Absolutely.

Drewski, I like your posts I’ve read. I would like to hear how you qualify people on the phone. I use “if you really like the investment idea I send you would an investment of $100K be a problem for you at this time?” I generally dont get a cut and dry answer but I can usually tell if they have that kind of money or not by how they respond.

Well my residential prospecting goes like this (businesses, I just prequalify using revenues and ask for the appointment):

Hitup www.zillow.com and type in my City.  This will give you a huge overview (make sure you're looking at the road level, not the satellite shot) but most importantly if you zoom to the right level it will show you median home prices for the different Zip Codes.  I look for the highest 6-figure numbers and jot them down.  Next step, hop over to www.whitepages.com.  From there, I do a People Search in the zip code (uncheck include email listings) starting with aa.  When the page comes up, because my firm uses a Gryphon Networks DNC tool, I am able to hit cntrl-a, cntrl-c, paste the entire page into the "Phone Number" entry on my tool and it will extract the numbers and scrub them.  For each number that comes up callable, I will type the first and last name (only these two pieces of data are important) into excel, and paste the number.  I continue onto ab, ac, ... , zz.  If you don't follow that or have questions, PM me and I can explain it better.

THIS IS VERY TIME CONSUMING.

That being said, it allows young (new) people with limited financial resources (read: 0) to harness extra time into building profitable lists.  Similarly, using this technique (because it generates a mass of reusable numbers) loosens your tongue on the phone.  What I mean by that is, typically I will come out and ask them "so how much did you manage to put away in that 401k before you left the firm?"  Because you have such huge lists and a renewable way to create them free-of-charge, you won't mind burning through contacts. 

The fact is, if a prospect is truely QUALIFIED (IE: has the money, need, AND interest) they will generally be forthcomming with you as long as your present yourself professionally on the phone.  If they aren't on the first go-round, I will put them into my follow-up system that I developed using MS Access--PM me for a copy if you're broke like me; though ACT, Sharkware, whatever would work fine here too--and ask them the next time we talk.  I think the worst thing you can do (and I have on MANY occassions) is chase the 80-year old with 35k in CD's for 6 weeks.  Leave that to the bank brokers.

I digress.   I usually spend roughly 6-10 hours on the weekends building lists in that manner. 

Another trick is this:  when you run accross someone with a concentrated position (got alot of T, SCG, DUK, PGN, RF around here) ask them how many shares they have.  People don't think of it as talking about money.

Thats enough for this post.  Though a WORD OF CAUTION:  if you use my method to build a list, you need a TON of numbers.  Staying positive will be difficult on the first run because you will get roughly 25% disconnects (at least around my parts) and 65% of the people you talk to won't be qualified at all.  Just delete as you go (though stay methodical with your list generation) and each time back through will be increasingly effective.

Or you can just buy a list.

Thanks for the info. I checked out that zillow website. It looks like a great tool. I did the search on whitepages and came up with quite a few names. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I just started cold calling and have been calling business owners only. I got my list from a business directory at the library and made copies. In the city I work in I think the list has something like 5,000 business names and numbers. That one city should keep me busy for a while. I also have the sales info on the list that you talked about so I can qualify by that as well. But usually I just dial down the list and dont refer to the sales numbers until I get finished with the conversation so I ask everyone if 100 k would be a problem at this time. I think the directory is usadirectories.com. I know what you mean about loosening your tongue. When you have that many names it isn't hard to ask if they have 100k to invest. You don't worry about burning any bridges.

Have you ever asked a wholesaler for a list? I want to add some residential names to my cold calling efforts for calling in the evenings and I thought I could get a wholesaler to help me get some residential names. Bondguy posted about driving around and finding older expensive homes surrounded by average neighborhoods. The idea is that these areas don't get as many calls as the new $500k homes. I do want to try this technique

Everyday I read the local business newspapers and compile names from executive promotions, awards, business acquisitions etc. 

Thanks for the offer to use the Access application. We have software that we use at our firm to track prospects and clients. I have been using it and it seems to work well.   

I remember reading that posts you wrote about the numbers you have put up. You look like your doing well. It definitely inspires me to go after those big accounts.