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From Publishers Weekly
Whether business leaders want a steady drizzle or an out-and-out monsoon, they can use Sobel's formula for landing and keeping customers-what he calls "making rain." Based on building relationships, it starts with the key components of knowledge, service and demonstrable value; these are the building blocks that attract clients, says business adviser Sobel (Clients for Life). In this straightforward manual, he gives practical strategies to help leaders of service firms and large corporations alike become indispensable advisers to their clients, thus cementing a long-term connection. The principles behind his tactics are simple: get to know your client, gain respect for your knowledge and win personal respect. Then, drive it home by delivering above and beyond, again and again. These ideas are old as dirt. Sobel reaches across centuries to dig up examples of their success, from Aristotle to Ben Franklin. He buffs up these ageless notions and places them within engaging anecdotes. Although the lessons aren't strokes of genius, they should help professionals through most dry spells.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Sobel, a consultant, offers his approach to developing optimum client relationships with advice on how to break into a client's inner circle by becoming a trusted advisor. We learn that a rainmaker is one who snags big clients and closes big deals with skills to build deep client relationships for the long term by consistently adding value. Using stories, diagrams, and valuable insight, the author provides suggestions for becoming a trusted advisor, an intellectual partner, and hence a rainmaker. The author gives readers his views on how to move from the first relationship phase as an expert for hire to the role of steady supplier who is rewarded with repeat business. The next level, trusted advisor, is achieved through attributes, attitudes, and strategies that add value year after year and culminate in lifelong loyalty and insider status. Sobel concludes with an assessment tool to determine individual or organizational strengths and weaknesses by analyzing their relationships and the role they play with each client. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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First Sentence
Several years ago, I was in the midst of a long-term project with a CEO who suddenly received an attractive offer to sell his company. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Several years ago, I was in the midst of a long-term project with a CEO who suddenly received an attractive offer to sell his company. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Useful Wisdom,
By Bill Clarkson (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty (Hardcover)
This is a subtle book which contains a lot of wisdom about building client and customer relationships. It's a well written and engaging read. The premise is that traditional "sometimes wrong but never in doubt" rainmakers are increasingly dysfunctional in service organizations, whose clients demand value-added in the very first meeting. They are too sales-focused, they are in-and-out, and they don't bring enough content or client knowledge to early client meetings. The alternative is to teach every professional to make a bit of rain every day or every week. Each chapter looks at a different skill or strategy which will help readers "make rain" with theirclients. Chapter three is useful because it summarizes the advisor skills which are set out in Sobel's superb first book, Clients For Life. Other chapters cover topics such as rapidly building trust; adding core, surprise, and personal value to relationships; exercising the mindset of independent wealth; and developing institutional mechanisms to "make rain" at the firm level. I think Making Rain appeals to a sophisticated reader, with its engaging anecdotes about client relationships and several chapters about historical figures who were great makers of rain (for example, Benjamin Franklin and the Welsh mystic, Merlin). This is an excellent read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical and refreshing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty (Hardcover)
There are very few worthwhile books about building client relationships, and this is definitely one of them. Sobel's main focus is how you de-commoditize yourself in increasingly competitive service markets. What I like is that he doesn't pretend to offer a grand strategy or one-size-fits-all prescription, but rather a series of thoughtful ideas for distinguishing yourself from the pack. These include thinking holistically about your "relationship capital"; the seven attributes of client advisors; the mindset of "independent wealth"; and some interesting history about great client advisors. The case studies/anecdotes are educational and often funny, and the writing is excellent. The chapters are short and easy to read.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very boastful title; little new substance,
By A Customer
This review is from: Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty (Hardcover)
While Mr. Sobe's premise is interesting -- client relationships are developed through the sequence: expert-inner circle-trusted advisor; his approach to following that path is filled with clichés (e.g. client loyalty = value + trust + going the extra mile) and generic terms (e.g. becoming an expert requires you to: (1) do it faster; (2) do it better; (3) be different; (3) be better prepared ...). He continuously uses terms such as trust, integrity, rapport, but fails to put them together into coherent algorithms or work programs to allow the reader to understand how to work through the author's "expert-inner circle-trusted advisor" paradigm. Nothing new here.
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