"Hot Prospects" by Bill Good, 2008

Eveyrone talks about "Hot Prospects", but how do you get them?  Bill Good has a long-established and well-proven system to find them.  While the version of this book I have was published in 2008, this system has been around for a long time - the copyright goes back to 1986.  Bill Good invented one of the first CRM systems for the financial planning industry over 20 years ago and, indeed, his experience and focus is very much in the personal finance space. This book presents his prospecting system in all its glory - how do you find, approach and get in front of new prospects.

Another short book - 224 pages - but that's par for the course these days.  This book is, however, packed with text and information.  There are also copious downloads associated with it (passwords are scattered through-out the text, so you really need to buy it to access the downloads).  Although Bill repeatedly sales the book is for all salespeople, and he provides examples in numerous industries, financial planners will still get the most from this ideas.So onto the content...

Be warned:  this book is very hard-core prospecting, quite American and not for those afraid of the phone.  Bill relies on lists.  Finding, creating and calling lists.  And calling lists - and calling lists.  This is not a book about networking, referrals or any other form of prospecting.  Its a book about cold (and warm) calling to lists of names.  Bill will give you scripts, help you develop your own, help you refine your lists, help you decide what you are offering and - in absolute detail - help you put in place a screening system for prospects.  Far beyond "Hot vs Cold" prospects, Bill will teach you his very detailed system of categorising prospects.  And it's not just for show.  Bill's view is that, done right, you can keep calling the same list of names for years - just as long as you don't burn those names as you go.  So it's not a hard-sell cold calling tactic, but actually quite a soft-sell/categorisation tactic.  This may be very appealing to people with a fear of cold calling.  But let's not dodge around the issue - you will be calling cold.

Bill writes extremely well.  He his humorous and easy to follow.  I agree with the vast majority of his views and he is very practical and pragmatic.  This book is laser-focused, however.  Create lists, call them, screen for "hot prospects", follow-up with other prospects with a specified process and repeat.  To make it work, you need to be happy calling lists and be prepared to spend time preparing and setting up his system in your business.  A top CRM or prospect database would be critical.

It's not for everyone, but for those reliant on lists, telephone sales or cold calling, this is a thought-provoking and recommended read.

Order from Fishpond.com.au in Australia...

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