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 By Cecilia Alers, President of Cecilia Alers Consulting, LLC of Melville, NY. An active member of the LawMarketing Listserv, She can be reached at (516) 680-0219 and cecilia@alersconsulting.com
I recently bought one of those cool bracelets everyone seems to be wearing. Mine says: “Embrace the Journey.” When I saw it I knew immediately that I should buy it and wear it every day. What I didn’t know was that same message would be the closing statement in this book I asked to review.
Rainmaker Marketing -- 52 Rules of Engagement to Attract and Retain Customers for Life by Phil Fragasso is a must-read for professional service marketers, rainmakers and rainmaker wannabes. By organizing his points into 52 Rules of Engagement (ROEs), Fragasso provides a road map of principles for becoming a better rainmaker. I recommend that you read this book from front to back and then keep it for reference. Each month, you should take the book from your reference shelf, close your eyes and open it to a random page. Try incorporating whichever ROE you land on into your professional journey. If you do this, I think you will become a better service provider as well as better rainmaker.
Big picture invisible dot connectors
The author reminds us what many before him have said: Today’s clients are looking for more than technical expertise. They are looking for collaborators. The best rainmakers, Fragasso says, focus on proving how valuable they are instead of how smart. On the other hand, the author talks about the important role knowledge plays in keeping your business from becoming a commodity. Whether it is through technical expertise or strategic knowledge, the author believes that rainmakers are “big picture invisible dot connectors.” I agree. The ability to find and connect invisible dots – like the connection between my buying an “Embrace the Journey” bracelet and volunteering to review this book with the same closing message - is a truly unique ability. However, unlike the author, I’m not sure learning how to connect invisible dots can be learned. I believe some traits of rainmaking are either inherent or learned so early in life that they appear to be inherent. Being driven is one example. By the time you are in your 20s, you are either driven to success or not. If you are, you will make good use of this book. If you are not, you will wonder with detached emotion why some of your colleagues and friends stress so much.
Throughout the book, the author talks about the important role of passion in rainmaking. He tells us passionate enthusiasm is the most engaging and persuasive force to making rain. Choosing a career that you believe contributes to “the greater good” moves you from a worker to an evangelist. When you are evangelical about your work, making money becomes the byproduct of your core mission. The author tells us to learn to describe what we do in simple, heartfelt terms.
He offers this description of what attorneys do as an example. “I protect clients from the enemies they don’t even see.” I love that! And, while I think it describes quite well the role of an attorney, I don’t know many – if any – who would allow themselves to be described in that manner. Yet, for marketing to be successful it must be composed of a thousand little things that in the aggregate capture the hearts, minds and wallets of your prospects and clients. Describing yourself as a lawyer who can protect clients from unseen enemies is a passionate way to connect with clients who want lawyers to protect them.
Manifestos, not mission statements
Taking the importance of passion in work to new heights, in ROE #12, Fragasso tells us to replace mission statements with manifestos. This is really good advice. The author tells us about the value of Vince Lombardi’s motto to “plan the work and work the plan.” However, no amount of planning or work can replace the passion of President Elect Obama’s manifesto of change. Barack Obama had more than a plan to become President of the United States. He had a mission. People not only saw it, they felt it. And, in the end, enough people elected Barack Obama President despite historical barrier. So, what is a manifesto and how can you use it in your business instead of a mission statement?
A manifesto is a public declaration of one’s principles, policies, intentions, opinions, objectives and motives. It is usually associated with politics with the most famous political manifesto being the Declaration of Independence. Who can think about the Declaration of Independence without emotion? Unlike a mission statement that is a vague, impersonal dust collector, a manifesto is often used to incite action and insurgency. Imagine an insurgency of clients stampeding to your door! For rainmakers, a manifesto is an unequivocal and impassioned statement of who you are and how you are going to change the world – or at least make the world a better place for your clients. My favorite examples of manifestos cited by the author are Nike’s and Disney’s. Nike’s is just two words: Crush Adidas. And Disney’s is: To make people happy. Mine manifesto is to get marketing right. What’s yours?
The book includes a number of helpful bullet point lists, charts and web resources. The reader is invited to the author’s web site, www.marketingforrainmakers.com to download a free personal branding workbook. How to Build a Curious Mindset, and Tips on Becoming a Big-Picture, Invisible-Dot Connector are my favorite lists. Probably because they include two of the things I love to do: Goof off and Embrace the Journey. Don’t you love hearing how medical research has demonstrated that our brains function better with rest?
We learn in the book that creative thinking requires a devil’s advocate approach to business. We are told to ask ourselves tough questions so we can provide easy answers to clients. As an example of how important being a devil’s advocate is to the success of your business, we are asked to consider what would have happened if anyone at Coca-Cola asked: Will people buy New Coke just because it tastes more like Pepsi? And, my favorite, did anyone at Arthur Anderson ask: How is Enron making so much money?
I thought one of the best pieces of advice in the book is the suggestion that every business create an infomercial. At first I thought the advice was a useless exercise for attorneys, marketers or other professionals. However, when put into context, the advice is sound. The author tells us that we would all benefit from using the century old AIDA model of direct marketing – Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. According to Fragasso, desire is the most often overlooked stage. Desire is the emotional manifestation of need and is best generated via visualization of what life will be like after the purchase. Once you create the desire, the purchase is a cinch. I recommend that you try it and share your results on the LawMarketing Portal. I think it would be eye-opening.
Burn this book. Wait. No, don’t
Finally, at the end, the author makes a recommendation I do not agree with. He tells you to burn this book. Why? Because the Rules of Engagement are meant to be broken. According to Fragasso, it is only through breaking the rules that true success in marketing is possible. He doesn’t want you to use this book as a reference book as I suggest. He wants you to use it to stimulate your own creative way of breaking the rules and being successful. Sound crazy? Here are some outstanding examples of rule breaking in marketing. Coca-Cola never filed a patent for its recipe. Why? Doing so would require that the formula be made public. While a patent is one of those “rules” of success for a business, while filing a patent for Coke would have protected the formula for several decades, eventually the patent would expire. Then, anyone could produce and distribute a soft drink that was just like Coca-Cola. Examples of this abound in drug formulas.
Here’s my advice. Buy the book. Read it and either burn it or keep it for future reference. Either way you will come away a better rainmaker than before. |
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