Here are my top 10 takeaways:
1. Rainmakers sell money. Rainmakers don't sell products or services. They sell the economic benefits those products and services provide. They dollarize everything, helping their customers to see how the purchase is a great investment. They shift the focus from how much the customer is spending to how much she will be saving.
2. Rainmakers put themselves in their customers shoes. As a customer, no one likes being lied to, patronized, brushed aside, overcharged, etc. Rainmakers can emphathize with customers and treat them as such.
3. Rainmakers understand that customers don't care about them. In Fox's words. "Customers don't care if you have a mortgage to pay. Customers don't care if you need their business to win a contest. Customers don't care why your shipments are late, what you like, where you went to school, or what sport you play or played. The only thing customers care about are themselves and their problem...Rainmakers say you they don't say I." Rainmakers never use guilt to get business.
4. Rainmakers go where there are customers. Fox uses the example of fishing. You can have all the best equipment, from the pole to the tackle to the boat, but if there aren't fish where you are going, you won't catch any fish. Rainmakers focus first on finding customers; they realize that is what business is about.
5. Rainmakers go on sales calls to talk business. Rainmakers cut to the chase and don't waste the customer's time. Meetings are for business. Not small talk. Not having coffee. Not eating lunch. Not playing golf. These things may be present, but the rainmaker focuses on the purpose of the meeting. She does not talk about the picture of the prospect's family, the culinary quality of the coffee, or her hole-in-one. She gets down to business.
6. Rainmakers turn customer objections into customer objectives. When the customer has an objection, the rainmaker reconstructs it as a customer's statement of a mutual objective. For example, if the customer says, "Your delivery time isn't fast enough," the rainmaker says, "So, what we need to do is find a way to get the product faster?" The rainmaker positions himself on the same side as the customer, as if they're working together to find a solution for the customer's problem.
7. Rainmakers are polite to everyone. "Why be unlikable?" Fox asks. It doesn't matter if she's talking to the secretary, the CEO, a supplier, or a colleague, the rainmaker is always nice. She realizes they she stands to gain nothing from being rude to anyone.
8. Rainmakers talk about points of difference. Many times, customers will assume that you are the same as your competitors unless you explain to them explicitly how you are different. Rainmakers thrive on differentiation. They know that if customers can't see a difference, they'll buy what's cheaper.
9. Rainmakers always plan ahead. Fox gives the illustration of a wine tasting gone bad. The host, a wineseller, failed to taste a certain wine himself before serving it to a group of connoisseurs. The wine ended up tasting horrible. Rainmakers are obsessive about precall planning. They will not hesitate to spend 8 hours preparing for a 20 minute meeting. They research and rehearse relentlessly, so that the meeting goes on without a hitch.
10. Rainmakers don't use icebreakers. "There is no ice," Fox says, "between a rainmaker and her customer." Customers don't make "cold" calls. They know about the customer thoroughly before the
first meeting. There is no awkwardness, no hesitancy, nothing preventing the rainmaker from getting
down to business.
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