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Book Report - How to Become a Rainmaker, Jeffery Fox

Basically a fantastic book - the opening sums it all up: "You should read this book if your Organization needs revenues"

Every single chapter in this book has nuggets we can all use in our daily business lives but I wanted to summarize the book with the 6 killer sales questions Mr. Fox poses. Buy this book and read it again and again!

1. When you have the customer on the phone first suggest a meeting and then ask "Do you have your appointment calendar handy?" This is a killer sales question b/c it leads to an appointment 90% of the time.
2. Based on analysis you do ask "Based on analysis, it looks like we can save $180,000 per year with this solution. Can I assume there are probably a number of things that have to be done before you are completely comfortable with this approach? Ok, so before we get into this in any depth, can I get your agreement on this analysis? Will you look at the facts and decide for yourself if this makes sens?"
3. When your customer is looking at competitors products - you say (but never mention the competitors by name!) "Yes, that's a good company. Would you like to know our points of difference?" You don't have to knock your competitor and the customer will only say yes to this question.
4. Offer the customer demo (not a trial, a supervised demo) and ask "If the demo is successful, is there anything else prohibiting you from going ahead?" By asking the question this way, you get an agreement to an action that leads to a close. Never leave product samples behind - 95% of samples are left unused.
5. "You've looked at everything, your concerns have been answered... hy don't you give it a try" is a killer sales question.
6. "What question should I be asking that I am not asking" is a killer sales question. If you have covered everything, you are OK -but if not, you could unearth something that's important to the customer.This question is only asked by confident, customer oriented Rainmakers!

Dollarize
The best way to close customers is to "dollarize" and quantify the benefits with real numbers. The greater the ROI, the more compelling it is for the customer to purchase. A properly calculated investment return analysis shows the customer what it is costing per day to go without the solution. This analysis helps the customer sell the solution inside their organization. Rainmakers show true cost vs. price of the product to close - Rainmakers don't sell drills, they sell holes - and holes that are $.02 less expensive to drill!