How to Become a Rainmaker

Rainmakers don't bloom only at law firms and investment banks. Author Fox (HBS MBA '69), a marketing consultant based in Connecticut, extends the definition to include anyone who pulls in business and keeps the customers happy. A rainmaker, he says, is a person who brings revenue, from customers and donors, into an organization. "That revenue," he writes, "is the aqua viva—the lifeblood—of the organization. Without it the organization will die." Rainmakers, he says, can be anyone involved in identifying, attracting, getting, and keeping customers. "Rainmakers are akin to investigative reporters, detectives, psychiatrists, doctors, and archaeologists," writes Fox. "They ask, probe, dig, diagnose, and listen." Designed for a quick read, How to Become a Rainmaker consists of a series of short chapters built around basic tenets of salesmanship (i.e., "Fish Where the Big Fish Are"; "Treat Everybody You Meet as a Potential Client"; "Present for Show, Close for Dough"). "The most important success factor in any business or organization is having a customer," says Fox, and he shows, in an entertaining and practical way, how any employee can be a rainmaker by getting customers and keeping them coming back.