Catalyst: Using personal chemistry to convert contacts into contracts

by David Kean, Louisa Clarke

Overview

Catalyst will transform your approach to networking, making it fun and infinitely more effective.

A good business developer, prospector and networker knows how to create a positive connection with the people they meet. They are the catalyst that creates a chemical reaction between strangers, and they know how to convert these opportunities into new business.

Louisa Clarke and David Kean have spent their careers catalysing strangers into contacts and converting contacts into clients - and even into friends. They have built successful businesses together using the proven techniques in this book, and they have helped hundreds of companies around the world win billions in new business by applying the same methods.

Catalyst is full of illustrative anecdotes, hard-won wisdom and a step-by-step methodology. Whatever industry you work in, if you need more clients to buy your services and you're not sure how to find them, convince them or win them, this is the book for you. Follow this approach and new business will come. You might even make some friends along the way.

For many people, networking, prospecting and selling are scary. If the word 'networking' makes you recoil, if the word 'prospecting' conjures up terrifying spectres of endless cold calls, and if you run for the hills at the mention of 'sales', this book will be balm for you. Because, whilst it doesn't make it effortless, it does make it easy.

'Catalyst is a manual for winning business in today's economy, recommended to anyone who wants to grow their client base. Catalyst is brimming with great advice and inspiration' - Annette King, CEO Publicis Groupe UK

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780349429151
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	07/08/2021
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

David Kean (Author)
David Kean is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker and writer. He specialises in business development and communication and was described by British Airways Business Life magazine as 'the best pitch coach around'. He advises many boards and CEOs and has been a visiting speaker at Warwick and Durham Business Schools. He teaches creative writing to children at the Ahead Creative School and the art of persuasion at the business writing school, Forthwrite, he set up with a top journalist and editor. He is married to a Russian and has four children.

Louisa Clarke (Author)
Louisa Clarke works with leaders and high performing teams for some of the world's best companies. An experienced facilitator and qualified coach with an outstanding new business track record, Louisa is a Partner at The Caffeine Partnership - a strategic consultancy that delivers brand-led growth. She regularly coaches, consults and trains on how to improve personal impact & influence, prospect for new business more effectively, pitch to win and how to grow more business from your existing clients. A former Great Britain junior international rower and current masters rower, she brings a competitive track record to motivate people under pressure, understanding the power of teamwork and what's required to win.


David Kean is an author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur and energiser. For over three decades, tens of thousands of business people all over the world have enjoyed the excitement and energy of David's events on personal performance and persuasion, pitching, sales, negotiation and leadership. David has helped leaders in businesses to win millions in new revenues and extract the highest performance from themselves and their teams. Clients have described David's work with them as 'game-changing' - even 'life-changing'. David is co-founder of the management consultancy Catalyst. Catalyst help change the way organisations think, align, communicate and take action around the issue of business growth and work with both start ups and multinationals across multiple industries from fashion and technology to automotive and professional services.

Editorial Reviews

Catalyst is a manual for winning business in today's economy, recommended to anyone who wants to grow their client base. Catalyst is brimming with great advice and inspiration—Annette King, CEO Publicis Groupe UK

Catalyst fizzes with actionable ideas. A firecracker of a book to get you blazing a trail for new business from two of the best operators around—Julia Hobsbawm OBE, founder and chair, Editorial Intelligence and author of the bestselling The Simplicity Principle

A must-read - especially post-Covid - for anyone involved in business generation. Entertaining whilst it educates, this indispensable guidebook is a revelation for any driven professional and will definitely put you ahead of the competition - if she hasn't read it as well. Time excellently well spent—Jane Reeve, Chief Communications Officer, Ferrari

Humour is one of the only things that increases when you share it, as the authors of this immensely good-natured book on the human touch in business know. But I also found myself thinking about plumbing metaphors. May the good Lord spare us from pipeline accelerators, but here you can read and understand how in business, as in life, it's better to be a radiator than a drain—Stephen Bayley, recovering design guru and author of Value: What money can't buy. A handbook for practical hedonism

An enjoyable and practical asset recommended to anyone who has to develop new business. It nails what it takes to find new clients and be a valued, trusted advisor to them; helping others helps us be more successful—Guy Gregory, Executive Director, Client Care and Business Development, CBRE Ltd

Accelerate your understanding of how to grow business, fast. Recommended to anyone who dreads networking events: an entertaining and effective guide to oiling the wheels of business without the need to be oleaginous—Sophie Devonshire, CEO, The Marketing Society

An extremely timely book. Now more than ever we need to understand how to communicate with each other better—Rachel Bridge, author of Already Brilliant and How to Work for Yourself

Such a refreshing book about such a necessary part of doing business, and something so often misunderstood. Catalyst is a thoroughly enjoyable and helpful read, packed with great examples, stories and tools for how to develop business, and, above all, packed with common sense. And all expressed in a natural and jargon-free way too. Terrific stuff

—Rita Clifton CBE, portfolio chair and non-executive director

Unlike many 'how to' business books, Catalyst is both an entertaining and informative read. It gives you a wealth of practical steps to transform the way you identify and secure new clients. It really gets you thinking about your approach and how you should flex your style to create real chemistry with prospects—Deborah Saw, Catalyst magazine

From the Publisher