How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients
By Jeffrey J. Fox
Cherish customers at all times.
Cherish leads at all times; treat them the way you would like to be treated. Always move towards the goal of changing the lead to a candidate and finally to a hire.
Treat customers as you would your best friend.
If you were trying to help a friend obtain a position with your company, how would you do it? Would your pressure them or would you explain the process and provide the information they need, etc. Would you follow up on what you said the next steps would be?
Listen to customers and decipher their needs.
When engaging a lead listen to what they aren’t saying and form questions to get behind the conversation.
Make (or give) customers what they need.
Make the sell convincing and answer the questions the lead has. Meet their needs.
Price your product to its dollarized value.
Determine what a 5- 10-15 minute phone call to a Director would be worth, in other words set a time frame with a lead based on what you think they would charge you for that set amount of time. Respect
Show customers the dollarized value of what they will get.
When talking to a lead, it isn’t what they will be getting for their money, but it’s about the investment they make in speaking with you and what the potential return on that conversation is.
Teach customers to want what they need.
With a cold call to a lead you have an opportunity to change the way they were thinking when they woke up that morning. The role they have been in for 5 years isn’t the only option and it would be a mistake to at least not listen to what you have to say. Recruiters are life changers.
Make your product the way the customers want it.
You called them, play by their rules, be professional and courteous, call back if requested, but set a time, call them on another number if needed, be accommodating.
Get your product to your customers when they want it.
Repeat after me, pipelining isn’t evil; don’t pressure a lead into moving forward in the process only to face a sloppy close at the end. There are seasons for leads and we need to engage a lead in the right season, it is our job to determine the season for the lead.
Give your customers a little extra, more than they expect.
While I don’t advocate working while on vacation, I did make a short 15 minute phone call to a Vice President while on vacation once. I was returning his call, He wasn’t expecting that and it was a little something extra to show the difference in my company as opposed to other companies. I took time and invested in the lead.
Remind the customers of the dollarized value they received.
At some point revisit the investment they made in having a conversation with you and the possible rewards for doing so. It helps to keep the lead engaged.
Thank each customer sincerely and often.
In email, on the phone or whenever, always thank the lead for taking time to speak to you and for listening to what you have to offer. Kindness goes a long way.
Help customers pay you, so they won’t be embarrassed and go elsewhere.
This means making the process easy for the lead to be converted to a candidate. Do you really need a resume to move ahead in the process right now? Can you rephrase your interview questions to be more inline with a passive candidate? Can you streamline the process to help close a passive candidate?
Ask to do it again.
Thus is the age old, “who do you know” question. Great people typically know great people. After closing a lead and making the hire, let them do the work for you by referring great people in their network.
Cold Call Success Tips
- Fish where the big fish are, make calls that matter, don’t waste your time.
- Welcome objections, it shows interest, they want you to help them say yes.
- Treat everyone as a potential lead or lead generator, in person, email or on the phone.
- Break the ice at the end of the call, save the chitchat until the end.
- A shot on goal is never a bad thing, if you don’t make the call you have already lost.
