecting, will walk you down the road to success." -Chris Gardner, CEO, Chris Gardner International Holdings, bestselling author of The Pursuit of Happyness

"Thanks in part to Bill Good's first book on prospecting I have been part of Wall Street's "Number 1 Team." Read Hot Prospects and learn how to work your way up the sales ladder." -Ira Walker, Senior Vice President - Investments, UBS Financial Services Inc.

"Bill Good's approach and thinking helped propel my career as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch and enabled me to move into sales management. Read Hot Prospects and Bill Good will help you do what I did." -Keith A. Vanderveen, Midwest Regional President, Wachovia Securities

"What I learned from Bill Good has made me a multimillionaire." -John F. Reutemann, Jr., CLU, CFP® Tax and Financial Management Consultant

About the Author

Bill Good is the president of Bill Good Marketing, Inc., a sixty-five-person firm based in South Jordan, Utah, that specializes in helping salespeople worldwide increase their sales or work less. He is also the creator of the Bill Good Marketing System, a computer-based client marketing, prospecting, and office management system designed to coordinate today's modern sales team. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did graduate work in economics at the University of Virginia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 319 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; Rev Sub edition (November 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684842033
• ISBN-13: 978-0684842035
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I made an extra $10,000.00 the second month after reading, August 31, 2004

By 

Douglas Shields (Medford, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success (Hardcover)

I'm in heavy equipment sales. No I'm not a shill as the moronic idiot wrote in one of the previous reviews giving this top shelf sales book only one star. I am however a top salesman of equipment and I have to say that after using just one of the great ideas that this man has to offer I was able to generate an additional ten grand in income. Not a fluke. The hard won sales savvy that this man has given to this book is worth its weight in gold. Buy it. Read it. But most of all USE IT! It has been several years since my purchase but I refer to it again and again. I can think of no other book I have read in my sales career that has had the impact this one has on my income and my approach to database driven selling and marketing.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! Buy it! He has a great series of techniques, October 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success (Hardcover)

I have bought all that I could of Bill Good's previous materials. This book is an update on his previous book on sales prospecting. I also bought a tape set which was excellent. And I even paid his secretary to copy off some of his articles from his syndicated magazine column. His concept of a "transactional database" was eye-opening for me. He calls it "the change principle" and it deals with building your lists with people who are going through a change. For example, people who have just bought a pickup (a change) would be logical candidates for truck accessories. These types of people are higher probability buyers. In this Bill Good's book I averaged about 10 underlines per page. This is not a GENERAL how to, but a very specific one with lots and lots of examples and techniques. It's also fun and humorous to read. He also offers more material that can supplement the book via his web site. But you must buy the book to get the password to this material. This alone was a great idea that I hope to use myself. See, this guy is just full of great marketing ideas. I highly recommend this book, even if you have his previous version. John Dunbar

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get This Book to Keep as Reference for Prospecting Success, February 6, 2004

By 

G. Wayne Clayton (Mishawaka, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success (Hardcover)

A number of years ago, I fortunately stumbled upon Bill's book - PROSPECTING YOUR WAY TO SALES SUCCESS. I was so incredibly impressed by the book that I phoned Bill and told him I was interested in writing an article about him & his book. (I am the Publisher of AboutBizz Magazine and www.AboutBizz.com)
I arrived in Salt Lake City and spent 4 days with his staff and new as well as old users of Bill techniques and software package. What I found amazing is the system that Bill spells out in his book is literally automated in his software package that he markets primarily to the Financial services industry. People use his system and make money. That's all that counts...bottom line results.
Here's what you'll find in pages of PROSPECTING YOUR WAY TO SALES SUCCESS.
1) He helps you discover the mindset needed for prospecting
2) He shows you how to create a system for prospecting using only 4x6 cards, various colored stickers and tracking sheets.
3) He gives you a simple script to use when prospecting
4) He shows you his approach to constantly "touch" you prospects with various letters, phone calls, faxes, etc....
5) Most importantly, he teaches you how to teach that same system to someone else so you can leverage your time and make money (or as he calls it Muh-Nee) with the people who are interested in selling you and buying your services or goods.
I have never found another book that spells out such a powerful system. The only thing wrong with the book is it is somewhat dated...why use card files when you can use ACT, Maximizer or Salesforce.com? But if you are new to business or sales and pennies are tight, then using Bill's book, you CAN make a system with simple cards and stickers and in short time, you can buy whatever computer you desire.
I know Bill sells his software system to the Financial services industry and only wish he had a generic version to sell to the others of us who could use his system. I tried to customize Maximizer to do what his system does...but quickly found the real value of Bill Good's expertise.
It is definitely worth your time to check out his website at www.BillGood.com ON his site you'll find audio programs from his Bill Good Radio.com programs where he interviews successful users of his programs. Tell them Wayne Clayton from AboutBizz Magazine told you about their site...they do have some restrictions of who can get into the site...maybe that'll help get you in.
What's the real value of a book like this? Well, when gasoline gets to $2-$3-$4 bucks a gallon, it is the person on the phone who can get make appointments and grow relationships using technology (email, fax, letters, phone calls -- and with a real reason to contact them, not just send them worthless literature) that will succeed and make money. Go out and guy this book today.
As a closing note, I have appreciated this book so much that I have personally bought and gave away 10 copies to people who I want to have success in sales...(and I NEVER buy that many of the same book!) Hopefully someday, Bill will get the chance to update his book and incorporate more examples of technology used to help implement his wonderful system.