Book Review – How to Become a RAINMAKER
This book was a recommendation to me about 9 years ago from an ALL-STAR sales rep! She had been working with Enterprise Accounts her whole career and joined my mid-market team. I was shocked by the sheer amount of great tips in this book. More so I am shocked that it isn’t discussed more frequently amongst sales people. Go search Google and you won’t see it on many lists for “Top Sales Books”, but it should be and we are adding it to our 10 out of 10 group!
The book has 51 short (2 to 4 page) chapters that are very much to the point. Starting with the Rainmaker Credo “Cherish customers at all times”, the book reminds us what we are really trying to accomplish when we are getting customers and keeping customers. This isn’t a how to guide, but rather a manual that you can go back to on a regular basis and remind yourself of the best practices around winning over customers. The title is what www.techsalesshow.com is all about, not how to be average, but rather how to help you all become RAINMAKERS!!
My Kindle copy of this book has over 75 highlights that I do go back and review at least every other quarter! I always do it before a territory planning session to make sure my mind is in the right place and so that I have some strong examples to share with the team. It is a must, but here is what I would consider my TOP 10 Highlights! Don’t forget, there are 65 other highlights in my copy, don’t depend on just these 10 – read the book!
Bobby’s Top 10 Highlights
- Big-hitting Rainmakers are among the highest paid employees in every company in every industry.
- Always put yourself in the shoes of the good customer.
- The only thing customers care about are themselves and their problem.
- ALL OF CHAPTER 5 – Always Precall Plan Every Sales Call. Quote “Ninety percent of all sales calls are won or lost before the salesperson sees the customer.
- Rainmakers don’t sell products… Rainmakers sell money! They sell reduced downtime, fewer repairs, increased output!
- Chapter 12 – Don’t Drink Coffee on a Sales Call. It wastes valuable meeting time that you should use selling!
- Chapter 21 – Always Return Every Call Every Day. This goes to my biggest belief that you should follow up on every meeting within 24 hours. Too often I see it take days if not weeks for reps to follow up on meetings.
- Chapter 31 – Never Be in a Meeting. This is a quick two pages about customer not caring about you being busy. I personally hate when people turn on their out of office. I know they have their phone in their hand and I know they saw my email. Their out of office just tells me they don’t want to deal with me right now.
- Present for Show, Close for Dough – “Some salespeople present and hope the customer decides to say yes. The Rainmaker presents and helps the customer to decide.”
- Chapter 50 – Ten Things to Do Today to Get Business! I can’t list them all, but any time you have a day that is wide open do these 10 things. Your funnel will fill up for sure!
Hopefully after reading the book, sharing it with your team and implementing what you learned you too will become a RAINMAKER!
Find the book on Amazon, here
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