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Rain Making--The Professional's Guide to Attracting New Clients by Ford Harding & Bob Adams Inc., $12.95, pp. 287)
Though directed at those who work in the traditional professions of accounting, consulting and law, this book will be of interest to economic development professionals for two reasons. First, many of the subjects it addresses, e.g. networking, obtaining publicity, face-to-face selling, and debriefing after a lost sale, apply to economic developers. The book does a superb job of describing how to do each of these things. Second, the author worked at a senior level for many years at PHH Fantus and frequently alludes to competitive wars among location consulting firms. Economic developers may find this backdrop interesting.
The book is divided into three parts, the first two of which are most relevant to our industry. The first devotes individual chapters to the ways that professionals generate leads for new business. There are chapters on writing and publishing articles, obtaining speaking engagements, networking, working trade...