Rainmaker: How the Best Consultants Think, Act, and Win in an Ai-Accelerated World - Hardcover

by Neil Plumridge (Author), Robert Nason (Author)

How the best consultants win clients and deals in an oversaturated, disrupted, and AI-accelerated market where business and public policy challenges are as great as they have ever been

The consulting landscape has dramatically shifted: supply exceeds demand, clients are more sophisticated and want results faster, and AI-powered platforms are reshaping almost everything. Rainmaker: How the Best Consultants Think, Act, and Win in an AI-Accelerated World reveals how the best consultants bring in new business when traditional approaches no longer work.

Drawing on decades of global leadership experience at major consulting firms and as client executives, Plumridge and Nason explain how the best consultants read the market differently (and earlier), architect value (not deliverables), earn a higher level of trust with senior executives, and operate with elite routines and habits that consistently set them apart from their colleagues.

Readers will also discover:

• How the proliferation of niche firms, AI platforms, and integrated service models has reshaped the consulting marketplace
• The strategies, attitudes, behaviors, and attributes that set apart the best from their peers
• Practical AI-enhanced approaches to pre-sales activities and client relationship development that deliver measurable results
• Frameworks for thriving amid disruption, technological change, and intensifying global competition in professional services
• Assessments of how big projects were won and trusted relationships established through more than 30 real stories from the field that demonstrate the difference between good and great

Rainmaker is written for professional services partners, directors, and business development managers who need to win new engagements in a transformed market. It offers a contemporary, AI-informed playbook that redefines business development in today's world.

Front Jacket

The consulting market has shifted dramatically. Supply now exceeds demand, clients are more sophisticated--often former consultants themselves--and AI platforms have reshaped how trust and influence are earned. Neil Plumridge and Robert Nason, former senior partners at Kearney, PwC, EY, and KPMG with over 60 years of combined experience, draw on careers advising Fortune 500 companies in over 30 countries and generating billions in consulting revenue to reveal how elite consultants win new business in this transformed landscape.

Rainmaker explains in detail how multimillion-dollar consulting contracts are won. Where most guidance on building client relationships and developing business is over a decade old, this book addresses the realities consultants face now: the proliferation of niche firms, integrated service models, and buyers who understand consulting from the inside. Plumridge and Nason, who have also commissioned over $700 million in consulting work as clients, offer perspective from both sides of the table.

The book shares tips on utilizing AI to use in pre-sales and client relationship development--tools that did not exist only a few years ago. Drawing on their experience reviewing the performance of over 5,000 senior leaders, the authors provide a contemporary framework for how top consultants look at the market, earn trust, demonstrate value, and drive transformations worth tens of billions of dollars in a complex, AI-accelerated environment.

Written for business professionals in consulting and professional services--whether partners seeking to grow their practice, mid-career consultants building a client base, or firm leaders developing the next generation of rainmakers--this book delivers a current, experience-tested playbook for winning clients and sustaining revenue growth in a market where traditional approaches to business development no longer produce the results they once did.

Back Jacket

PRAISE FOR RAINMAKER

"I loved the stories in this book. Corporate life is pressured and demanding and the stories bring this to life, demonstrating how the best consultants earn the right of entry to the moments that matter."
--CALLIE FIELD, Former President of Business and Chief Customer Experience Officer, T-Mobile US

"Rainmakers make all the difference to professional firms. This book convincingly shows that rainmakers are made not born. The authors illustrate how rainmakers are self-aware, values driven, they show up with insight, earn trust and are the ones called when the stakes are high."
--ROBERT MCLEAN, Director Emeritus, McKinsey and Company

"Joy, impact and personal success in the AI world--this is the go-to book for every consultant."
--ALEX LIU, Chairman Emeritus and Partner, Kearney

"This is the first book about high-end consulting that shows what it's really like for both sides of the table--for the senior partners providing advice and the senior executives seeking it out."
--CHRIS HARROP, Former Senior Partner, Bain & Company and author of The Problem Solver's Playbook

"In corporate life you cross paths with many consultants. While all generally serve a purpose, few are remembered. The very best stand out because they connect with your reality and make an impact. This is the first book I've seen that identifies what it takes to achieve this. May the industry benefit from this insight."
--GOKHAN OGUT, Former CEO of Maxis Communications, Malaysia and Vodafone, T?rkiye

"If you want to find more deals, win more often, build relationships that genuinely last, and harness AI at the sharp end of sales, this is the book your team has been waiting for."
--JULIE HOOD, Former Artificial Intelligence Enablement Leader, EY-Parthenon, Europe, Middle East, India and Africa

"Robert and Neil make one truth unmistakable: elite performance in consulting is never accidental, it is built on elite habits and achieved by those who invest time in earning and preserving the trust of their clients."
--SRIDHARAN NAIR, Former Chairman, PwC Asia-Pacific

Author Biography

NEIL PLUMRIDGE is a former senior partner at Kearney, EY, and PwC who served on both national and global leadership teams. He brings over 30 years of experience advising Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations, and government institutions in more than 20 countries. He currently advises executives and runs professional development programs for consulting firms worldwide.

ROBERT NASON is a consulting and corporate leader whose career spans 25 years in management consulting and 16 years in senior corporate roles, including Chairman, CEO, and Board Member positions across the United States, Southeast Asia, and Australia. He held national, international, and global leadership roles at KPMG, PwC, and Kearney, and together with Neil Plumridge has reviewed the performance of more than 5,000 senior leaders.