John Carrier

A friend of mine is starting a book club for fellow consultants, and she asked me to make a recommendation for our inaugural title and write a blurb about it.

I thought I’d share it with you…

*****

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazi and Tahl Raz

From consultant John Carrier:

This book was first recommended to me during a brief stint as a salesman…but please, keep reading!

Up to that point, I had been a heads-down consultant for about four years, focused on delivering great project results to whomever my client was at the time, but not taking an active role in networking or marketing myself for future projects. “Never Eat Alone” opened my eyes to a whole new dimension that my career (as well as my personal life) had been missing.

Often people who work in a highly technical field, such as finance and accounting, believe that their professional success depends far more on what they know than who they know — experience and competence rather than so-called “people” skills. They may even be turned off by the whole idea of intentional networking because it feels false or insincere. We all have an experience of meeting with someone who was clearly more interested in telling us about themselves that hearing about us. This gives relationship building a bad rap that it doesn’t deserve.

Ferrazzi addresses this negative perspective with his admonition to not be that “networking jerk.” On the contrary, taking a sincere interest in growing who you know, how well you know them, and how well they know you will have a dramatic impact on your success. This is especially true for consultants like us who are in the market for new and better employment more often than other professionals are.

Never Eat Alone isn’t just for salespeople, or for any one class of professional. It’s not about being the best schmoozer or collecting the most business cards at the next networking event. It is about working on your relationships — both business and personal — in a thoughtful, organized way to build a more successful and satisfying life. Reading it has changed my life, and I strongly recommend it to every colleague in the consulting business.

*****

…and your business, too.

If you have an opinion about how important relationships are (or aren’t) in your business, please leave a comment below.

Tags: books, relationships

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under books, relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.