Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling

January 30, 2009 Business Book Discussion Group

We just held our business book discussion group on the book written by Sam Richter, "Take the Cold out of Cold Calling." This an amazing must read book!

I like the subtitle to the book, "Know more than you ever thought you could (or should) about your prospects, clients and competition."

Having knowledge in advance of your meetings about current business issues, industry trends, competitors and what is relevant to your audience gives you an unfair advantage. It gives you credibility and increases your personal value.

In the age of the internet, you should no longer have to say, "Tell me about your business."

In the book, Sam walks us through many ways to find information especially on the "Invisible Web." He explains that there are approximately 500 billion pages on the internet and the best search engines out there only have access to about 16 billion. He shows us how to access the visible and the invisible information in very easy ways. There is a gold mine of information out there waiting to be tapped and this book shows you how to tap it.

In our discussion we brought up the three rules of selling.
1) Talk about them.
2) Talk about them.
3) Talk about them.

These web search secrets make it easy than every to be able to talk about your intended audience.

We reviewed and discussed the individual applications of these web search secrets. There are a lot of reasons a business today needs the research skills taught in this book.

We also spent a good portion on learning how to use the advanced search screens, which could be more appropriately titled, "Web Search for Dummies." It really helps to use the advanced search mode on the search engines. You find what you are looking for in a lot less time.

Sam taught us a great trick in the book, how to find industry information for free that premium information sites sell for a lot of money.

This book is well written and easy to read. It gives you access to more ways to get to information than you can imagine. Here is the best part, you can access almost everything covered in the book through Sam's online Warm Call Center. You have to check it out.

There are many useful tools, templates, and guides in the book. Here is one of my biggest take aways from our discussion:

The Platinum Rule. I had heard it before, but Sam really brought it home for me and our discussion group made it stick. The Platinum Rule will change the way you market, sell or brand your business (Learn about it in the book).

Here are some of the written comments from the participants at the discussion group.

"I learned so many tips on how to use Boolean which I'd never even heard of before, to narrow my search to come up with more releveant information. In the past I sould get soooo frusrated with the sheer volume of information from my searches that I'd more often that not give up and try again later when I had more time."

"It's amazing how much free information is available if you just know where to look."

"Great information! I never imagined that there was so much on the internet and that you can do so many things on Google."

"Kirk and Deanna made the book 'Take the Cold out of Cold Calling' jump to life. I am anxious to get back to my computer and start using some of this info."

"These are practical tips for increasing the effectiveness of our direct marketing efforts. This was a great exposure to the hidden info that's available to us as a marketing person or as a business owner."

This was a good way to start 2009. I hope you will join us by reading this book and joining us at our next book discussion group on January 20th for the book "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath.

1 comment:

sam richter said...

Thank you so much for your kind words and I'm just thrilled that my book provided everyone value. Please let me know if there is anything I can ever do for any of you.