Creating Rainmakers: The Manager's Guide to Training Professionals to Attract New Clients [Hardcover]

Ford Harding has only managed to do even better than his first book, "Rain Making -- The Professional's Guide to Attracting New Clients" (a book I picked up back in 1996 when I first started out in the discipline, and which I have re-read again since purchasing Harding's lastest work).

This book does much to dispell many of the buiness development myths or common fatal mistakes perpetuated by many sales and marketing managers. Most businesses approach account development either by the seat of their pants, if at all, or they place all their eggs in one basket, building heightened, unrealistic expectations from that all-important, one-shot-take-all telemarketing or direct mail campaign. A common mistake I have witnessed firms making is that they don't treat business development and lead generation as an ongoing, continuous system -- a plan, a network, a philosophy. By revealing business development as a system, Ford Harding's "Creating Rainmakers" helps to shine a big light on a big problem in today's world of business marketing, especially in the profesional services disciplines.

This book clearly outlines all the many components of a comprehensive, ongoing system for continuous lead generation, beyond mere "networking." The service sector, particularly hi-tech services, continues to thrive and grow as a vital part of our "knowledge economy." And business development, or effective Rainmaking, will only become more critical as we enter the 21st century.

Our focus is in the futures, commodities, and option business. We trade oil, cattle, gold, currency etc. And each one of our employees is an "independent" contractor. The problem with that is the fact that often times this very independent entrepreneurial group has a hard time working together to develop client relationships.

Everyone is competing against everyone else. There is little to no synergy or teamwork.

This book showed me MANY examples of how to guide and direct the individuals of the group to be more cooperative with one another and how to help them make more money. I was astonished that I was doing somethings right, but the things that I was doing right were being negated by the actions I was doing wrong. Over and over again Mr.Harding says that rainmakers get in their own way when it comes to training other potential rainmakers and he is right! If I had not read this book I would have lost some valuable members of my team due defection.

This is a great book and was a joy to read. One reading is not enough. This book must be read three to four times with a highlighter and a notepad- so you can write down the numerous ideas that will occur to you as you read the book. Then keep this book as a reference that you can go back to time and time again.