How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients

How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients

by Jeffrey J. Fox
How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients

How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients

by Jeffrey J. Fox

Hardcover(1 ED)

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Overview

Rainmakers are not born. They are made. And Jeffrey Fox's powerful How to Become a Rainmaker will get you there.

Now Updated and with New Success Tips!


Filled with smart tips given in the Fox signature style, counter-intuitive, controversial, and practiced, this hard-hitting collection of sales advice shows readers how to woo, pursue, and finally win any customer. In witty, succinct chapters, Fox offers surprising, daring, and totally practical wisdom that will help readers rise above the competition in any company in any field. A terrific resource for CEOs, as well as anyone looking to distinguish themselves in sales—be it books, cars, or real estate—How to Become a Rainmaker offers the opportunity to rise above the competition in any company, in any field.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786865956
Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication date: 05/17/2000
Edition description: 1 ED
Pages: 192
Sales rank: 319,563
Product dimensions: 5.25(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Prior to starting Fox & Co. Jeffrey J. Fox worked in senior positions for three high powered consumer and industrial marketing companies. He was Vice President , Marketing, and a Corporate Vice President of Loctite Corp, now Henkel/Loctite. He was Director of Marketing for the wine divisions of The Pillsbury Co. He was the Director of New Products for Heublein, Inc, now Diageo. (All three companies became clients of Fox & Co.) Jeffrey is the winner of Sales & Marketing Management magazine's "Outstanding Marketer Award;" winner of the American Marketing Association's "Outstanding Marketer in Connecticut;" and the National Distributors Association's award as the nation's "Best Industrial Marketer." He is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study that is rated one of the top 100 case studies, and which is thought to be the most widely taught marketing case in the world. His books have been published in 35 languages. His offices are in Chester, Connecticut.

Read an Excerpt

Fish Where the Big Fish Are

When asked "What is the most important thing you need when you go fishing?" most people say "bait," "pole," "hooks," and "beer." Those are important, but the most important thing needed is fish! You can have the best boat on the prettiest lake with awesome tackle, but if there are no fish, you will go home emptyhanded. If, however, you have only a raggedy old net but a little pond teeming with fish, your chances of a catch are much greater.

Where you cast your line is crucial to catching fish. This is also true for selling. Rainmakers fish where the big fish are. Rainmakers talk to customers who are familiar with their product, or who already use the product, or who have a high probability of using the product. Don't waste your time trying to convince dairy farmers to buy horseshoes. And don't waste your time selling hospital beds to hotels.

Big companies in an industry are generally better prospects than small companies in the same industry. Successful customers are generally better prospects than struggling customers. Customers who want your product are better targets than customers who need your product. (Customers who need your product may not know it. They must be educated, persuaded. This takes time and money. Customers who want your product are partially sold before they see you.)

To a Rainmaker, the big sale is the trophy fish on the wall.

Show Them the Money!

Customers buy for only two reasons: to feel good or to solve a problem. Going out to dinner, buying scuba equipment, or getting a new puppy fall into the "feel good" category. The prevailing purchase motivation for organizations is to solve a problem. Thesolution to the problem can always be expressed in financial terms-in dollars and cents. If a company invests $100,000 in advertising, they expect that advertising to generate $500,000 in sales. When a motor manufacturer replaces a cheap $ .08 rubber o-ring with a $ .10 viton o-ring, they expect to save $ . 30 per o-ring with reduced warranty claims. A tree surgeon uses a $900 saw because it cuts five times faster than a cheaper saw, saving him $50 a day in reduced labor costs.

Rainmakers don't sell fasteners or valves or washing machines or double-paned windows or tax audits or irrigation systems or training programs or golf clubs. Rainmakers sell money! They sell reduced downtime, fewer repairs, better gas mileage, higher deposit interest, increased output, decreased energy usage, more wheat per acre, more yardage per swing.

Rainmakers help the customer see the money. Rainmakers turn benefits into dollars. The plumber who generates the most revenue doesn't charge $ 50 for a service call, he sells a clean, dry basement for $100, saving the customer's thousand-dollar carpet.

The lock salesperson doesn't sell locks, he sells security for valuables. The pool salesman doesn't just sell recreation, he sells an increase in home value.

The number one salesperson for a company that made cough medicine never sold a single bottle of cough medicine. He was by far the leading salesperson, but he never sold a cough drop.

The company made products for people with colds, sore throats, hay fever, and sinus conditions. The company made throat lozenges, cough drops, gargles, and sprays. The company trained its sales force on how the products worked, all about the product chemistry, and why their products were the best. The company's success depended on how many cases of cough medicine and gargle it sold. That meant the company's success depended on the demand for the product; the number of people with colds.

The company made its product available to the public by selling to pharmacies, to drugstore owners. In order to make its products more appealing to the drugstore owner than the competitors' medicine, the salesperson's company offered an incentive: For every five cases of products purchased the druggist could either get one case of product for free (to resell at retail prices) or a cash check for the equivalent purchase price of one case. (The free case or check were both worth $25.)

The salesperson realized that his customers were not people with colds. His customers were the drugstore owners. (People with colds were the druggists' customers.) So despite all the technical product training, unlike his colleagues, the number one salesperson never talked about the products' formulas, strength, or soothing aspects.

The number one salesperson talked to the drugstore owners about money.

The salesperson explained the five-case purchase incentive, asking the drugstore owners if they would prefer the free product or the money (in a bank check). Almost always, the drugstore owners would opt for the money.

The salesperson didn't sell cures for coughs, he sold a rebate check of $25 for every five cases of product purchased. After the drugstore owner agreed to take the money, the salesperson would ask, "How much money would you like?" Getting more money meant buying more product, and that's what many pharmacists did.

The number one salesperson sold money! All the other salespeople regaled druggists with facts on cough suppressant chemicals and breathe-free passages. They were far-distant followers in the contest.

Always show the customer the money. Always dollarize (see "A Rainmaker Extra," page 148). Quantify the customer's return on his investment in your product. Calculate the financial consequences to the customer-the cost of going without your solution.

Rainmakers don't sell products; they sell the dollarized value the customer gets from the products.

Rainmakers sell money...

Table of Contents

Introduction1
IThe Rainmaker's Credo5
IIAlways Answer the Question, "Why Should This Customer Do Business with Us?"7
IIIObey Marketing's First Commandment10
IVCustomers Don't Care About You12
VAlways Precall Plan Every Sales Call14
VIFish Where the Big Fish Are18
VIIShow Them the Money!20
VIIIEarthquakes Don't Count25
IXKiller Sales Question #128
XAlways Take the Best Seat in a Restaurant30
XIDon't Drink Coffee on a Sales Call32
XIIYou're Not at Lunch to Eat Lunch35
XIIINever Wear a Pen in Your Shirt Pocket37
XIVKiller Sales Question #239
XVRainmakers Turn Customer Objections into Customer Objectives42
XVIAlways Make a "Mid-Job, Next-Job" Recommendation46
XVIITreat Everybody You Meet as a Potential Client49
XVIIIHeed the Biggest Buy Signal52
XIXKiller Sales Question #354
XXAlways Return Every Call Every Day59
XXILearn the "Miles Per Gallon" of Selling61
XXIIBeware the Myth of Time and Territory Management65
XXIIIAlways Taste the Wine Before a Wine Tasting68
XXIVDare to Be Dumb71
XXVAlways Do an Investment Return Analysis75
XXVINever Forget: Everybody Is Somebody's Somebody78
XXVIIAlways Be on "High Receive"80
XXVIII"Onionize"83
XXIXIf You Don't Care About the Answer, Don't Ask the Question86
XXXNever Be in a Meeting88
XXXIPresent for Show, Close for Dough91
XXXIIAdvice to a Baby-sitter93
XXXIIIKiller Sales Question #496
XXXIVGive and Get99
XXXVSell on Friday Afternoons103
XXXVI"Break the Ice" at the End of the Sales Call105
XXXVIIUse the Point System Every Day108
XXXVIIIA Shot on Goal Is Never a Bad Play110
XXXIXDon't Make Cold Calls113
XLShow the Chain, Sell the First Link115
XLIDon't Talk with Food in Your Mouth119
XLIIKiller Sales Question #5121
XLIIILove Voice Mail124
XLIVPark in the Back129
XLVBe the Best-Dressed Person You Will Meet Today131
XLVIWhy Breakfast Meetings Bring Rain133
XLVII"Here's My Card..."136
XLVIIIKiller Sales Question #6139
XLIXTen Things to Do Today to Get Business142
LHow to Recognize a Rainmaker144
The Rainmaker Extra: How to Dollarize148
A Case Study: Mr. K.155
Epilogue167
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