How Clients Buy

A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services

By: Tom McMakin, Doug Fletcher

Narrated by: Barry Abrams

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

The real-world guide to selling your services and bringing in business....

How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the "product," you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job-not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or "behind" when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do. You'll have to unlearn everything you know about sales, but then you'll learn new skills that will help you make connections, develop rapport, create interest, earn trust, and turn prospects into clients.

Business development is critical to your personal success, and your skills in this area will dictate the course of your career. This invaluable guide gives you a set of real-world best practices that can help you become the rainmaker you want to be.

©2018 Thomas McMakin and Wade D. Fletcher, Jr. (P)2019 Gildan Media, LLC

Wish for more depth

it was a quick read so I shouldn't be surprised to find that there wasn't much in depth knowledge. Most of the book was stuff I already knew. The topics stayed too superficial.

Practical and Actionable

right book right time for me as I launch my Business Growth Consulting practice area. Biggest takeaway is the need to underwrite the conversation. I have to be clear on that topic. Recommend the read.

Great Book on professional/expert service sales

Solid book full of great information that is easy to follow and easy to apply.

10x Longer Than it Should Be

I read the other reviews saying the examples and metaphors dragged on, but there were some valuable nuggets of information. I would say this is the least concise book I've ever listened to, I often skipped ahead 30s at a time through long-winded metaphors. Basically, chapters 1-6 should just be 1 chapter. Then, there is some value of the 7 Elements and B2B business types. Also the book is filled with attemps at 1 liner humor and broad generalization of generations as well as equating millennial to young people. I'm not sure if they are eager to write new editions, but the examples will become dated very quickly.

Also, I feel bad for saying this, but the narrator is AWFUL. He often changed voices in a way that felt sarcastic. (The weak content didn't help, but still.)

Highly relevant

If you work in professional services this is a must listen. Wish I read this at the beginning of my career.

Not much meat on the bone

Although there are plenty of words, analogies, stories of consultants the real meat in this book is rather lean and buried in the middle of the book sorrow fed by fat. To be sure there are two or three useful nuggets of insight, but not enough to have made the time spent with this book worth while.

Nothing new and no nuggets

Audiobooks normally fall into one of a few categories, either they are fantastic, or they are okay but share some great nuggets of information which are useful and mean that it was worthwhile reading the book, or the book has just been a waste of time. Unfortunately, this one falls into the latter camp. It is based on some anecdotal views of the author, which are not backed up by strong evidence-in fact at the beginning of the book, he states that he does not have empirical evidence to back up his views, and ends the book with confirmation of this again, suggesting that information and studies need to be provided by universities to actually determine how clients are approaching the topic of buying. This therefore, seems to undermine the whole purpose of this book. There are certainly better books than this one, and I suggest that you give this one a miss.