1: “It was a typical diner,” Jeffrey Fox writes in How to Become a Rainmaker. “There was a counter, booths, and tables.”
The waiters were primarily high schoolers working for the summer.
“One customer was upset about something,” Jeffrey writes. “He was angry with one of the young waitresses. He was loud, rude, and nasty.
“Perhaps she had made an error on the bill, or there was not enough B in his BLT?
“Whatever it was, his overreaction brought tears to the teenager’s eyes.
“The guy finally threw some money down and stomped out.”
Three other kids saw what happened. One of them said, “I know that guy. I’ve seen him in my father’s office.”
As it turned out, each of the high schoolers had a parent who was a doctor. That night, they learned that the angry patron was a salesperson for a pharmaceutical company.
“Then and there, each kid planned to tell their parents not to do business with that salesperson,” Jeffrey writes.
The moral of our story: “Rainmakers make friends, not enemies,” he notes.
2: Why be a jerk? Who benefits from unpleasant behavior?
Rainmakers “see the world, and everyone in it, as their market,” Jeffrey observes.
“Rainmakers know the world is small. They know that everyone knows someone. They know that anyone can become a client, or refer a client, or recommend a client, or scuttle a promising relationship.”
We are polite. To everyone. Nonclients, as well as existing customers. We understand business can come from unexpected places. We know that something we did ten years ago could result in business today.
“There are no ‘little people’ to the Rainmaker,” Jeffrey writes. “They do not berate the waiter because the kitchen is slow. They do not get angry with the person at the ticket counter because the airline delays or cancels a flight.”
What else do Rainmakers know?
“Don’t talk with food in our mouth,” Jeffrey notes. “And don’t plop our briefcase, or our laptop, or our cool tablet, or smartphone, on the customer’s desk or conference table.
“Don’t be late for meetings. Be sure our hands and clothes and hair and samples and car are clean.
“Stand up when an older person or a woman enters the room. Open the door for others. Offer to carry heavy items. Help lift a bag into and out of the overhead compartments in airplanes. Say please and thank you.”
Rainmakers have good manners. All the time. With everyone.
“Everyone is treated with courtesy,” Jeffrey notes. “The Rainmaker is as respectful and polite to the guy who mows his lawn as he is to the president of the company that makes the lawn mowers.”
3: “A wire and cable salesperson had a good relationship with the top management of a client company in Florida,” Jeffrey shares.
Every time he visited his customer, he was greeted by the company receptionist. She was “an efficient, organized young woman,” he notes. “Part of her job was keeping the sales appointment schedule.
The receptionist did not buy wire and cable nor did she participate in decision-making.
Yet, “the salesperson always treated her courteously,” Jeffrey shares. He “always waited patiently if there were delays, never making insistent demands—as did other salespeople.
“The salesperson always thanked the receptionist for her help, and always made sure to say good-bye to her.”
Twenty years passed. The receptionist is now the executive vice president.
Guess what? The company became the wire and cable salesman’s biggest account.
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: Do a personal inventory. How am I showing up? Am I as respectful and polite to the guy who mows his lawn as to the president of the company that makes the lawnmowers?
Action: Journal about my answers above.