Making Rain

Sobel, a consultant, offers his approach to developing optimum client relationships with advice on how to break into a client's inner circle by becoming a trusted advisor. We learn that a rainmaker is one who snags big clients and closes big deals with skills to build deep client relationships for the long term by consistently adding value. Using stories, diagrams, and valuable insight, the author provides suggestions for becoming a trusted advisor, an intellectual partner, and hence a rainmaker. The author gives readers his views on how to move from the first relationship phase as an expert for hire to the role of steady supplier who is rewarded with repeat business. The next level, trusted advisor, is achieved through attributes, attitudes, and strategies that add value year after year and culminate in lifelong loyalty and insider status. Sobel concludes with an assessment tool to determine individual or organizational strengths and weaknesses by analyzing their relationships and the role they play with each client.