42 Rules of Cold Calling Executives: A Practical Guide for Telesales, Telemarketing, Direct Marketing and Lead Generation

by Mari Anne Vanella

'42 Rules of Cold Calling Executives' is an easy to read book that gives concise, easy to implement methods to get results with cold calls. Many sales professionals find that part of their job difficult and unpleasant yet the 42 Rules gives them ways to redesign their thinking, approach, practices, and tools, to get the best possible results. This book contains some of the fundamental principles Mari Anne Vanella has developed over the course of her career. Her clients and her own company use this approach to execute the top performing programs in the industry for the past seven years. Reading this book will deliver the following

108 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2008

Reviews

[Shawn Lacagnina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is really an article or blog post pushed into a book for promotion. Yes, there is some good information within the cover, however, many of the 42 are repetitive and there is very little insight into "calling executives." Disappointing at best.

[Leslie Yong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Praise for the book “42 Rules of Cold Calling Executives.”
This is indeed a very informative and interesting handbook for reference when trying to improve on the cold calling skills and practice.

[Bonnie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I want to read on the topic of selling I look first at the author's background before buying the book. Mari Anne Vanella certainly has the expertise and experience to write on this topic. Her company, Vanella Group, Inc., is a telesales firm with clients in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley. Ms. Vanella certainly knows what she is talking about.

We have all been on the receiving end of a cold caller who knows nothing about our interests or needs. I particularly enjoy the calls from mortgage companies who want to refinance a house I don't own. That is why cold calling has such a negative connotation and the author of this book addresses that issue up front in the introduction. Her goal is to teach readers strategies for removing the "cold" from cold calling.

In addition to discussing the necessary research needed before a cold caller picks up the phone the author also covers the importance of asking questions and listening to the answers, why a cold call shouldn't be a "selling" call, how to monitor and improve your own calls using voice mail, how to track down the best prospects, what to say when you find them, the importance of good note taking and more.

Although this book is written for someone who cold calls executives the material can certainly be useful to anyone who does cold calling. Twenty-seven years ago I worked for a headhunter who used cold calling to reach prospects. I had the delightful task of managing these callers and I wish I had a copy of this book back then. It would have made my life much easier.

My favorite chapter in this book is Rule #6: Identify Prospects From Prospects. Cold callers often give up easily when in reality they should be asking if they are talking to the right person and, if not, who would be the right person to call. This seems like common sense but not every cold caller is trained to think like this.

From now on when I receive an inappropriate cold call I will recommend this book to the person on the other end of the line. I enjoyed reading this book and I know they will too!