Good post Karen. What I also see is two people with the same script, and one uses it effectively and gets results and the other gets nothing. How you sound and how you carry yourself on the phone also determines how seriously the person on the other end takes you.

The weirdest thing is when young guys with no success in this industry insist on doing things their own way, and then tell you its your system that's broken when they don't work out, despite the system working for 80% of the rest of the office.

I prefer yellow pages over uccs; less competition, cleaner files, more chances of renewals, they turnover well 3 - 6 mths later if you actually follow up because no one knows they are looking for money since nothing is filed on them.