Book Summary: How to Become a Rainmaker – The Rules for Getting Customers – By Jeffrey J. Fox
George Foreman has a great saying – “If you can sell then you will always be able to eat.” In this economy, that really has meaning. Rainmaker discusses in detail the basics of improving your selling game. Remember one thing – Rainmakers do not get fired because they drive company revenue through superior client acquisition.
Why is this important to me?
I don’t want to waste your time. If you are investing your time reviewing this summary then it has to be worth it for you. Customers buy for only two reasons – to gain pleasure or to avoid pain. That’s it! They don’t buy features and benefits; they buy the aspirin to get rid of the headache. As a selling professional, you need to understand that features don’t sell but the outcome of the solution to YOUR CLIENTS PROBLEM sells. B2B or Business to Business selling further delineates the pain / pleasure concept. Business clients buy to increase revenue, reduce their costs or mitigate risks. According to Jeffrey – Rainmakers sell money.
There are several key concepts in the book to help you become a Rainmaker. For the sake of time, I will profile three of them.
1. Never do anything without knowing what is going to happen next. Amateur sales people do not understand this rule. They will present their product, give away pricing and provide a list of their best clients without knowing the three main things: The prospects PAIN, MONEY and DECISION making process. Rainmakers know all of this before they give away their knowledge.
2. Listening – 70/30 – You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Rainmakers know how to listen to their clients and help them discover their pain. Listening is the biggest skill that you need to learn to be successful in sales and in business. The prospect should be speaking 70% of the time and the sales person needs to speak only 30% of the time. In a one hour meeting, you talk only 18 minutes.
Questions – Learning how to ask effective questions will take you from being an amateur sales person to a Rainmaker. This skill is the secret to driving the second point of listening. If you picture a funnel, your questions should parallel it so you ask general questions at first and then dig into the more specific areas based on your prospects responses. You need to understand the What, When, Where, Why and How of each area including their problems, decision making process and the budget.
How to Become a Rainmaker also talks about the 4 point daily plan. This is an excellent plan that every sales person needs to encompass in their career. It works like this:
1. Get a lead or referral and assign one point.
2. Get an appointment to meet a decision maker, assign two points
3. Meet the decision maker, assign 3 points.
4. Get a commitment to close or direct next step to close and assign four points. The goal is to get 4 points every day.
I hope you have found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book if you are in sales is get 4 points each day. This is such a simple plan that it will work wonders for your career.
