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New Book on RainMaking, Author Interview
14 March 2008Those of you who joined me last October for our teleseminar with Ford Harding on So You Want to be a Rainmaker? know that Ford is a veteran rainmaking consultant and his firm has studied hundreds of highly successful rainmakers over many years. And you will also know that Ford provides excellent, well-researched content and provides you with the tools that you need to succeed in any professional service business.
So, with that introduction, I am pleased to announce that Ford Harding has updated his book on Rainmaking. It is hot off the presses.
I have started reading it and I can say that it is a gem. Particularly for those of us in the legal profession, there are solid business building tactics that you can use to develop a comprehensive rainmaking strategy.
Enjoy an interview with Ford Harding about his new book.
Rain Making-2nd Edition-Attract New Clients Whatever Your Field
By Ford Harding (Adams Media, 2008)
Q: What is a rainmaker?
A: It’s a lawyer, management consultant, engineer or other professional who brings so much new business into his firm that it awes his colleagues. So, if a typical partner in a firm brings in $1,000,000 in new business, the one who brings in $3 or $4,000,000 is a rainmaker. If a typical partner brings in $5,000,000, the one who brings in $12 or $13,000,000 is a rainmaker.
Q: This is a “how-to” book. How do you know that the things you write about will work?
A: Several ways. We’ve interviewed over 300 rainmakers and people who have observed them in action about what they do. Second, we’ve worked with hundreds of professionals at large and small firms, helping them learn how to get business, and we’ve seen what works. Also, my colleagues and I at Harding & Company—there are four of us—have a combined experience of over 100 years at selling professional services. So, most of us are old and have seen a lot.
Q: How does this book differ from the first edition?
A: The first edition was published fourteen years ago. A lot has changed in the world. The first edition doesn’t even mention the internet. An acceptable omission in those days, it’s a gaping hole today. Everyone is touched by the web now. Email is all pervasive and you don’t use it the same way you do old-fashioned mail. A webinar differs from a seminar in many ways; in its geographic reach, in its cost structure and in the way the speaker must handle her audience. Of course none of this was addressed in the old book.
I have changed a lot over the past fourteen years, too. There is a saying among architects that the design of a building is done when the project manager rips the drawings from under the designer’s pen. Books are like that, too. I sent the manuscript for the first edition off to the publisher while I was just beginning a whole new phase of learning about rainmaking. I had just started my firm. Prior to that, most of my experience had been with two firms, one a management consulting firm and the other an architectural firm. Over the past fifteen years I have had a wonderful opportunity to work with engineers, actuaries, accountants, publicists, turn around managers, lawyers, product designers, recruiters, construction managers, management consultants, architects and many specialists within these professions. I’ve had the opportunity to interview many more rainmakers. And as a result of all of this, my thoughts on how to make rain have developed.
Q: Why does this book have so much more on networking than the first?
A: Because I have learned how much more important networks are than I had realized. The people we coached and trained wanted to know much more about networking than the first edition covered, such as how to network with senior executives, and why some people get so much more out of their networks than others do, and how to create a formal networking group. My colleagues and I have tried to answer these questions.
Q: Many professionals who have to learn to sell are already working many hours of overtime. How can they take on the additional work required to bring in business?
A: There is no easy answer to that one. They need to chip away at it by doing several things. Many find that by organizing themselves for the effort, they can make better use of the scarce time they have available for business development. Something as simple as getting a complete listing of your contacts in one database makes it easier to take advantage of brief breaks during the day, because you can look at your list, pick out a contact and call her. Without the list, people tend to fritter away those short breaks before they figure out who to call.
Many professionals have to delegate some of the things that take up their time, in order to make more time for business development. This can require aspiring rainmakers to renegotiate their role with partners who are used freeing up time for business development by delegating to them. That can be a delicate process. Some can change the way they work to get business development benefits from things they need to do for other reasons. For example, a recruiter can make sourcing calls to a higher level of people than she has in the past and so develop relationships with people who can authorize a search.
Making time for business development requires making many changes like these.
Q: A lot of professionals are introverted. Though they have deep knowledge of their area of expertise, they find selling distasteful. Can they ever become rainmakers?
A: If the really want to, sure. I have seen many people who others thought would never make it become really good at bringing in business. Once introverts realize that it is far more important to keep the client talking than to talk, themselves, they become much more comfortable with the process.
Many have a mistaken belief the selling requires pushing your message at someone who doesn’t want to hear it. Realizing that selling most often means seeking out people who have a real need for their services, people who are looking for help, often turns negative perceptions of selling to positive. We call it the Oh-I-can-do-that! Realization.
Q: Why do so many professionals find it hard to learn to sell?
A: One major cause is insufficient experience to interpret the many small incidents that occur daily when you are actively trying to get new business. An old contact doesn’t return a couple of calls, and many professionals assume he doesn’t want to talk to them. They get stood up for a meeting and they take it personally. They get discouraged and give up. If you go out into the market place and meet the right people, stay in front of them by being helpful and remind them of what you do from time to time, the probability of getting hired is high. Rain Making shows how to do that.
Q: So, becoming a rainmaker requires understanding and persistence. Anything else?
A: Grit.
Don’t Give Up!
Added to my BOOK CLUB list.
Kristina
Posted in Marketing Strategies, Practice Building Advice, BOOK CLUB
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