The Connectors

How Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life

By: Maribeth Kuzmeski

Narrated by: Scott Peterson

What makes the world's most successful individuals so good at their jobs? What do they do that others don't? The Connectors answers those questions with the kind of straightforward wisdom that business strategists so often overlook.

Forget marketing tactics or business school best practices. Those are handy, but it's really people - and the relationships you build with them - that form the cornerstone of long-term success, sales growth, and excellence.

Whether you're a salesperson, an entrepreneur, or an executive, your ultimate job is to bring in clients and keep them. Competition is brutal. No matter what you sell, there's probably someone somewhere selling it cheaper and faster than you can. So how do you differentiate yourself from your competitors? The Connectors uses practical exercises and case studies to show you how to set yourself apart from the rest by building high-quality, profitable relationships with your clients and customers.

The Connectors presents a five-step methodology that helps you build the kind of high-quality relationships that lead to lifelong clients, repeat customers, and endless referrals. You'll learn how to:

Stop networking and start truly connecting

Create an avalanche of referrals and an army of happy customers

Become a "connector," even if you've never been a "people person"

Find your social IQ - and improve it

Put relationship-building principles to work daily

Focus on others and reap the rewards yourself

Ask the right questions - and sell without selling

Differentiate yourself through the impact you have on others

In addition, The Connectors includes a wealth of valuable relationship-building tools, including tips on using software; smart strategies for keeping in touch; speaking tactics that really work; and self-coaching exercises that will change the way you develop relationships.

©2009 Maribeth Kuzmeski (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp

More for the novice, and more about sales

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It started slow and seemed to take a long time to get anywhere meaningful. That may be b/c the author geared the first part of the book to the novice. However, later in the book, especially the last two chapter, the author does offer some good idea. The book is essentially about good salesmanship. If that is your domain, this may well be an important book to read.