In companies that use salespeople to
sell directly to customers, rainmakers
are the people who bring in the business.
Rainmakers bring in big revenues,
big money. Rainmakers bring in new revenues,
new customers. Rainmakers sell
new applications, new products, and
price increases. Rainmakers make the
cash register ring. Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
And, rainmakers make big money for
themselves. Rainmakers are always the
highest paid sellers, and it is not
uncommon for rainmakers to
be among the highest paid
employees in the organization.
Rainmakers are rare, but
they are everywhere. They are
in corporations as super sellers.
They are commission only
salespeople, entrepreneurs,
small business owners,
solo practitioners, agents,
brokers, and partners in professional
firms.
Here is what rainmakers
always do that other salespeople
don’t: First, they sell
more! Rainmakers generate
more sales revenues than the
other people. They sell more
through thick and thin. They
sell more in good economies
and bad. They sell more
regardless of the competition.
Rainmakers sell more by
relentlessly doing things that
other salespeople sometimes
do or never do.
Here are some “secrets” of
the great rainmakers:
Secret One
They carefully and thoroughly do precall
homework and pre-call planning for
every sales call on a decision maker.
They spend at least three hours planning
a 15-minute sales call. They might
spend three weeks precall planning a
five-minute sales call.
Secret Two
They dollarize. Rainmakers don’t sell
products or services. They don’t sell
features or benefits. They don’t sell
technology. Rainmakers sell the dollarized
value that their customers get from
the product benefits, or get from the
technology. Rainmakers don’t sell MRI
machines; they sell hospitals 10 MRI
exams per day at $2,000 per exam.
Secret Three
Rainmakers always know the answer
to one question: “If I (the rainmaker)
were the customer, and knowing what I
know about my company, about my
product, about the competition, about
the customer, why would I do business
with my company?” The rainmaker
becomes the customer and honestly
answers “why the customer should do
business with me.” Knowing “why the
customer should do business with me,”
in dollars and cents, gives the rainmaker
a rock solid foundation for confidently
pursuing the sale. Learning the
answer to this question must be part of
your precall planning.
Secret Four
On every sales call with a decision
maker or influencer, rainmakers always
ask for the order, or for a customer
commitment to a customer action that
will lead to an order. The rainmaker
does what 90% of all salespeople
never do: the rainmaker asks for the
business.
Secret Five
In a baseball game, a hitter or batter
gets to the plate about four times a
game. This means that the batter, barring
a strikeout, and regardless of
whether he gets a hit or not,
has to run to first base three
or four or five times a game.
Even though running to first
base three or four times a
game is nothing, a small effort
in the totality of the game,
some players give up on their
hit, assume they will make an
out, and dog it to first. The
rainmaker never dogs it to
first base! The rainmaker
never assumes he or she will
be thrown out. The rainmaker
runs out every hit, and runs
full tilt, because the few times
the opposition fumbles the
ball, or the ball drops in, the
rainmaker ends up safely on
base. The rainmaker never
quits in the sales cycle. The
rainmaker always sprints,
always goes for the sale.
That’s why rainmakers are
known as “big hitters.”
One motto and deep belief
of the rainmaker is the “if you,
the customer, don’t do business
with me, then we both
lose.” So the rainmaker works
every second to make sure
the customer wins so the rainmaker
wins.
And these are some secrets as to why rainmakers sell more and make more money
than the rest of the selling crowd. Now go make it rain! n Source: Adapted from
Jeffrey Fox’s upcoming new best seller The Secrets of the Great Rainmakers.
Learn more about Jeffrey Fox and his bestselling program The
Secrets of the Great Rainmakers.
