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Monday, November 26, 2007

Ford Harding's blog

I've just discovered -- and permalinked -- Ford Harding's blog. Harding is the author of several important books including the classic Rain Making: The Professional's Guide to Attracting New Clients a staple of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) certification program.

I rediscovered Ford when I discovered that SMPS vice-president Lisa Bowman had a presence on linkedin.com. When she accepted my invitation to link, I discovered she had one existing link --to Harding -- who is somewhat more advanced than either of us, with 216 connections and eight recommendations.

1 comment:

Sonny Lykos said...

All I can say as a a builder/remodeler, father, employer, consultant, husband, and charitable contributor, in every role, I have always felt that I was a salesman first.

What I "sold" was the result of the expertise, wisdom, responsibilities, past mistakes, and past successes. But they all would have been for nought if I was never in a positions to sell something - anything. For denying the opportunity to sell, I might as well have just been a collection of books on a shelf that never got read.

In fact, as my four children wee growing up, occasional someone would ask why I let one of them argue with me. They thought my child(ren) were being disrespectful. I replied that as long as they were being respectful during our discussions or low tone arguments, I was training each of them on the intelligent strategies of selling their point.

I was in effect, preparing them for the adult world where everything is sold, every day, by every one, including ideas, but they but be sold via substantiated opinions, back up information, and examples. Formal degrees or extensive experiences are mere tools from when the contention to be sold is strongly validated or cavalierly discarded.

Besides, there's an old adage that "something must be sold before anything is built, and that includes jobs.