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<p>Preface xi</p> <p>Acknowledgments xiii</p> <p>1 The Fierce Competitor Company 1</p> <p>2 Bad Times Are Good Times 4</p> <p>3 Hustle. Hustle. Hustle. 6</p> <p>4 Leadership Is Not ‘‘Pushership’’ 9</p> <p>5 The Difference Between Leaders and Managers 11</p> <p>6 Know Your Company’s Raison d’Etre 13</p> <p>7 Manage As You Would Invest 15</p> <p>8 ‘‘I Visit Customers in Stores’’ 18</p> <p>9 Always Answer the Phone 20</p> <p>10 Pile Up Cash 24</p> <p>11 Be Ever Fearful 27</p> <p>12 Show Fearlessness 29</p> <p>13 Play ‘‘What If?’’ Games 31</p> <p>14 Leadership Is Full Disclosure 33</p> <p>15 Get a Kitchen Cabinet 35</p> <p>16 Always Have a Plan 37</p> <p>17 Stay Off Magazine Covers 39</p> <p>18 ‘‘I Never Made a Dime Talking’’ 41</p> <p>19 Never Take Your Hand Off the Tiller 43</p> <p>20 Control or Roll 46</p> <p>21 Get Out of the Office 48</p> <p>22 Walk Around the Company 51</p> <p>23 Never Forget the Third Shift 53</p> <p>24 Be Obsessive About Execution 56</p> <p>25 Get Rid of Executive Parking Spaces 60</p> <p>26 Fight Unionization 63</p> <p>27 People Are Not the Most Important Asset 67</p> <p>28 Nurture Those You Hire and Acquire 69</p> <p>29 Prune All Deadwood 71</p> <p>30 Bulldoze All Silos 73</p> <p>31 Broom Out All Bureaucracy 75</p> <p>32 Scoop Up Newly Available Talent 78</p> <p>33 Forget About Pedigrees 80</p> <p>34 Pay for Performance, Not for Activities 82</p> <p>35 Continuously Rip Out, Tear Out Bad Costs 85</p> <p>36 The Do and Don’t Cut List 89</p> <p>37 Forget Monthly Reports 91</p> <p>38 No Money, No Meeting 93</p> <p>39 Be Fanatical About Selling 96</p> <p>40 Don’t Fire Sales People 100</p> <p>41 Hire Fiercely Competitive Sales People 103</p> <p>42 Banish All Selling Thieves 106</p> <p>43 Always Conduct Daily Sales Meetings 109</p> <p>44 The Big Opportunity 111</p> <p>45 Never Cancel Batting Practice 115</p> <p>46 Double the Training Budget 118</p> <p>47 Love That Cranky, Fickle, Demanding Customer 120</p> <p>48 Fire the ‘‘Strategic Customer’’ 122</p> <p>49 Customer Service Is a Survival Strategy 125</p> <p>50 Worship at the Altar of Quality 129</p> <p>51 Get Rid of ‘‘Mr. Ought-to-Be’’ 132</p> <p>52 Always Leave Flowers, Floor Mats, and Footprints 134</p> <p>53 Don’t Cut Prices 137</p> <p>54 You Are Never on Vacation 140</p> <p>55 Lock, Load, and Launch 142</p> <p>56 Sue the Blankety-Blanks 144</p> <p>57 Welcome Serendipity 147</p> <p>58 Go Green! 149</p> <p>59 Be a Master Gardener 151</p> <p>60 Summary: Characteristics of the Fierce</p> <p>Competitor Companies 154</p> <p>About the author 159</p>

Fox (<i>How to Become a Rainmaker</i>) explores the best practices of fierce competitors and how they gain market share, seize opportunity, and win when the stakes are the highest. With multiple bulleted lists of key action items, he swiftly covers a wide array of timely topics, including why bad times are actually good times, the benefits of piling up cash in tough times, and being cautious while showing fearlessness. He also encourages executives to play relevant “what if” games, always have a plan, stay off magazine covers, and be obsessive about execution. Of particular value are the sections on employee relations, which offer counterintuitive actions that reap big rewards on reserved executive parking spots, unionization, nurturing those hired and acquired, pruning dead wood, and cutting out all bureaucracy. This concise book will give motivated managers and executives the guidance they need to successfully bring their organizations to the next level. <i>(Mar.)</i> (<i>Publishers Weekly</i>, January 25, 2010) <p>"The new book is comprised of 60 Chapters. You could read it in a sitting, or more likely, a flight from New York to Chicago. And as with every Jeff Fox book and every Jeff Fox page, you might wish it was printed on only one side of each page, so you could take the entire book apart and paste the pages all over your office and even your bathroom. This is stuff you want to remember and use and share with your colleagues every day, because there is no way you can follow Fox's advice and not succeed in business and in life."<br /> —Huffington Post, March 12, 2010-03-24</p> <p>"This concise book will give motivated managers and executives the guidance they need to successfully bring their organizations to the next level."<br /> —Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2010</p>

<p><strong>Jeffrey Fox</strong> (Chester, CT) is an accomplished consultant, popular speaker and the acclaimed author of a series of the?international business best-sellers, <em>How to Become CEO, How to Become a Raimaker,</em> and <em>Secrets of Great Rainmakers,</em> among others. Fox is the founder and president of Fox & Company, Inc., a marketing consulting firm that specializes in marketing strategy development, innovation enhancement, selling skills training, branding, and various applications of a proprietary value-selling methodology called dollarization. Prior to starting Fox & Co. Jeffrey was Vice-President, Marketing and a Corporate Vice President of Loctite Corporation. He was also Director of Marketing for the wine division of The Pillsbury Co., and held various senior level marketing jobs at Heublein, Inc. including Director of New Products. Jeffrey is the winner of "Sales & Marketing Management" magazine's Outstanding Marketer Award; winner of the American Marketing Association's Outstanding Marketer in CT; and the National Industrial Distributors award as the Nation's Best Industrial Marketer. He is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study that is rated one of the top 100 case studies, and is thought to be the most widely taught marketing case in the world. Jeffrey graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He served as Trustee of Trinity College, and has won several alumni awards including Person of the Year. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Saint Francis Hospital, one of the nation's top 100 hospitals.<br />For more information, please visit Fox & Company's website: www.foxandcompany.com

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