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Hardcover
192 pages
ISBN 9780786865956 Published May 2000
Hyperion Books
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Posted Jan. 8, 2009 2:05 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Sales - 800 CEO Read Blog
In July of 2000, I wrote my first Jack Covert Selects on the book How to Become a Rainmaker. This is a book that has stayed with me over the years and is included in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. In the book Jeffrey Fox lists the Rainmaker's Credo.
Cherish customers at all timesTreat customers as you would your best friend
Listen to customers and decipher their needs
Make (or give) customers what they need
Price your product to its dollarized value
Show customers the dollarized value of what they will get
Teach customers to want what they need
Make your product the way customers want it
Get your product to your customers when they want it
Give your customers a little extra, more than they expect
Remind customers of the dollarized value they received
Thank each customers sincerely and often
Help customers pay you, so they won't be embarrased and go elsewhere
Ask to do it again.
Book Review: How To Make Money in Small Business
Posted May 18, 2004 5:20 a.m. by tom-ehrenfeld
In Uncategorized - 800 CEO Read Blog
How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know by Jeffrey J. Fox is a delight. This wise collection of linked aphorisms gracefully presents solid ideas without ever sounding parochial. Unlike some books that relentlessly sell their ideas, Fox cleverly focuses on short, pithy, and useful lessons for the reader. He doesnt cite companies youve read about in flashy magazines. He bases his authority on what he knows, presumably from direct experience or observation. This gives his book a sense of authenticity that, for me, is refreshing.
Many of his lessons qualify as unexpected. Learn some Latin (such as quid pro quo and carpe diem.) Hire a personal driver to free up your time for more important matters, since, he explains, any activity that robs you of your customer-getting time robs you of your business. Run like the plague from a home office, since tax deductions never equal the cost of reduced productivity and reduced flexibility inherent with a small office.
Not all his core lessons are this quirky. For example, Fox returns often to the fundamental rule of always, always having customers, and selling to them. He runs through the financial basics in a way that most readers can benefit from. He goes into detail on small but important matters as hiring, running (or avoiding) meetings, and keeping records.
While many of Foxs myriad lessons tackle very particular practices, they add up to a handful of wise principles. As the owner you need to spend your time on the most important activities, which are selling, and tending to customers. You need to use your time, which is limited, in the most effective manner. You need to create an organization, which, through outsourcing, wise hiring, and bootstrapping, leverages the talents and passion of everyone.
If youve read Foxs past books (How to Become a Great Boss, How to Become a Marketing Superstar, How to Become a Rainmaker, Dont Send a Resume, and, How to Become CEO), you will find some overlapsuch as his advice that young entrepreneurs tend to grow into the best business people, that hard work trumps anything else, and that customers are the life-blood of business. If you havent read his other books, I recommend that you do.
A business book editor who I admire enormously once said to me that theres a great difference between simple and simplistic. Im a bit grumpy about many popular business books today that cant tell the difference. (Which bring to mind one of the many great lines in Spinal Tap, namely, There such a fine line between cleverand stupid.) Readers will enjoy Foxs books because they accessible and resonant without being simplistic or smarmy. They are quirky, surprising, fun and easy to read, and, yes, useful.
Jack Covert Selects - How to Become a Rainmaker
Posted July 2, 2000 5:43 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox, Hyperion, 169 pages, $16.95, Hardcover, July 2000 ISBN 9780786865956
I really appreciate a book with lessons one can apply quickly and easily-such as this one. Jeffrey J. Fox, author of 1998's How to Become CEO, has written another book much like his first one. The first book, which was also fun to read, began each chapter with a piece of accepted business advice-such nuggets as "Never go to office parties" "Don't drink with the gang," and my favorite "Always take the job that offers the most money", and then suggested whether we should or should not take this sage wisdom. I personally like this new book even better.
While people have overused the word "rainmaker" today in too many contexts, Fox focuses on rainmakers as those who generate sales. The rainmaker is the person who does the deal. The rainmaker is the sales guy who gets the biggest paycheck and commands the most respect. To give you an example of what Fox has to say, I would like to paraphrase from chapter 44 of the book: "Why breakfast meetings bring rain." You do a breakfast meeting because: 1) Breakfasts are the least expensive meal-the selection is simple so a minimum of though is needed and no alcoholic beverages are a temptation; 2) Breakfast saves time-try to set up the meeting on the customer's way to work; 3) Breakfast meeting are canceled less because the problems of the day are out of the picture. Often rainmakers have two breakfast meeting per day. The book is loaded with 160 pages of this easily digestible, practical advice for the sales professional. It is also for the person who knows that life is nothing but selling-either yourself or a commodity.
