Thoughts about Make Rain by Other Rainmakers “If you are a Rainmaker, or wish to become one, read this book.” Jeffrey J. Fox, Author of the international bestseller, How To Become a Rainmaker. “This book fills a gap in the crowded library of books on sales. It is very different from all the other books and in many ways it is also much better. Make Rain is a collection of short one and a half page inspirational messages. Each message can stand alone, so the reader will get value already after the first couple of pages. The value of the book simply accumulates as you turn each page. No other book in my library of books on sales can make such a claim! Make Rain is a great book to have with you everywhere. You can use any break in the day to consume a message or two, but do yourself a favour and think carefully about the messages you read. Each of the messages actually has the potential to change your life – for the better.” Hans Peter Bech, Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Building Successful Partner Channels. “Brilliant! Make Rain is a must read for sales professionals, sales managers and entrepreneurs who are looking to challenge themselves to a new standard. It’s the conversational, easy to read storytelling with real world examples that keeps you hooked. I certainly was.” Steve Claydon - Author of the #1 bestseller, THE DIARY OF A S.U.C.C.E.S.S. DRIVEN KID, thought leading Sales Trainer, Serial entrepreneur. “A book like this, jam-packed with precious facts, pragmatic steps and practical wisdom, does not get written very often.” Derin Cag, CEO and Founder of Richtopia. “Engaging! Daily affirmations for those sales people who desire to really stand out. Ideas, challenges, and inquisitive thought that drives any burgeoning sales person to keep reading!” Matt Lane, President, DCIM Division, Geist Global. “The sales person and indeed the nature of selling is changing, requiring new ways of thinking and performing. The great thing about Make Rain is that anyone can read it and put the author’s thoughts and ideas into practice right away. Is the Rainmaker the new salesperson? Quite possibly.” Janice B. Gordon, Visiting Fellow, Cranfield School of Management and Author of Business Evolution: Creating Growth in a Rapidly Changing World. “Many of the insights in Make Rain seem to come at you left field, challenging the status quo of how you think about selling and sales. I recommend everyone who wants to achieve results read this book” Brian Burns, Co-author of Selling in a New Market Space and Host of The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling Podcast. Make Rain, is a wonderful piece of business non-fiction. It is elegantly yet humbly written. It’s almost like Jonas is having a quiet one-onone conversation with you, challenging you to think before you act! Jack Mizel, CEO, Institute of Sales Management. (From the foreword) MAKE RAIN MAKE RAIN 180 Powerful Insights into How Rainmakers Sell Their Way to Financial Success Jonas Caino Rainmethods Media & Publishing Published by Rainmethods Media & Publishing Sheriffs Orchard, Coventry, CV1 3PP Tel: +44 (0) 121 6999001 Website: www.rainmethods.com Email: publisher@rainmethods.com First published in Great Britain in 2016 © Jonas Caino 2016 The right of Jonas Caino to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN: 978-0-9954836-0-6 (Paperback) 978-0-9954836-1-3 (Kindle) 978-0-9954836-2-0 (E-PUB) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of the publisher. Printed in Great Britain by Lightning Source (UK) Ltd, Milton Keynes MK11 3LW. The publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests. To the love of my life, my eternal flame, my best friend. Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................xv Foreword .................................................................................xvii Prologue What Have You Achieved Today? ........................xix Part One 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 The Rainmaker’s Mindset The Rainmaker........................................................................... 2 Are You Sure This is What you Want to Do? ......................... 4 For Lack of a Better Word… ....................................................6 What Inspires You?...................................................................... 8 Seeking Success or Avoiding Failure .....................................10 Rock Solid ................................................................................ 12 Hunger Struck!.........................................................................14 Who’s in Charge Here? ...............................................................16 The Fake Half of Reality ..........................................................18 Hear the Baseline ....................................................................... 20 View from the Hubble ............................................................ 22 The Habit of a Lifetime ...........................................................24 The Folly of Lamentations ......................................................26 Risky Business ......................................................................... 28 If You Shoot, You Just Might Score ....................................... 30 In Your Prime ........................................................................... 32 The Aggression in Progress ..................................................34 Your Cards ............................................................................... 36 The Self-Con-Artist ................................................................ 38 Continuous Fashion ............................................................... 40 Believe! Not Make-Believe. ....................................................42 Sitting Uncomfortably isn’t a Bad Thing ...............................44 Nerve Endings .........................................................................46 Thales’ Answer .........................................................................48 Hold the Fort ........................................................................... 50 Ahead of the Learning Curve .....................................................52 What’s Your One Move? ......................................................... 54 The United States of You ........................................................57 Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow ..........................................59 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Where Do You Sign? .............................................................61 Doing the Nearly Impossible Everyday ................................ 63 Team You ................................................................................. 65 Your Very Own Personal Power ............................................67 The Power of Love ...................................................................69 The Parable of the Rainmaker ................................................71 When is the Best Time to Stop? ............................................73 The Metamorphic Individual .................................................75 Brain Gain ................................................................................ 77 Experiencing Time Versus the Experience of Time ............79 Sshhh!! Quiet ........................................................................... 81 A (Physical) Moving, Stirring, Agitation… ..........................84 They’re Not Just for Biting… .................................................86 Diamond Life ..........................................................................88 The Rainmaker’s Guide to… .................................................90 There is No Substitute ............................................................92 Love the High ..........................................................................94 Part Two 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 The Rainmaker’s Practice So…What Do You Do? ...........................................................98 Selling Vs Selling ...................................................................100 Trait Pick and Mix ................................................................102 Ready? .................................................................................... 104 It’s Like Learning to Ride a Bike… ......................................106 The Salespreneur ...................................................................108 Death of a Salesperson .........................................................110 “Mr Rainmaker, Your Attitude Precedes You” ...................112 The DIY Professional ............................................................114 The Whole Perspective .........................................................116 Fresh Thinking Required ......................................................118 The Oracle .............................................................................. 120 Mr Nice Guy Always Wins…Right? ...................................122 Clever, Very Clever… ...........................................................124 The Queen’s Gambit .............................................................126 The Practice ........................................................................... 128 Elegance Needs No Adornment ..........................................130 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Amongst Equals ....................................................................132 Newton’s Universal Law .......................................................134 The Sacred Truth ...................................................................136 Time. The Academic Construct ..........................................138 You Are the Product! ............................................................140 Defining Value ......................................................................142 The Value of Co-Creation ....................................................144 Rainmaker is My Name and Disruption is My Game ......146 The Scientific Artist ..............................................................148 ExQ ......................................................................................... 150 Your Most Prized Possession ...............................................152 The Eigth Wonder ................................................................153 The Power of Negative Thinking .........................................155 The Teacher and The Imparter ............................................157 It’s Neither a Metaphor Nor a Simile! ..................................159 Serendipity ............................................................................. 161 Who Finds Who? ..................................................................163 The Benefit of Mathematics .................................................165 The Gold Prospector ............................................................167 Enter the Dragon ..................................................................170 The Things We Think But Do Not Say ...............................172 The Role of Titles ..................................................................174 Baseball .................................................................................. 176 It’s all in the Baking ..............................................................178 The Aggressive Patient .........................................................180 The Lead(er) in You ..............................................................182 It’s Your Voice! .......................................................................184 Chance Encounter of the Only Kind ..................................186 The Real Social Network ......................................................188 The Virtual Social Network .................................................190 Pay It Forward .......................................................................192 The Commodification of YOU! ...........................................194 Don Kingism .........................................................................196 Ebb & Flow ............................................................................ 198 Small Bet Gamblers ..............................................................200 Free Thinking ........................................................................202 The Customerization of the Prospect .................................204 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 Face2Face ............................................................................... 206 Share the Glimpse .................................................................208 Master of the Living Room ..................................................209 The Matrix ............................................................................. 211 It’s all in the Nit-Picking .......................................................213 Two Little Letters ..................................................................215 Your Company’s Most Underrated Asset ...........................217 Project-Managing the Sale ...................................................219 They’re Not Just for Science Projects… ..............................221 When is a Problem Really a Problem? ...............................223 Helping to Solve the Puzzle .................................................225 Myopia and Hypermetropia ................................................227 The Question Book ...............................................................229 Locomotion ........................................................................... 231 …Enough to Make One Cry ................................................233 Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni ..................236 Outlived Uselessness ............................................................238 Attention Seeker ....................................................................240 In Communicado ..................................................................242 The Vernacular of Non-Language .......................................244 The Clarity of Certainty .......................................................246 The Anatomy of a Buying Conversation ............................248 No One is Fluent in Idiot .....................................................250 Shut Up! ................................................................................. 252 Socratica ................................................................................ 254 The Most Powerful Killer Sales Question of all Time .......256 The Benefit System ...............................................................258 New Wavelength Required ..................................................260 The Customer’s Customer Relationship Management .......262 Sales Cycology .......................................................................264 A Circle in a Spiral Gets You Nowhere ..............................266 The Mysterious life of the Proposal ....................................268 What They See is What They Get .......................................270 The Deal in a Parallel Universe ...........................................272 Please, Sir, I Want Some More! ............................................274 The Big Reveal .......................................................................276 What’s the Value of a Life? ....................................................278 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 Rules of Engagement ............................................................280 Money Talks ..........................................................................282 Espionage? Well, Sort of ......................................................284 The Hunter and the Hunted ................................................286 Account = Cluster of Deals ..................................................288 Read More Than Just Books… ............................................290 Margin Call ........................................................................... 292 Intra Deal Competitive Analysis .........................................294 Refracting the Competition .................................................296 Is Goal Hanging Really a Strategy? .....................................298 Collapetition ..........................................................................300 The Win-Lose Paradox ........................................................302 Time to Follow Up ................................................................304 Radio Silence .........................................................................306 Botheration ........................................................................... 308 “I have Only One Concern…or Maybe Two” ...................310 Who’s Teasing Who? .............................................................312 A Priceless Deal .....................................................................314 Negative ................................................................................. 316 ABC ........................................................................................ 318 Phantom of the Opera .........................................................320 Close the Deal Without a Fight ...........................................322 Brünnhilde’s Aria ..................................................................324 Agree to Agree ......................................................................326 The After Party ......................................................................328 Mind Your Own Business ....................................................330 Happiness, Shared ................................................................332 David’s Question ...................................................................334 David’s Question II ...............................................................336 A Basic Survival Tool ...........................................................338 When Death is Welcome .....................................................340 The Bill, Please… ..................................................................342 We Are All In This Together ................................................345 Old Enemies, New Friends ..................................................347 Outbreak ................................................................................ 349 Car Time ................................................................................ 351 Rainmaker + Technology = Extraordinary! .......................353 175 176 177 178 179 180 Bonus The Currency that Talks .......................................................355 Blog or Die! ............................................................................ 357 Share Your Thoughts .............................................................359 Macrosalesonomics ..............................................................361 Microsalesonomics ...............................................................363 The Silver Bullet ....................................................................365 Insight “There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, ‘Do trousers matter?’” ...........................................................367 Epilogue Much Ado about Something ...............................369 Acknowledgements As I write these acknowledgements, the old saying “no one can sing a symphony” springs to mind. This book would not have been possible if not for the intellect, patience, focus and sheer brilliance of some wonderful individuals. Here we go. To… All my mentors, past and present, physical and virtual. What you’ve all shared is real and has shaped the professional I am. The team at Rainmethods Media & Publishing: the world beckons. Marek Stuczynski: your attention to detail is actually scary. You the Man. James Millington: editor extraordinaire. Cheers Mate. To Hope: without you, excellence, learning and boldness would not be my watchwords. Thanks Mum. To my siblings, Andy, Richard & (Dr) Tina: your support has been massive. To my little Rainmakers, Jojo and Benji: a father’s love for his sons knows no bounds. To Serina, my love, my rock, my all: thanks for holding on with love, encouragement and positivity. Finally, nothing would ever be possible without God. Thank you Lord. xv “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think”. Socrates. Foreword Buying and selling have always been and will continue to be the cornerstones of economic progress. For 30 years, selling has been a profession and a passion for me. In my opinion, we should all view the ability to sell solutions, concepts, ideas and indeed yourself as a critical life skill for anyone and everyone. Deep down I believe that there are three “pillars” that are foundational to success in selling. The first is knowledge: knowledge of yourself, your profession, your goals and how they are executed to arrive at the desired outcome. The second is presentation: how to develop relationships and manage yourself and others. Finally, commitment: being able to gain the commitment for what you want from others, which makes everything come together. Imagine, therefore, my surprise when Jonas (who, I might add, has been a Fellow of our illustrious Institute for a number of years) finally caught up with me after some persistence, pitched his project and sent me the Make Rain manuscript. All my thoughts about selling flowed within those pages. I simply couldn’t put the manuscript down. I telephoned him and I found that his thoughts on selling and on transcending rainmaking skills to people from all walks of life were eerily similar to mine. So when he asked me to write this foreword, I was delighted to accept. Make Rain is a wonderful piece of business non-fiction. It is elegantly yet humbly written. It’s almost like Jonas is having a quiet one-on-one conversation with you, challenging you to think before you act! I’m making a bold statement in saying that Make Rain is for everyone. If you are new to selling, start with this book. If you’re an “old hat” like me, you can gain new perspectives with this book. If you are a business owner, absorb this book and if you simply want to get more out of life and personal relationships then enjoy this book. And see just how far rainmaking can take you. Jack Mizel, CEO, Institute of Sales Management. xviii Prologue What Have You Achieved Today? I’m a salesman. No really, I am. I’m not a sales guru, a trainer or a consultant, nor am I someone who paints pretty pictures about the art and science of selling and hands out prescriptions on how to sell and influence people. Nope. I’m a regular salesperson just like you. I have a boss and he has a boss. Like you, I have to deal with the pain and pleasure of hunting for business, global conference calls at six in the morning and eleven at night, difficult emails from irate customers, the sick feeling before you go in to negotiate the deal of your life, managing the difference between forecasting and soothsaying, dealing with different personalities and still trying to remember yours. Oh, yes, I’m a salesman…and I love what I do. A few years ago, I managed a small team of salespeople. They were all young, eager and inexperienced. They came from a variety of backgrounds. My aim with this team was to develop them into successful sales professionals, into true Rainmakers. I organised sales training seminars that increased the team’s output for a period of about two weeks. However they would then go back into their old ways of the usual habits such as only dealing with prospects and customers they were comfortable with, vague and sloppy forecasting, not paying attention to key details, forgetting to follow up on agreed customer actions in a timely fashion, asking the wrong questions in the wrong way, just focusing on our offering and not on the customers’ business…the list would go on. So I had a thought. Coaching! Maybe, the slow feeding of skills xix and practice could change their behaviour over time. Good idea, but the problem was that both I and my team didn’t have the time for regular, detailed, one-on-one coaching. One day, whilst driving and listening to the BBC on the radio, the Thought for the Day bulletin programme came on air. This is a threeto four-minute daily broadcast about an idea, a thought, a concept, an insight that is designed to challenge the listener and make them stop and think. Eureka! A light bulb came on. “Why don’t I provide my team with a thought for the day to supplement the training and some one-on-one coaching sessions?” I asked myself. So I embarked on daily “virtual coaching” sessions. Every morning at 6 am I would fire up my laptop and spend half an hour or so writing an “insight” and then email the team. I entitled the daily email with a challenge: “What Have You Achieved Today?” I encouraged my team to digest these snippets and put them into practice in their own way. I did this for nine months without fail. The impact was immediate and far-reaching. Their pipelines started to increase dramatically, their revenue followed suit and so did profit margins. I was doing my job and it showed. Most importantly though, the team transformed their own lives and bank balances. The curious thing was that by the time I stopped, over 100 salespeople had somehow found their way onto the email chain and were demanding more. Many people have urged me to share these insights with a wider audience. I was reluctant at first as I felt this whole writing thing would be a distraction from my job. But someone said something that made me change my mind. “If you have a message, why deny the world of it?” So I heeded the advice and lo and behold, here we are. Make Rain is for professional salespeople. Whether you are new to selling and need some direction or you’re a “veteran” looking for a nudge, Make Rain is easy to read and digest, yet packed full of inspiring ideas. Curiously, entrepreneurs and professionals (lawyers, accountants and consultants) will also benefit hugely from reading this book. It’s not written to be prescriptive. It won’t teach you line by line how to sell and influence people—there are thousands of sales books that can do that for you. This book is designed to make xx you think about what you are doing daily: your thoughts, habits and behaviour. It challenges you to make the changes necessary to be a successful Rainmaker. The presupposition here is that you are the master of your destiny and that you are unique. So it’s up to you to develop or adapt the habits needed to be successful. This book will help point you in the right direction. Abraham Lincoln once stated, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. I believe before one can excel, one has to prepare to excel. With that in mind, Make Rain is written in two parts. The first part focuses on the mindset of the Rainmaker. This section challenges as well as encourages you to focus on your existing attitudes and outlook. The second part deals with the ideas, techniques and skills Rainmakers use to be successful. You can read this book from cover to cover in three hours or so, read an insight a day, or simply browse through it from time to time (recommended) until an insight hits you like a lightning bolt and compels you to act! It’s entirely your choice. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it and that it will have an impact on your professional life in some way. xxi Part One The Rainmaker’s Mindset “The key is not the will to win... everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important”. Bobby Knight Insight 1 The Rainmaker The Native American tribes used Rainmakers to protect their harvest. Rainmakers would perform dances and other rituals to communicate, influence and negotiate with the gods to make it rain. At the time, this was seen as the most important job anyone could do. Why? Because the livelihood and indeed the lives of communities literally depended on rain, particularly during periods of severe drought. These special individuals were highly respected and revered in their communities. They also spent their entire lives developing their craft and honing their skills in order to produce the results necessary for the survival of their people. In hindsight, Rainmakers of old were probably just very good at reading and following meteorological patterns and the rest may have simply been smoke and mirrors. Nevertheless, pseudoscientific skills were still required to achieve this. There are strong parallels we can draw from the Rainmaking of Native Americans and Rainmaking today. Organisations, be they businesses, charities and government institutions all need customers and their money to achieve their goals. These goals could include growth, market share, increased shareholder value, return on investment or even altruistic goals. Since the dawn of industrialisation and the beginnings of a dedicated organisational sales force, there has always been an individual or a small group of people within the sales force who were deemed “special”. These people, for some reason, seemed to bring in 2 Insight 1 most of the business for the company they worked for. Over time these “special ones” became known as Rainmakers. They didn’t necessarily have to be salespeople, they could be lawyers, entrepreneurs, accountants or investment bankers who just brought in more clients to the firm than any other. In the 1980s, interested people like Neil Rackham, Michael Bosworth, Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman studied what Rainmakers did differently from others. This research, by them and many more since, now makes it possible for others to learn and model the skills and mind-set Rainmakers possess and to create similar results. The reality is simple. Anyone can become a Rainmaker and become fabulously wealthy. You just have to want to be one; I mean really want to become one. Then you must be committed to being one. And then you have to go through the gruelling (but ultimately rewarding) process of learning, studying and modelling to be one with a discipline and dedication you never knew you could muster. By never giving up, one day, your bank balance and the state of your life will tell you that you are a Rainmaker. Remember: Being a Rainmaker, like success, is a binary choice— to become or not to become. Make Rain 3 Insight 2 Are You Sure This is What you Want to Do? “The wealthiest places in the world are not gold mines, oil fields, diamond mines or banks. The wealthiest place is the cemetery. There lie companies that were never started, masterpieces that were never painted…In the cemetery there is buried the greatest treasure of untapped potential. There is a treasure within you that must come out. Don’t go to the grave with your treasure still within YOU”. This quotation by the late Dr Myles Munroe, OBE, struck a chord with me. What is the point of life and in living if you can’t discover and fulfil your God-given potential? I believe this is the starting point of becoming a Rainmaker. If you are striving to become something you were not designed to be, you will always struggle with internal misalignment. The good news is that any personality type can become a Rainmaker. Anyone can excel at selling. However, getting to the top of your game (any game) and staying there requires vision, focus, determination, boldness, humility, inner strength and openness. You cannot attain this if your life’s work is one hard demoralising slog. For years, my advice to newcomers to the selling game has often been to search deeply and honestly and resolve in your mind what you want to do and who you want to become. I always get the question back: “How do I know what I am destined to become?” The short answer is that you don’t, well not for sure anyway. The long answer is that you can get a sense of direction by 4 Insight 2 simply asking yourself, “If I had all the resources I needed, what would I want to do, who would I become?” The answer to this litmus question will at least give you a confident direction to begin your journey towards fulfilment. Wherever that journey leads you to, be it a painter, a lawyer, a politician, an accountant, a musician or a salesperson; if you stride into your destiny confidently and purposefully, you’ll end up being the Rainmaker in your space. Remember: Your purpose in life is to find your life’s purpose and dedicate your whole life to it. Make Rain 5 Insight 3 For Lack of a Better Word… “Greed is good!” Everyone remembers the words of Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone’s 1987 film, Wall Street. Opinions of that phrase have been polarised to this day. Many people will say that the phrase epitomises the primitive, excessive attitudes of the few, which creates a force that is so malignant, so destructive that it threatens our very way of life, our planet. This may be so when it comes to short-termism and the use of unethical methods to achieve entirely narrow-minded and unsustainable goals. Consider, however, the actual context of Gordon Gekko’s speech: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed—for lack of a better word—is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms—greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge— has marked the upward surge of mankind”. Greed, in this context, smacks of aspiration, ambition, the desire to be better, to push the boundaries of what’s possible, to strive earnestly for excellence, to create and provide value; long term sustainable value, and to enjoy all the rewards—be they finances, personal satisfaction or security—that achievements bring. Rainmakers know they exist not to be mere observers of progress but to be creators of profit for organisations. Profit creates jobs, social mobility and stability. Profit creates economic progress. You are at the cutting edge of this process: the sharp end. In order 6 Insight 3 to be successful in your endeavour, you have to want it, to really want it. You have to be greedy for progress, greedy for over-shooting targets, greedy for providing value to clients, greedy for achievement, greedy for passion, greedy for success, greedy for life. It’s the lack of a better word that makes greed good. Greed is only however the beginning of the achievement process. With greed comes hard work, dedication, focus, long term planning, preparation, courage, managing emotions, managing time, managing others, reciprocity, learning and self-mastery. It starts with greed and ends with accomplishment. Remember: You have to want it—with every fibre in your being—to achieve it. Make Rain 7 Insight 4 What Inspires You? Seriously, what really inspires you? Only inspiration can motivate you. Only inspiration can keep you focussed over the long term. If you take the time to look into the lives of Rainmakers in various industries from all walks of life, every single one of them will say that what kept them striving towards their goal was something that really inspired them. They’ll tell you that no matter how long it took or how hard the going got, inspiration was like an anchor, a rock that kept them planted and kept their eyes firmly fixed on the prize! So, I’ll ask again, what inspires you? A role model, an idea, a dream, an agreement, the past, God? If nothing inspires you, then how can you have the burning desire to consistently achieve your goals, your team’s goals, your company’s goals? How can you have the conviction to see it through amongst all the competition, political insensitivities and stresses that comes with achieving? You MUST be inspired. You have no choice. Look for your inspiration and when you find it, keep it burning bright and this will spur you on to achieve greatness in everything you do. 8 Insight 4 Remember: A small seed of inspiration can grow to a huge forest of achievement! Make Rain 9 Insight 5 Seeking Success or Avoiding Failure Selling is a lonely job. Yes you might be part of a team, and yes you might have the support of an organisation behind you, but when all is said and done, the accounts are your responsibility, the number is yours to hit and no one else’s. We all know it can get lonely out there. Rainmakers however stay motivated. Irrespective of what is happening around them, they possess a highly developed way of staying clear on and certain of their goals all day, every day. They know that motivation is the burning coal that keeps the steam locomotive engine moving and if the coal stops burning it’s game over—the party stops. How do Rainmakers keep motivated? The answer is different for every Rainmaker out there, but one thing is clear: Rainmakers do not use gimmicky self-motivation techniques such as chanting affirmations all day long. Instead they ask themselves deep and relevant questions about why they do what they do and what outcomes they desire. I recently watched a TEDx talk themed Beyond Boundaries by the Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, E. Scott Geller. Geller posits that research shows that the key to self-motivation lies in seeking the answers to three powerful questions. So think about the desired goal at hand and ask yourself these questions: 10 Insight 5 Can I do it? Do you genuinely believe the goal can be achieved? Are you capable of doing it? Will it work? Can you honestly state the goal is attainable if you do the right things? Do you have evidence that this can be done and has been done before? Is it worth it? After all the risk, sweat, tears, late nights, early mornings, endless trips, disappointments, pain, strain on personal relationships, mistakes, setbacks, years of your life spent and then success…will it be worth it? Does the intended outcome align with expectations? You will never be truly motivated if you can’t answer these three questions positively. You will only find yourself in a state of avoiding failure, which is no foundation for high and consistent motivation. One must think deeply and honestly about these questions and seek positive answers to enter a state of seeking success. Do this today. Remember: Motivation is all about State. Develop and stay in a successseeking state and not in one that simply tries to avoid failure. Make Rain 11 Insight 6 Rock Solid A lot is known about Thomas J. Watson as the first president of IBM. The guy who turned the Computing Tabulating and Recording Company (CTR) into the global phenomenon we now know as IBM. Less is known about his days at National Cash Register (NCR). After going bust as a butcher in Buffalo, New York State and returning his leased cash register to NCR, Thomas Watson decided that he wanted to work for NCR as a salesman. The local sales manager at the time, John J. Range, didn’t take Watson seriously and turned him down. Watson persisted and continued persisting until on a cold foggy day in November 1896, Range finally hired him as a sales apprentice. Initially Watson was a poor salesperson. But with Range’s guidance and Watson’s rock solid commitment, Watson was soon earning $100 commission a week (that’s almost $3,000 a week in today’s money). The beginning, middle and end to all success is commitment. Rock Solid Commitment! The term “The Uncommitted Rainmaker” is an oxymoron. It doesn’t exist. It’s an impossibility. Without commitment, failure is assured. To me, commitment starts with putting a stake in the ground and saying to yourself: “It starts right here! No going back! Whatever happens I will achieve this. I must achieve this”. The interesting thing is that once you are committed, I mean really committed, things start to work out for you better than expected. The question arises: What are you really committed to? Money, 12 Insight 6 closing larger deals, smashing your targets, a better life, an amazing career? These are all worthy goals. But success comes and stays when one is committed to a higher ideal. Vince Lombardi, the great US football coach put it best: “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour”. To achieve all your goals, you must be committed to excellence. Excellence incorporates a lot of things: being better, sharper, more focussed, more professional, overcoming weaknesses, harnessing strengths, being positive, constant learning, adapting, practising, working well with others, understanding and appreciating yourself. Without excelling in areas like these you are wasting the world’s time and your own, and success will always be on the distant horizon. Remember: Stick to the deal you make with success and success will surely stick with you. Make Rain 13 Insight 7 Hunger Struck! One of the first things most sales managers and directors look for in a Rainmaker is the hunger for success. They know that without that overarching innate desire to succeed, all skills are ultimately rendered useless. One of the first questions I tend to ask at most sales job-related interviews I conduct is “Do you have a real hunger for succeeding here and if so, why?” In Napoleon Hill’s classic 1937 text Think and Grow Rich, Hill cites desire as the very first fundamental step towards creating wealth. Without a strong desire, need, passion, craving, urge, thirst, that deep hunger for success there will be no success. So what happens if due to pressure, challenges, moving goal posts, setbacks or even the initial taste of success, your motivation begins to fade? What happens when you become less hungry, in some cases quite full up or fed up? You need to get hungry again. If not, your slope gets slipperier by the month. You need to go on what I call the Rainmaker’s Diet. Rainmakers know that in order to be and stay successful, they have to be and stay hungry. Their desire has to be like a laser beam and if it’s broken by distractions, it will never hit the intended target. To stay hungry you must simultaneously keep your mind in two extremes of your imagination. You must consistently go on two “Ebenezer Scrooge” journeys of the mind. The first mental journey is pain-related. Take some time out and imagine that in today’s environment of global and regional economic 14 Insight 7 stagnation, you are no longer in employment and you have little hope of getting a job. You struggle to provide even the basics for you and your loved ones. Your mind is forever filled with money problems and as a result you feel like someone who will never taste even a hint success in this lifetime. Can you imagine how you would feel, how you would think, what your day-to-day existence would be like? The second mental journey is pleasure-related. Again, take the time to vividly imagine you being at the top of your game. All debts paid off, with various savings and investments all ensuring that your mind is void of any money worries. You are living the kind of life you have always striven to live. You have more free time to do the things that can only enrich your life and those around you. You feel empowered, you feel like you are being who you were destined to be. The power of the Rainmaker’s Diet is the level of detail and vividness when you imagine these two scenarios. The more you crystallise every image in detailed colour, every feeling, every smell, every thought, every voice as real as possible during your two journeys, the more hungry you will end up becoming. Remember: In order to win, you must first feel like you’ve lost. Make Rain 15 Insight 8 Who’s in Charge Here? The coming of age or rite of passage is a common concept in virtually all societies across the globe. It could be the Seijin Shiki of the Japanese or the Bar Mitzvah of Jewish law, or taking a journey on a Vision Quest as the Native Americans do; it could be as dangerous as teenage male circumcision performed in certain African cultures or as simple as just getting married or graduating from university. Whatever the act, the theme remains the same: before coming of age, others were responsible for you; after the rites of passage, you are responsible for you. Setting aside the on-going philosophical debate over predestination versus free will, which belongs to the realms of esotericism, the real question is this: If you are not responsible for your life, your thoughts, your actions, your results, then who is? Life is about destiny and if someone has to steer the ship of your life, it might as well be you. Jim Rohn once stated, “You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of ”. Rainmakers know intuitively that they are responsible for their actions and therefore the corresponding results. If they have setbacks, they don’t look for others to blame, they swallow the bitter pill and learn from the experience for the next time. Conversely, with every win, large or small, personal or corporate, Rainmakers bask in the glory and enjoy the spoils. 16 Insight 8 Being responsible for your actions, even if someone else was actually performing them on your behalf, only serves to empower you. Blaming others only serves to sap you. Be responsible today and every day and you will personally benefit today and every day, and the good news is that you don’t have to go through physically painful rites of passage to actually enjoy the benefits! Remember: It’s up to you to do what it takes to get to where you need to be. Make Rain 17 Insight 9 The Fake Half of Reality In January 2007, American healthy lifestyle magazine Prevention published an article entitled Go Ahead…Smile! One of the interesting things the article stated was that in research at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, scientists asked a group of 50 students to act like extroverts for 15 minutes in a group discussion, even if they did not feel like it. The results were that the more assertive and energetic the students acted, the happier they became. These naturally introverted students had to act as if they were not introverts for a period. I remember in the earlier years of my sales career having to go for an internal promotion interview as a senior sales associate, a job I felt was somewhat above my capabilities at the time. Nevertheless, I felt the role was a natural progression for me, but on looking at the job specification, I wasn’t so sure any more. I discussed this with my mentor David. He intently examined the job specification sheet, looked up at me and said, “If you can do everything on this sheet well, then you are already over-qualified and the job is not for you. If, however, you can do only half of it, then you are well on your way to making an enjoyable success of it”. “What about the other half?” I asked, with a puzzled look on my face. My mentor smiled and said, “Ah, yes. The other half…well you’ll just have to fake it till you make it”. As a Rainmaker, one can never be content with any level of success. 18 Insight 9 Whatever level you have achieved will always become a comfort zone. This comfort zone becomes the seed that ultimately causes the decline in one’s figures and indeed one’s career. The Rainmaker knows that to break into the next level of success, he or she has to first understand implicitly what is required to succeed at that level, access what strengths they already possess to achieve on that level and act as if they are already successful on that level. Whatever and wherever you want and need to be, start today to fake it till you make it, then raise the bar and fake it again and again and one day you will be flabbergasted as to how far you’ve come. Remember: Never stop using the power of imaginative desire to become. Make Rain 19 Insight 10 Hear the Baseline “Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary”. Ah yes, the famous misquotation from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels. One can just imagine the pensive look on Holmes’ face as he ponders over the simply impossible puzzle, only to dazzle Watson with his ingenious powers of deduction and therefore informing him yet again that it is all about the basics. In reality, success is truly about getting the basics right. It is the deceptively simple process of doing the right things, in the right order, at the right time. This cuts through the over-complicated “stuff ” that surrounds us in life and work. A Rainmaker’s strength is recognising what he needs to be good at and pouring all his time, effort, energy, commitment, passion and focus into all the activities that will achieve that goal. The Rainmaker’s ultimate goal? To sell. They know that it is fundamental to stick to doing selling very well and not become distracted by other jobs, ideas, issues, politics and other diversions. These and many other things take one down alleys where there are no orders, no commission and far away targets. Know the basics in selling such as Attention, Interest, Decision, Action (AIDA). Things like prospecting, qualifying, pre-closing, closing, adding value, service, building rapport, asking for referrals, knowing your customers and products inside out and being confident about your profession. These are some of the things to dwell on. Leave the rest to others. 20 Insight 10 Remember: It’s the elementary things done well that will lead you to Rainmaking success. Make Rain 21 Insight 11 View from the Hubble In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book titled The Unheavenly City, in which he described one of the most profound sociological studies on successful versus unsuccessful people ever conducted. Banfield’s goal was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes and others didn’t. He started off convinced that the answer would be found in factors such as their environment, family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. To Banfield’s surprise, what he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind. This attitude was based around their longer-term goal setting and activities. Banfield dubbed this “long time perspective”. Dr Banfield discovered that those individuals who have a longer-term view of what they want and how they want to achieve it (in every minute detail) and start straight away to work inch by inch every day without fail towards that goal, end up being the most successful individuals in whatever field of endeavour they embark upon regardless of their background. Rainmakers know that the long time perspective incorporates two distinct, yet related concepts—vision and goals. People use the terms vision and goals interchangeably, however, the two are very different in meaning and function. The two terms are also interdependent. Real and lasting success is only possible if 22 Insight 11 the two work in tandem. Are Rainmakers visionaries or goal-setters? Well, the answer to that question is they have to be both! Most people have a natural disposition towards either being a visionary or a goal-setter and not necessarily both. A goal-setter is process and task oriented, focusing on achieving an aim within a certain timeframe and determining the steps towards that aim: the goal. On the other hand, a visionary has a clear picture in mind of how things should be. It’s a picture of an on-going state of being that has no time span and is not usually accompanied with a set of pragmatic steps of how to get there. Rainmakers know that they have to be good at displaying both. Therefore, they are acutely aware of what they are good at and work hard on their aptitude for the weaker concept. What do you want to achieve in the next 5 to 10 years? What are you willing to do (or to even give up) NOW to enable that to happen? What type of clients do you want to service? What type of relationships do you want to have with these clients? What are you willing to do (or to even give up) NOW to enable that to happen? How much wealth do you really want to create? What are you willing to do (or to even give up) NOW to enable that to happen? Remember: Always begin with the end in mind! Make Rain 23 Insight 12 The Habit of a Lifetime Developing and maintaining the right habits is critical to success at work and in life. Personal growth guru, Dr Stephen Covey in his famous 1989 book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, stressed the need for acquiring life-changing habits such as always being proactive, thinking win-win and beginning with the end in mind. Having these habits is certainly fundamental to one accomplishing their goals; however, a quotation by Benjamin Franklin comes to mind: “Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones”. You must be aware of your negative thought patterns and their pathway to you developing bad habits that limit the actualisation of your goals and debilitate your life. The creation of good habits without the destruction of bad ones only creates a lack of harmony in your quest for success. Think of habits such as procrastination, lack of attention to detail, counting your chickens before they hatch, being impatient, not qualifying thoroughly, gossiping, being unprepared, making sweeping assumptions, lacking self-confidence, fear, underdelegating, over-delegating, indecision, unnecessary work overload, not thinking creatively or laterally, lack of trust in others etc. These habits and many others can destroy relationships, limit careers and keep you from attaining the kind of financial freedom you deserve. Search your life, regularly write down all your current habits and 24 Insight 12 when examining them ask yourself one question: “Does this habit serve me?” If your answer is no, develop the 21-day habit of breaking that habit. Remember: The blueprint of your life is your character, and this in turn is the sum total of your habits. Make them serve you. Make Rain 25 Insight 13 The Folly of Lamentations Kampfschwimmer. That’s the name of the infamous German naval commandos. They are amongst the top special operations forces on the planet. The motto of this elite squad is taken from one of the old Prussian virtues: Lerne leiden ohne zu klagen, which in English means, “Learn to Suffer without Complaining”. It seems that complaining, moaning, griping, grumbling, whining, lamenting is a favourite pastime of many a salesperson. When I ask salespeople, “Why are you constantly moaning?” the answer always appears to be something along the lines of “…it’s political, you won’t understand…” or “…I need to vent or I’ll go crazy”. The Rainmaker’s definition of a complaint is the creation of stifling negativity that leads nowhere. Nothing positive or progressive occurs when we complain, even to ourselves. Neuroscience shows us that it leads to a gloomy mind and a stressful body. The two last things the Rainmaker needs when pursuing success through excellence. There is an old saying, “If you don’t have something positive to say then don’t say anything”. In the same vein, if you can’t think positively then try not to think! Life in today’s hyper-competitive world can be tough. If one doesn’t take care, one’s thoughts and words can make one lose sight of the prize ahead and become derailed. Rainmakers guard their minds like fortresses. They literally cannot afford to feel bad about anything— the little things as well as the big ones. They are completely aggressive 26 Insight 13 in shutting down little weeds of negativity and find real solutions to the big challenges that will always appear along the way to success. Rainmakers stay clear of habitual complainers, as negativity can be one of the most infectious diseases in the world. It’s so much easier to become negative because a colleague displays negativity than to be inspired by someone positive. The trick Rainmakers use to become and stay positive is very simple. They cultivate gratitude. I know it sounds a bit esoteric, but it works. The more you are grateful for everything—your health, your life, your family, other people—the more you will find it difficult to complain. It’s like gratitude and moaning are diametrically opposed. The Rainmaker’s definition of gratitude is the inverse of the definition of the complaint, the creation of empowering positivity that can only lead to success. Don’t just try and stop complaining about things— practice and master the subtle art of gratitude in everything. Remember: Ask yourselfWhat do I need to be grateful for today? Make Rain 27 Insight 14 Risky Business The author of the famous book The Road Less Travelled, M. Scott Peck, once said: “We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived”. The poignant phrase that stands out for me in that quotation is “willing to fail”. M. Scott Peck could have used a number of adjectives to qualify failure such as “prepare to fail” or “don’t be afraid to fail”. But to be willing to fail seems to have so much more punch to it. It’s like one is actually taunting failure, saying “I’m willing to bring it on if you are”. The fear of failure is the single biggest target-killing commissionbuster in our game and though the title of Susan Jeffers’ book is “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”, It’s hard, when simply trying not to be afraid, to really push the boundaries of what you are capable of as a sales professional. But to be willing to fail—now that has something extra, it has the impetus to empower you to grab failure by the neck and wring success out of it. Thomas Watson, who I mentioned in the Rock Solid insight, was not afraid of failure. Watson once said, “If you want to double your rate of success, double your rate of failure”. Watson literally lived by his words. In 1892 at the age of 18, Watson travelled from farm to farm peddling pianos, organs and sewing machines. He earned $10 a week, only to find out that his boss had duped him as he could have 28 Insight 14 been earning $70 a week if he had been working on commission instead of salary. Watson then quit and moved to Buffalo and took a job selling sewing machines for Wheeler & Wilcox with little success so he began selling shares of the Buffalo Building and Loan Company, however his partner, C.B. Barron, disappeared with the firm’s money and Watson’s commissions. Watson then decided to open a butcher shop in Buffalo but before long that failed too. So he joined National Cash Register (NCR) and, to be fair, Watson had a lot of success at NCR ultimately rising to become the second in command of NCR after NCR’s President, John H. Patterson, but ultimately Watson was fired from that job. It was only in 1914 at IBM that Watson, now 40, used all of the experience from his five previous failures to make a massive and lasting success of his life and the lives of many others. Thomas Watson had no problem with failing to succeed. Anything worth achieving involves risk, particularly the risk of failure. Risk is the single common denominator for capitalism and enterprise. Without risk, financial freedom and everything wonderful that comes with it will always be a wish away. However, if you embrace risk and are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve (including fail), to be better, to smash targets, to create wealth, then it will all surely come to pass. Remember: Your willingness to fail equates to your acceptance to succeed. Make Rain 29 Insight 15 If You Shoot, You Just Might Score How does a pilot or a shipmaster know where he is going and how he intends to get there if he hasn’t plotted a course in advance of the journey? One takes an unnecessary risk jumping into a situation without thinking and planning the outcome and the process. Taking on a sales target is no different. It is one thing to have (be given) a target and quite another to have a firm goal set in your mind, in your psyche, to achieve that target as well as formulating a cast-iron strategy, both of which will increase your probability of reaching that goal. Here are some things to think about: 30 • Dream big: Diana Scharf Hunt once wrote: “Goals are dreams with deadlines”. Your goals have to start with dreams, so dream BIG. Let your imagination run wild: money, cars, holidays, charity, family, hobby. Whatever you want…dream it. • Write your goals down: A goal in your head stays a dream. Writing them down crystallises the thought. Something happens when you write things down in black and white— it’s like signals move to your subconscious commanding it to begin marching towards your goals. • Read your goals: Preferably aloud. Read them with emotion and feeling, as if they really mean something to you. • Visualise your goals: When you form a mental picture of Insight 15 what you want to achieve and how overachieving on your target can get you there, make it clear and vivid in your mind’s eye. If it’s a holiday, see the beach, smell the sea salt in the air, hear the waves crashing on the shoreline. Do this constantly every day. • Believe you will achieve: Don’t just develop goals for the sake of it. Believe they will become a reality within the timescale you set. Make your belief a conviction so that when things look bleak, your anchor is your firm belief that you WILL hit targets and achieve your goals. • Rewrite your goals daily: Why would you simply write them at the beginning of the sales year and forget them? Remember, writing them down is magical, so rewrite them every day. • Formulate a strategy to achieve targets: An example could be the “numbers game” strategy I’ll outline in “The Benefit of Mathematics”, or it could be doing a SWOT analysis of your professional self and making decisions from there. • Show flexibility: Constantly review and adjust your strategy throughout the year. You don’t want to find that at the end of the year you realise you should have done things a little differently. Be flexible and honest with yourself. If you set goals, then truly believe and trust in them, formulate a strategy to achieve them, and be flexible in your approach. You will surely over-achieve. Remember: The goal posts are wider than you think! Make Rain 31 Insight 16 In Your Prime A prime number is a natural number that is only divisible by 1 and itself. Apart from prime numbers, 1 and 0, any other number is a composite number. Therefore, if you begin to divide a composite number, you ultimately arrive at a prime number, 1, or 0. We know that without goals, one will have no motivation or direction in life. But there are goals and there are goals. I like to split goals into prime goals and composite goals. The prime goal is the foundational, fundamental goal in which all other goals in that arena naturally fall into place. Say, for example, you had two goals: to put your children through private school and to be a successful Rainmaker within a year. Which is the prime goal and which is the composite goal? Which goal naturally creates which? To be a successful Rainmaker within a year will only serve to provide you with more than enough wealth to put your children through private school. The prime goal requires focus, dedication, willpower and massive action, whilst the composite goal just requires a decision, as the means to deliver a composite goal is derived from the prime goal. When examining your goals, it’s important to thoroughly understand them so as to decide where to centre your attention. The great Rainmaker Zig Ziglar once said, “What you get by achieving your goals is just as important as what you become by achieving your goals”. This quotation demonstrates where to pour in your passion: self-actualisation—the realisation of your potential. If there 32 Insight 16 ever were a prime of prime goals, this would be it. Everything else happens once you become. All your prime goals should be pointing towards making you a better professional, spouse, parent, friend or business partner—in fact, a better human being. All other goals will naturally flow from there. Depleting your precious mental, physical and subconscious energies in chasing composite goals alone will only prolong the road less travelled to success. Remember: Concentrate on the prime goals whilst in your prime and your future will stay bright. Make Rain 33 Insight 17 The Aggression in Progress You have goals. You have targets. You have plans and a strategy to achieve them. You have the resources and the time to do it—and to do it well. You have the desire, the burning desire to do what it takes to become the Rainmaker. You know you have to create value, not just communicate it, so as to sustain long-term profitable relationships with customers. In short, you know what it takes. The question then arises, what is the right attitude to have that will empower you to achieve all of these things and more? The answer is this: You need to be aggressively progressive. Aggression as a noun does have negativity about it. But as an adjective, or in this case, an adverb, it can be defined as assertive, bold and energetic. Your attitude to your work, your career, your targets and the sales process, needs to be aggressively progressive. Rainmakers kick distractive habits with aggression; they focus on acquiring the right skills to be successful with aggression; they face their aggressive targets and surpass them through aggression. Make no mistake about this, I do not in any way mean aggression in the physical sense of the word, but certainly you need to be extremely aggressive in the mental sense. This is how you turn your burning desire to achieve into massive action. Indeed, this is how you create that burning desire in the first place. The force needed for a plane lift off and get to cruising altitude in the sky is immense. The four Rolls Royce engines need to aggressively 34 Insight 17 progress the vessel off the ground. It is no different with Rainmakers. Use an aggressively progressive mind-set to push yourself forward to overachievement. Take no prisoners when striving to be the best you can. Earl Henry Blaik, the famous American football coach, once said: “Good guys are a dime a dozen, but an aggressive leader is priceless”. It’s time to bring out the leader in you and make it happen! Remember: Your attitude determines your altitude! Make Rain 35 Insight 18 Your Cards In poker-playing circles, there is an old saying: “It’s not the hand you are dealt that counts, it’s how you play it”. In these difficult economic times, it is tempting to play the blame game: it’s the economy, our products are not good enough, our competitors are cheaper, my targets are too high, marketing are not listening to me, we never seem to have any training, this or that department doesn’t co-operate…the list can go on and on. Around two thousand years ago, the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus shared the same sentiment as the poker players by saying: “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”. Some of the most successful business people, professionals and Rainmakers didn’t have the best advantages in life: they certainly suffered many difficult setbacks, and conditions surrounding them were indeed far from ideal. What sets them apart however is that they all looked within and focused on what they did have to bring about the change needed to make things happen for themselves. Your mind is the most powerful gift you have and the best thing about it is that it’s all yours. Be warned though, fill it with negativity and distractions and you will go nowhere fast. Be aware of your mind, develop it and guard it from incapacitating thoughts. If you think it, you can achieve it. To believe is your choice. 36 Insight 18 Remember: Winners not only see the glass halffull, they fill it up! Make Rain 37 Insight 19 The Self-Con-Artist Self-confidence is an interesting phenomenon. On the one hand you know it when you see it, on the other hand you can’t accurately quantify a description when you witness it. One might say “that guy oozes confidence” while another might say “there is something about the way she came across” or any number of other observations. One thing we do know however is that self-confidence is paramount to our jobs, our businesses and our lives. Prospects buy your services because they buy into you. They put their trust in you. Your customer will never be confident in you if you are not confident in yourself, your firm, your products and services and them—the customer. Lots of business and personal development gurus have come up with a myriad of ways to improve your self-confidence but I have three favourites that I think are worth sharing with you: 38 • Like yourself: If you don’t like who you are, what you are and who you are becoming, it’s difficult to pretend you are confident. How do you like yourself? Simple…by saying to yourself, with feeling, that you like yourself at least 50 times a day. Sounds mad I know, but try it. • Know your stuff: It’s difficult for the mind to be at ease when selling to prospects and you not knowing what you are selling and how you are selling it, and why they might buy it. Insight 19 To be a professional, you have to always be a student of your profession. • Visualise. Visualise. Visualise: The mind influences everything you do and say. If you “trick” the mind into believing that you ooze confidence, guess what? Somehow, you’ll ooze confidence. Before a meeting, presentation or phone call, close your eyes and visualise in vivid colour how you will come across and the positive outcome of the event. The deeper and more intense you visualise, the more likely the mind will blur imagination and reality in theatre. Remember: Confidence, like wealth, is a shared pool. Tap into it and we’ll all be winners. Make Rain 39 Insight 20 Continuous Fashion Kaizen (改善). Japanese for continuous improvement. Direct translation is “change for the better”. In the late 80s to early 90s the management consulting craze was quality through continuous improvement. The guru who championed quality was a guy called Dr. W. Edwards Demming who worked with post-war Japanese corporations to increase their productivities to levels unheard of at that time. At the heart of this philosophy is Kaizen. Yet the concept of continuous improvement is not new. Thousands of years earlier, Socrates once said: “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have laboured hard for”. Your career never stands still. It careers onwards. You know, the word career comes from the Latin word carrera which means race (now you know where Porsche got the 911 name from)? Your career is a race, a pursuit for excellence, for satisfaction, for wealth and wellbeing. In order to achieve all this, you must improve all the time. You must never stop stepping up your game. 40 Insight 20 Remember: Adopt personal Kaizen in your life and career and you will be rewarded handsomely. Make Rain 41 Insight 21 Believe! Not Make-Believe. It’s impossible to achieve anything worthwhile without self-belief, without the ability to say to yourself “I will achieve this, I am going to make this happen!” and have an unflinching faith in those words. Let me give you an analogy. Two friends, one is at work and one is at home. The one at home starts watching the football match live on a sports channel. It’s an intense game, and by half time the team that both friends support is 1:4 down with little hope of a real comeback. However, in the second half, the losing team come back strong, and slowly but surely start making a recovery and miraculously score the last two goals in the final three minutes of the game, with the final score being 5:4 to the team both friends supported, heart-stopping stuff! The friend comes back from work eager not to know what happened and they both sit down to watch the recording of the game. Imagine the difference in attitudes, since the first friend knows what to expect and is calm through the heart-wrenching first half and the anxious second half. The relaxed attitude of this friend is the attitude that Rainmakers display within themselves day in and day out whatever the circumstance. They are cool, calm and collected with an unshakable belief in themselves. Do you believe in yourself, your products and your company? Do you believe that you can achieve your sales targets and personal goals even when all evidence appears to the contrary? Do you believe? 42 Insight 21 Remember: Belief precedes Success. Make Rain 43 Insight 22 Sitting Uncomfortably isn’t a Bad Thing The world is a big place. I don’t mean the physical world, though the globe seems to be shrinking by the day. I mean the world of experiences. This world is huge, infinitely huge. Yet the world of our experiences is infinitesimally small in comparison. However, the path to personal and professional growth exists within this expansive world of new and limitless experiences and not in the small and limited paradigm we create for ourselves. This world exists outside of our comfort zone. Rainmakers may sometimes appear superhuman with their impressive display of a myriad of skills and their apparent fearlessness, but every Rainmaker will tell you that deep down, they are just as ordinary, fragile and vulnerable as everyone else. The difference is that Rainmakers know that skills and attitudes are carved out of experiences, and therefore immersing themselves in bigger, bolder and more challenging experiences will serve to develop them in many ways. There is a catch though. The gatekeeper. Try and imagine the two worlds of experiences I stated earlier. The small world of your experiences is a small room with a big comfy sofa in the middle and a single door. On the other side of that door lies the big world of new and powerful experiences and the path to success. But at the door stands the dreaded gatekeeper called FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Now, FUD is a real smooth talker and every time you try to venture through that door FUD finds a way to 44 Insight 22 talk you out of it. FUD uses every tactic at its disposal to convince you to sit back in that comfortable chair in the middle of your small room. Rainmakers meet exactly the same situation every time they challenge themselves to a new experience, but Rainmakers also know exactly what’s on the other side of that door. They also believe that each new experience ends up in making their small room expand in itself. Therefore, with this knowledge, they must ignore FUD every time, as FUD only represents our fight-or-flight lizard brain and not our desire to be the best we can possibly be. The sequence of your journey should be: comfortable – uncomfortable – comfortable – repeat. This is the only way to develop into the Rainmaker you will become. Remember: Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Make Rain 45 Insight 23 Nerve Endings You are about to make that all-important phone call, attend that pivotal meeting or make that critical presentation and yet you have that horrible feeling in your stomach. You almost feel sick, your mind is suddenly void of all knowledge and memory and you’re constantly thinking about how badly you are likely to perform…which only makes you feel worse… Rainmakers constantly find themselves in situations where their nerves can get the better of them. No matter how much experience one has, nerves can appear at any time and if entertained and not dealt with, can affect the sales event and possibly the outcome. Confucius once said: “If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?” It is important to remember that having nerves is simply a biochemical reaction in your body brought about by your subconscious. Adrenaline is pumped into your bloodstream and this is what gives you that queasy feeling in your stomach. Your heart rate also increases and your blood vessels constrict. This is not a good place to be if ignored or worse still if you panic, as you will only increase that cycle. The adrenaline is actually there to make you more focussed. It’s there to sharpen your mind, preparing your nervous system to react quickly. As primitives, adrenaline existed to enable our fight- 46 Insight 23 or-flight response, as Rainmakers, it exists to enable us to think on our feet and recall everything we know and have trained for. You should therefore welcome the adrenaline rush and use it the way it was designed to be used. One way to quickly calm down and yet benefit from all the positives of adrenaline is to breathe. Yes, it’s that simple. Breathe. Breathing properly will fill your bloodstream with oxygenated blood, which will rush to your brain and will instantly calm you down, whilst you still stay sharp for your big moment. Follow this routine: • Take a four-second, slow and deep breath in through your nose, pushing your diaphragm down as much as possible. • Hold your breath down using your diaphragm muscles for two seconds. • Slowly breathe out through your mouth for four seconds. • Repeat the process once more. That’s it. You will see that straight away you become much calmer and at the same time ready to do what you need to do and the best thing about this routine is that you can perform it anywhere. Remember: There is power in your nerves. It’s yours to harness. Make Rain 47 Insight 24 Thales’ Answer “You take the blue pill: the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill: you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes”. In the Wachowski brothers’ 1999 film The Matrix, Laurence Fishburne’s character, Morpheus, presents Neo, Keanu Reeves’ character, with a choice. That choice leads Neo to many things throughout the Matrix trilogy but the number one gift “the choice of the pills” gave Neo was self-awareness. Self-awareness is indeed a gift. Understand and develop it and you will go on to achieve your prime goal: self-actualisation. Abraham Maslow, in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality wrote, “Whereas the average individuals often have not the slightest idea of what they are, of what they want, of what their own opinions are, self-actualizing individuals have superior awareness of their own impulses, desires, opinions, and subjective reactions in general”. Don’t however confuse self-awareness with self-consciousness. Self-consciousness makes you see through the lens of how you perceive others perceiving you. Being entangled in the messy web of that double lens will only weaken you and will undoubtedly lower your self-esteem. The lower your self-esteem, the further away your goals will always seem to be. Self-awareness, on the other hand, is an acute understanding of you, by you and for you. If you realise who you really are in the cold 48 Insight 24 light of day—your strengths, weaknesses, deepest fears, aspirations, historical baggage, attitude, impulses, shame and guilt, you have a basis to develop yourself, to grow, all the time knowing how far you are coming. Self-awareness thus empowers you to be better, to achieve. If you don’t read and understand the instruction manual, how will get the machine to do what you want it to do? You are the machine. The instruction manual is written and used through your self-awareness. Rainmakers are acutely aware of who they are and what they are capable of. They know that if they don’t harness this gift, they will be like tumbleweeds blowing in the wind—destination: nowhere and anywhere! Take the time out to reflect on who you are versus who you want to be. Seek the red pill, and see just how far you can go. The choice is yours. Remember: Be a high definition colour version of yourself and not everyone else’s perceived black and white version of you. Make Rain 49 Insight 25 Hold the Fort One of my favourite movies is Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. I love the classic revenge plot mixed with pain, passion and a dash of patriotism. One solemn scene struck me. The stage is set for Commodus, the son of Caesar to murder his father. He tells his father, “You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them…” Those virtues immediately demonstrated to me all the character traits one needs to become a leader, a teacher, a warrior…a Rainmaker. Rainmakers need to develop and exercise all four virtues to be successful. If, however, you possessed none and had to start on one, it would be fortitude. Around 380 BC, Plato taught these virtues to his pupils. All four are documented in his Socratic dialogue, The Republic. Plato focused on fortitude for his warrior class—the future leaders of armies, heads of military conquests. What is fortitude and why is it so important to the Rainmaker? The Oxford English Dictionary defines fortitude as simply: “courage in pain or adversity”. I simply see it as strength of mind in all situations. Make no mistake about it, being a Rainmaker can be hard. It’s a difficult, lonely, uphill road to success with a lot of bumps, twists and turns along the way and countless setbacks. It really is not for the faint-hearted. The majority of salespeople new to the profession leave it after a short time because they simply cannot hack it. There is a constant pressure from all sides. Even if you are 50 Insight 25 successful, it’s momentary; as the old sales adage says: “you are only as good as your last sale”. If, however, you focus on the skills needed to succeed such as adding value to the customers, building the pipeline and always acting with integrity, all the benefits of this noble profession will be yours. To do that, you must possess strength of mind. You must develop it, practise it; you must protect it. Fortitude will see you through the times when management are saying you are not good enough. Fortitude will see you through when it looks like nothing is about to drop. Fortitude will see you through when personal problems threaten to get in the way of your quest for success. Fortitude will see you through when you can’t seem to get any support from anywhere. Fortitude will see you through when the dark days look like they are never-ending. Fortitude will always see you through. Remember: Hold your mind firm and you will witness the best life has to offer. Make Rain 51 Insight 26 Ahead of the Learning Curve We currently live in an amazing time in history. We can get to anywhere on the planet in a matter of hours; we can communicate with anyone and everyone, anywhere in the world in an instant; we can truly discern and be responsible for our actions. One thing however that makes this point in history worthwhile is our access to knowledge and information. It’s everywhere and at our fingertips. So how can we tap into this vast reservoir of knowledge and use it to become what we desire, which is to be that Rainmaker who uses the skills developed to make him or her better, to make business better, to make the world better? There is an academic or professional course for everything, absolutely everything. If you look hard enough, there is a book or e-book written that can teach you whatever it is you want and need to learn. The availability of knowledge is only as abundant or as limited as you perceive it to be. One of the world’s leading motivational speakers, Tony Robbins, was actually a teenager and homeless when he had a chance encounter with another motivational speaker called Jim Rohn. From that moment on, Tony decided he wanted to become a world-class motivational speaker. He had no formal education beyond high school, but he did do something well—he took learning seriously. Tony went on any course he could, read every book he could in his chosen field (literally several hundred books and publications) 52 Insight 26 and he took this knowledge and absorbed it. Within a year he was a millionaire. Today, Tony is one of the greatest speakers of his generation and he even owns an island in Fiji. The point of the story is that if you want to grow in a particular area in order to be better and more effective, then be proactive and seek out how to do it. Pay for a course, buy and read that book, register for that online seminar. Whatever you learn, you will always take it with you so it’s certainly worth investing in acquiring the knowledge you need to be better. Remember: Your most important investment is in yourself.. Make Rain 53 Insight 27 What’s Your One Move? There’s a saying I once heard that has forever stuck in my head. It goes: “life is full of obstacle illusions”. When I initially came across this saying, I thought it was a good play on words. On deeper reflection, I find it’s not just a cool saying but a profound and true one. Challenges and setbacks always litter the path to achievement and success. I suppose that is why it is called “the road less travelled”. The biggest, baddest, ugliest and most stubborn obstacles, however, are your own perceived weaknesses and handicaps. They have the power to stop you dead in your tracks—if you give them permission to. The good news? They are just mirages, illusions, smoke and mirrors, tricks of the mind. Many a time, your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the old fable of a ten-year-old boy who decided to take up judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a serious car accident. The boy started lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy began making progress, but could not understand why after three whole months of training the master had taught him only one move. “Sensei,” the boy finally asked, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei quietly replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. 54 Insight 27 Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be outclassed by his opponent. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue”. Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy won the match and the tournament. He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in every match. The boy then summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind. “Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?” “You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defence for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm”. Rainmakers are in the business of self-improvement, and some of the biggest leaps towards your goals can be achieved by tackling head on your biggest weaknesses, personal or professional. You have three choices available to you. Firstly, you can believe the illusion and stay where you are, wishing and hoping for the forever-elusive progress to come your way. Secondly, you can overcome your weakness by changing your perception of it, your thoughts and behavioural patterns. Thirdly, if the weakness is a real handicap, as with the tenyear-old boy, find ways to turn it into a strength. Be honest with yourself: jot down your weaknesses, be they mental or physical, find ways to change them or develop new skills to counterbalance them. Either way, ignore the illusions of obstacles and grab hold of the reality of progress. Make Rain 55 Remember: Stop staring at the nonexistent palm trees in the middle of the desert and start making it rain. 56 Insight 27 Insight 28 The United States of You Think of a time when you seemed to do everything right. Maybe it was the way you handled a particular meeting or a prospecting call. Every word, action and thought just all seemed to gel in harmony. You couldn’t go wrong. You were in flow, in the zone. World famous motivational expert Anthony Robbins calls this phenomenon peak state. State is an interesting concept. On one hand it’s everywhere, constant, yet transparent, as you are always in state—positive, inconsequential or negative. On the other hand, understanding and using state is so crucial to the success of our business, our careers, our lives, our destinies. But what exactly is state? Well, the Oxford English Dictionary defines state as: the particular condition that someone or something is in at a specific time. So, for example, one could say, “look at the state of you” or “He was in a right state”. The powerful thing about state is that it directly affects outcomes. It is the outcomes that Rainmakers are really interested in. So here’s the big question: If state influences results then how can we manage our state when it really matters? How can we get ourselves to be at our superlative state at will? We all know the famous “show me the money” scene in Cameron Crowe’s 1996 film Jerry Maguire, where Cuba Gooding, Jr’s character Rod Tidwell tests Tom Cruise’s character, Jerry’s resolve over the phone. Rod pushes Jerry to be more and more vocal on the phone Make Rain 57 ending with Jerry screaming “show me the money!” and other interesting phrases. When thinking about that scene and what Rod Tidwell was trying to do, it occurred to me that he was trying to get Jerry to alter his state. Initially, Jerry was not overly enthused to Rod Tidwell agreeing to keep Jerry as his agent. Rod realised that in order to change Jerry’s state of mind, he first had to change his physical state by getting him to scream at the top of his voice. Once the state changes, the outcome changes. Rainmakers understand that the right state is the foundation of performance. Therefore, they must become masters of their own state. Rainmakers realise that like actors on the stage, it is not enough to know your stuff, but one has to be in the right state, the right zone, when it truly matters—at that meeting, throughout that presentation, during that call, in that seminar. They use motion and emotion to get into state, they recall past peak states in their minds and recreate them again and again in reality. They study NeuroLinguistic Programming techniques to master achieving state at will. Do what Rainmakers do. Learn the art of getting in state. Remember: The cumulative state of your business is a mirror image of the consistent management of your state. 58 Insight 28 Insight 29 Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow There is an old saying that procrastination is the thief of time. It’s the one thing, which, if left unchecked, can do the most damage to your sales, targets and career. Yet it is one of the hardest things to shake off. It’s like a virus: it starts off unnoticed and then slowly multiplies, making it increasingly difficult to extinguish. Putting things off then becomes a habit that really starts to take hold of your work life and can strangle it completely. The point is that when you finally get around to doing things, it normally is because you have to and you are now running against the clock and that can only mean that the quality of your output can be compromised. The only thing of equity we possess as Rainmakers is our output: the results of what we do such as phone calls we make, the meetings we prepare, the proposals and presentations we create. If these are less than excellent as components, the total sum product of our efforts begin to fall into jeopardy. Here are a number of ideas to consider about how to deal with procrastination: • Be aware: Be acutely aware. This gremlin is never far from you. You need to be honest with yourself and know that it can affect even the smallest of decisions. Make Rain 59 • Write down your yearly goals daily: Repeating the process of evaluating your goals on a daily basis will fortify your mind with the things you have to do to achieve them. • Make a “to do list”: This may sound obvious but we normally do one in our heads, which can only make it easy for procrastination to decimate this mental register. Stating things in black and white will go a long way in helping you getting things done. • Important doesn’t necessarily mean urgent: Yes, you need to fire-fight sometimes—however, the more you do the important stuff earlier, the less you will fire-fight later. Identify what’s important but not necessarily urgent, such as cold calling or preparing early for a presentation, and work on those tasks first. • Reward yourself: Pat yourself on the back for working hard and getting the important stuff out of the way. This positive gesture will only reinforce your positive motivational state for the next time. Dealing with procrastination is a lifelong endeavour but we can form the habit of kicking the habit of procrastination if we stay focused. Remember: Destroy the thief of time and time will reward you. 60 Insight 29 Insight 30 Where Do You Sign? Have you ever seen the bright new actor or the promising musician, the budding entrepreneur or the ambitious professional and you somehow know this person will do well? This person will go far. But for the life of you, you can’t think exactly why. You cannot put your finger on it, but there is something special about that individual. You recognise that “specialness” every time you see that actor on TV, hear that musician on the radio or interact with that professional in some way. They have a signature. Like your personality, fingerprint or iris, your signature is unique to you and you alone. Every time you sign a cheque or a letter, you display a representation of you. Only you! Question: What representation of you are you displaying to the commercial world? Is this representation consistent? What signature do you leave with your prospects and clients? People buy people. It seems an obvious statement. A mantra often used in sales. One would be mistaken, however, to think that this means people buy just a personality. If that is indeed the case, if you are a “people” person then everyone will flock to buy from you. Not so. People, committees, companies, organisations buy the signature. This is the all-encompassing uniqueness that only you can provide. It is the culmination of many hours of learning, relearning, practising and refining your profession. Your Rainmaker’s signature also comprises knowledge, passion, commitment, hard work, vision, Make Rain 61 friendship, service and humility, yet a pride in what you do. The embodiment of all these factors surrounded by a strong spirit of excellence will create a representation unique to you that customers will buy into again and again. Remember: Rainmakers never leave home without their signature. What’s Yours? 62 Insight 30 Insight 31 Doing the Nearly Impossible Everyday Here is a simple equation: Lack of growth = Death. This is true on many levels. If one stops meeting challenges and developing when one retires, it’s an early grave. If businesses remain stagnant in today’s environment, the receivers beckon. If the salesperson doesn’t consistently grow in skills, in their pipeline, in orders, in relationships, in the size of their network; then it’s goodbye to their job, possibly their career and their dreams. These are the harsh realities of life, which can be viewed as a good thing since it spurs us on to grow. To stretch. On Monday, August 15th, 2016 at the Olympic Stadium in Engenho de Dentro, Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva, appeared from nowhere to claim the gold medal and set a new Olympic pole vault record. Da Silva failed his first attempt at 5.75m. On his second attempt, he cleared 5.93m which was his personal best. Defending Olympic pole vault champion, France’s Renaud Lavillenie had raised the bar by clearing 5.98m. Da Silva knew he had one chance for gold for Brazil, in Brazil and go down in history for Brazilian track and field fans, so he decided to stretch with all his being and might and clear the bar at 6.03m, a full 10cm above his personal best to set a new Olympic record. That is the power of stretching! Stretching is the key to growth. It’s the fuel that drives the engine of success. I like to define stretching as doing the nearly impossible every day. Think of something in your everyday job you think is impossible to do or at least really difficult to achieve, such as positively aggressively Make Rain 63 getting that meeting from that difficult client, closing that huge deal, pushing clients for referrals, insisting to yourself that you will double your pipeline within a month by hook or by crook (OK, less of the crook), deciding that you will drastically increase your close rate. Now imagine one puts a gun to your head and says, “…if you don’t hit your yearly target within six months of the start of the year I will pull the trigger”. Are you going to say, “OK, I’ll try?” Of course not! You are going to say, “Yes I will…I must!” When the mind is focussed, the impossible is achieved for the simple reason that it’s the mind itself that defines what impossible is in the first place, it’s called your paradigm. Stretching is the single characteristic all successful people have in common, worldwide and in all cultures. Pushing your mind, body and soul to their very limits to attain a goal is your passport to high achievement. The weird thing is that it’s actually easy. The hard part, the really hard part, is deciding to seriously go for it in the first place. You have to undergo a mind shift to start with. The battleground is in the mind. If the mind comes up with an objection to you stretching yourself— say, for example, you feel you want get out there and cold call prospects consistently but the mind says “you can’t”, a simple reply to yourself is: “But if I could, how would I go about it?” Use this statement anytime you have any doubts: “But if I could…” Because you can, you just have to condition yourself to accept that very fact. Stretch yourself, push yourself, dive into the challenges, let nothing and no one (especially yourself) stop you from making it. Explore the outer limits of what you think is possible. Do this today and every day. Don’t ever let the mind fool you into relaxing by thinking you’re doing fine. Never stop stretching…ever. Rainmakers never do. Remember: How far you pull the catapult back is a lot less than how far the stone goes on release. 64 Insight 31 Insight 32 Team You Imagine your sales manager was Grant Cardone, who had all the time in the world to show you how to overachieve on the numbers. Imagine how successful you would be if you turned to Anthony Robbins for advice on personal development and peak performance. Imagine how many more deals you would close if you had a weekly session with master negotiator Henry Kissinger or how much more passionate and involving your presentations would be after spending time with Steve Jobs. Watching my two boys grow up is a real privilege and joy. One thing that particularly strikes me is the way they are like sponges and all they really want to do is latch on to someone that inspires them to learn and be better. Should we as adults, be any different? Author Auliq Ice once said, “Life is constantly teaching us that we are mirrors of one another and that no one is an island”. Whatever stage we are at in our professional and personal life, receiving advice, encouragement, edification and inspiration from those who are ahead of us provides the growth spurts we need to be successful. I have not heard of a Rainmaker, entrepreneur, Olympic gold medallist, Nobel Prize winner or indeed anyone who has achieved lasting success, who does not have one or more mentors in their lives—it is one of success’ critical ingredients. However, obtaining a mentor only tells a third of the story. Another third is the inverse: being a mentor. Teaching, sharing and Make Rain 65 inspiring others coming after you only serves to enrich your own journey exponentially. The final third is the influence of your peers. These are carefully chosen and like-minded individuals that share common goals and attitudes towards advancement. I refer to all three components as Team You, and if you design this team thoughtfully and cultivate it properly, it will propel you to the top of your game at an astonishing rate. Team You will not come to you. You have to go out and seek your team. Be bold and look for the right mentors for you, take on the right protégé and work on your relationships with your peers (friends, work colleagues, industry partners and even competitors) and hold on to those who are like-minded, positive, trustworthy and most importantly, able to challenge you on a deep and meaningful level. Remember: An individual can achieve good things but great things can only be achieved for the individual by a team of individuals. 66 Insight 32 Insight 33 Your Very Own Personal Power Question: If you had all the information about what to do and how to do it, you knew exactly how to transform yourself into the superstar sales professional you want to be, and how to earn the big commissions you deserve; what would you do next? Where is the power to turn what’s in your head into reality? How do you get from knowing it to actually living it? The answer is in the little phrase “to decide”. Decision comes from the Latin word caedere which literally means to “cut off ”. Think about these words: suicide, homicide, pesticide, decide. What do they all have in common? They all have the suffix “cide” which translates to kill, to destroy, to remove…to cut off. When you make a decision, you cut off any potential of going back to your pre-decision stage—that is where your real power lies. If, for example, you decide today to become better at closing or to excel at presenting, your goal is guaranteed if you cut off any possibility of not developing these skills. That is to say, you now have to develop those skills which weren’t previously a decision but merely wishful thinking. The finality of your decision ensures a successful outcome. Make Rain 67 Remember: If you want to achieve anything, be a Hernán Cortés and burn the boats! 68 Insight 33 Insight 34 The Power of Love When the film The Passion of Christ came out, my local church hired the local cinema for the congregation to watch it. I remember being shocked by the ghastly nature of the portrayal of Jesus’ death. I thought to myself at the time, “what’s so passionate about this?” It then dawned on me that Jesus had such a passion for humanity that he gladly chose to lay down his life in such a gruesome and demeaning manner. The interesting thing is that this act of passion affected the world and Christianity grew accordingly. The point here is that to influence people, you do have to be technically aware, and you do have demonstrate certain skills such as questioning, building rapport, presenting and closing, but nothing mesmerises people like passion. Being passionate about what you do, what you sell, your company, your offering, your methods, and about the customer and their business are what really get people to buy. Passion is not something you learn—it is something you choose! Yet the underlying platform of passion is love. Choose to fall in love with what you do and two powerful things will happen: • You will become more disciplined and willing to deal with the tough aspects of rainmaking. Make Rain 69 • People will say yes more to your passion and your conviction, than to just your technical skills and abilities. Remember: Passion begets passion! 70 Insight 34 Insight 35 The Parable of the Rainmaker You can learn how to be a good Rainmaker by going to sales training seminars, studying books on sales, practising what you have learned and modelling other Rainmakers around you. However, making that intimate connection with individuals who have come before you and achieved great things can turn you into a great Rainmaker. This process is simple: Read and study the biographies of those you deem your heroes. Little inspires one more than when one has read a good biography (particularly an autobiography in the first person). It’s amazing how the power of print (or the tablet screen) can make you emotionally go through the same experiences, pain of setbacks, joy of successes and all the drama that the author went through. You get an insight into how the individual thinks, what motivated him or her and where they found their strength. For me, when I read other people’s stories, I cannot help but make comparisons with my own life and road to success. I start to view my quest for excellence through the lens of the literary experience I am going through. The connections made can be profound and inspiring. The interesting thing is that the biography does not have to be of an entrepreneur or a business leader. One can receive as many powerful lessons from sports personalities, great historical figures and, dare I say, some celebrities. Make Rain 71 Dr Stephen Covey, in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, highlights an important point: Begin with the end in mind. By reading about other individuals’ experiences, your mind begins to focus on what your own biography would be like, and what individuals would say about your life, works and achievements. By thinking about these things now, you can begin to sow the seeds of how your destiny will unfold then so that whether or not you ever write a biography, your accomplishments will be clear. Remember: The end justifies the means. 72 Insight 35 Insight 36 When is the Best Time to Stop? We all love the “finger lickin’ good” chicken taste produced by KFC. The story behind the man behind the brand is also interesting. At the age of 65, Harland David Sanders’ restaurant and motel had failed. He had known some success previously, so much so that he was given the honorary title of “Kentucky Colonel” by the state of Kentucky for his contribution to the state cuisine. All that didn’t matter now because at this point, Sanders took in his first social security cheque of $105.00. Sanders had nothing else but a chicken recipe of 11 herbs and spices. He decided to go around to restaurants and sell his “recipe franchise”. The pitch was simple: “Coat your chicken with my herbs and spices and you will have so much more business. We therefore split the profits”. Can you imagine what restaurant owners’ reactions would be? “C’mon! I have my own chicken recipe and it’s tasty enough, thank you!” Sanders’ secret weapon was that he utterly believed in his recipe and his proposal, and pressed on from one town to another, from one state to another until he eventually reached South Salt Lake in Utah over 1,600 miles away from where he started. There he met a guy called Pete Harman who finally took him up on his offer and the rest is history. Try and guess how many rejections he had to his proposal before Make Rain 73 he got his first yes…? 1,009! That’s right, ONE THOUSAND AND NINE NOs before his first YES. Who reading this would have stopped at 50 rejections, or 600 rejections or even 1000 rejections? Colonel Sanders, in his 60s, believed in his product and offering so strongly that he would have kept going regardless of the number of rejections. It then took his first YES to change everything. The franchise operation grew very quickly after that to become what it is today. It’s important to understand that the simple basics such as belief, persistence, the right pitch, positive mental attitude, fortitude of mind and discipline will always accelerate you to success whatever you do. Remember: Rainmakers don’t stop because they can’t stop. 74 Insight 36 Insight 37 The Metamorphic Individual We all know how successful Will “The Fresh Prince” Smith is. The kid from Philadelphia whose films to date have grossed over $6.6 billion globally. The only star ever to have starred in eight consecutive films that have opened up in America at the number one box office spot. There are several keys to Will’s success: self-belief, long-range planning, laser-sharp focus, determination, persistence, spotting and embracing change, humility, conquering fear and grabbing luck. There is another factor that I believe is critical to Will’s success. This is the same power that took him from being a rapper in the 1980s, to an American sitcom star in the 1990s, to a critically acclaimed Hollywood star in the 2000s, and then a successful film producer this decade. That thing is called self-reinvention. Look around you; those that self-reinvent possess staying power at the top. People like Madonna, Clint Eastwood, Sir Richard Branson and Peter the Great, or companies such as Apple, IBM, Virgin and American Express; all harness the power of self-reinvention. Why is this skill so important? Because one cannot stand still in an ever-changing world. The problem isn’t that our environment is changing. It is the speed of that change that is dangerous for the static. Manageable constant change is dead and buried. Exponential and unpredictable change is the order of the day and is here to stay. Recent history is littered with people and organisations caught unconsciously napping - Wesley Snipes got caught out by Will Smith, Make Rain 75 Nokia got caught out by Apple, Microsoft got caught out by Google and the list goes on. The speed in which your competition can leave you out in the cold can be frightening. For Rainmakers to stay Rainmakers, they have to keep their finger on the pulse of change and not only use self-reinvention to adapt to change but to be at the forefront of change, which creates competitive advantage. The American entertainer Henry Rollins put it aptly when he said: “I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone”. To be the best is one thing; to stay the best requires you to see your business environment and indeed the world through the lens of change and consistently make the necessary adjustments to your skill sets, your knowledge, your type of clientele, your outlook, your tools and your goals. By doing this you will begin to jump from one level of excellence to the next and we know what accompanies excellence…right? Remember: Ask yourself: Am I doing the right thing in the right place at the right time to be where I need to be? 76 Insight 37 Insight 38 Brain Gain We know that if we want to be fit and full of energy to deal with the challenges of the Rainmaker we must be conscious of what we eat and exercise regularly. Yet the vast majority of what we as Rainmakers do is related to the brain. We need to keep sharp, remember broad complex concepts and very fine technical detail almost simultaneously, make clear decisions, deal with stress and prolonged intense activity as well as face a constant requirement to learn. So why not also exercise our brain muscles? In the 2009 book The Sharp Brain’s Guide To Brain Fitness, we are told: “Brain fitness is our brain’s ability to readily create additional connections between neurons, and even to promote new neurons in certain parts of the brain. Research in neuropsychology and neuroscience shows that vigorous mental activity can lead to good brain fitness, which in turn, translates into a sharper memory, faster processing of information, better attention, and other improved cognitive skills”. Our profession embodies Napoleon Hill’s philosophy in Think and Grow Rich. We need to constantly be thinking clearly and effectively to make money, so it’s important to keep our brains consistently firing on all cylinders. Here are a few ideas to consider: Make Rain 77 • A healthy body is a healthy mind. Watch what you eat and exercise regularly. • Tease your brain constantly with crosswords, online brain training, Sudoku, etc. • Read a random Wikipedia article daily.…in fact, just read anything and everything constantly. • Constantly communicate like a teacher, especially to yourself. • Write instead of type when you can. • Never use a calculator unless you really have to. • Daily visualise yourself having achieved your goals. • From time to time, relax and think of absolutely nothing for 30 minutes. Your most important tool is your brain. Keep it fit and sharp and you will be a much more effective sales professional. Remember: Be a brain bodybuilder and your brain will build you a body of wealth. 78 Insight 38 Insight 39 Experiencing Time Versus the Experience of Time Question: What is the difference between a salesperson with ten years of experience and a Rainmaker with ten years of experience? The Rainmaker has a full ten years of making mistakes and learning from each mistake made—thus, by the tenth year his/her wealth of experience would have grown exponentially. Others, however, make mistakes over and over again and after ten years they wonder why they haven’t tasted real success. One year’s experience times ten doesn’t constitute ten years of real experience. It is said that wisdom is experience plus reflection. This is the exact point. You can only gain true experience if you reflect deeply on every wrong decision, unwise move and lost deal. You can learn from anything, including advice from others, your training and personal development. Your experience is your personal and professional equity. That is the value you add to your customers, your company and ultimately your bank balance. Stop periodically and think about the professional journey you are taking so that it’ll be worth it. Make Rain 79 Remember: Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. 80 Insight 39 Insight 40 Sshhh!! Quiet Years ago, I stumbled upon an obscure motivational book. The first five or six pages claimed how by doing a very simple thing you could change your life around, achieve everything you ever dreamed of, be full of happiness, etc. Impatiently I ploughed on through the pages looking for the magic solution, the silver bullet. Eventually the answer came: devote yourself to regular quiet time where you do and think of absolutely nothing. At the time, I thought the statement was an outrageous claim, bordering on the point of fraudulent, so I discarded the book. Now, many years later however, I realise that there is something in that claim. What is important to the Rainmaker is clear thinking. Clarity of thought produces excellent output. The hallmark of the Rainmaker is seeing the immediate beyond the immediate: the ability to focus consistently on the details at hand and see the effects much further down the line. In other words, being tactical and strategic simultaneously. It is very difficult to be that way with all the fire fighting, crisis management, constant demands on your time, deadlines and information overload. By adopting a regular habit of spending time stripping your mind of the clutter that builds up you will find that thinking clearly and strategically will come more naturally. Here is an idea: Make Rain 81 • Take some time out in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed for the next 90 minutes or so (early morning or weekends tend to work best). • Sit on the floor (this prevents you from falling asleep). • Close your eyes so that you are not distracted. • The conscious mind has to focus on something, so concentrate on your breathing. Listen to it, imagine it. • To start with, your mind will be all over the place, thinking of all sorts of things. • Do nothing else. Just sit there. Initially this will be difficult to do, but like anything new, repetition will help you through the initial stages. • After about 20-30 minutes, your mind will settle and relax. Enjoy it for another 20-30 minutes. Don’t let your mind wander. Focus on your breathing. • Once you are truly relaxed, start to think of important things, like your goals or important decisions you have to make of which you are unsure. • Ideas, answers, convictions, understanding and appreciation all come to you when you are in state. Monks have meditated all over the world for centuries, but it seems now more than ever, with the pressures we are all under and the rate of change we deal with daily, that quiet time is needed to help us achieve. It is yet another tool in the Rainmaker’s toolbox. Try it. 82 Insight 40 Remember: By coming face to face with the moment, you open up all sorts of possibilities. Make Rain 83 Insight 41 A (Physical) Moving, Stirring, Agitation… We like to think that the quality of our decisions is purely based on rational thought: one weighs up the pros and cons and comes to a perfect conclusion with complete ease and skill. In reality, this is rare. What really governs our actions and reactions to our environment is how we feel. Our emotions govern how we feel. We all need to use our brain to think and learn, but the Rainmaker also recognises the power of his own emotions and those of others and develops the skill of self and relationship management to get results. This is emotional intelligence. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of GE once told the Wall Street Journal: “A leader’s intelligence has to have a strong emotional component. He/she has to have high levels of self-awareness, maturity and self-control. He/she must be able to withstand the heat, handle setbacks and when those lucky moments arise, enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility. No doubt, emotional intelligence is rarer than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just can’t ignore it”. Several studies around the world demonstrate a clear correlation between a higher emotional intelligence and sales performance. These studies show that the business realities we operate in today cannot sustain those individuals that simply hard sell their way into accounts. These individuals also manage to hard sell their way out of the accounts since they are not able to deal with constant setbacks and feelings of failure. 84 Insight 41 Rainmakers are able to understand the emotional content of their thoughts, decisions and actions. To ignore how to understand and manage your feelings is to play Russian roulette with your targets and ultimately your career. The game of selling is full of setbacks, self-doubt, backstabbing by others, prospects’ double-dealing and many other disappointments. Maintaining self-control and fortitude of mind is not something that just happens, it is a process requiring self-awareness and personal development over time but the rewards are life and career enhancing. The same goes for helping and managing the emotions of others you interact with—prospects, customers, management, suppliers, your colleagues. Understanding that we are all emotional animals will allow you to get the best out of all these relationships. Research emotional intelligence, assess your own EI quotient, learn to develop it and begin to use it as another advantage towards sales success. Remember: Don’t be emotional over people’s emotions and yours. Simply use its power to move ahead. Make Rain 85 Insight 42 They’re Not Just for Biting… My tailor at Rosen & Nathan is nicknamed Smiler. Each time I have an appointment with him I am reminded of that fact. He just can’t stop smiling. It is not a grinning type of smile, but a nice warm smile that exudes confidence and trust and although you never see him when he is not smiling, you never really get sick and tired of his smile—though I sometimes wonder whether he gets sick of smiling. In Dale Carnegie’s 1936 bestselling book How to Win Friends and Influence People, a whole section is dedicated to the power of the smile. Dale wrote, “Your smile is a messenger of your good will. Your smile brightens the lives of all who see it. To someone who has seen a dozen people frown, scowl or turn their faces away, your smile is like the sun breaking through the clouds”. The beginning of a successful sales process is likeability through rapport. Without the prospects liking you from the start, it can forever be an uphill climb. Showing a genuine interest in your customers, clients, prospects and associates is critical to building rapport, yet the only initial outward expression of this is your facial expression and body language. A warm and genuine smile creates an impact. It does all the messaging to the client for you. A smile sells you before you sell you. A smile tells the prospect: This person truly wants to help me. Make no mistake about this, I am not advocating going everywhere with a ridiculous grin on your face and expect orders to fly your 86 Insight 42 way. A smile should simply be an outward expression of an inward harmonic chorus of warmth, self-confidence, trust and a genuine interest. The smile is the conduit that transfers these elements to the recipient. It is not just teeth that make the infectious smile. It’s the facial expression, the eyes, the air you give off and the body language. All these factors are embodied to provide the smile that endears the prospect to you time and time again. Dale also stated in his book, “Charles Schwab told me his smile had been worth a million dollars. And he was probably understating the truth. For Schwab’s personality, his charm, his ability to make people like him, were almost wholly responsible for his extraordinary success”. You can’t really learn or practise a warm smile. A smile is the representation of a state of mind which you need to remember possessing every time you meet someone. The more you remember to think positively about who you are and what you are as well as how you can make a difference with someone every day, the more you will remember to truly smile into the lives of all who come in contact with you. Remember: Likeability equals stickability. Make Rain 87 Insight 43 Diamond Life Pressure. It seems to be a constant companion. A friend that spurs you on or a foe that gets you down, depending on its mood. Pressure is something that will never leave us as Rainmakers. Why should it? With it coming from management, other colleagues, the competition, customers and mostly ourselves, all we can do is appreciate it, understand it and manage it. There are two aspects to pressure. There is the type of pressure we take in as described above. There is also the kind of pressure we can sometimes give out to our prospects when we get frustrated that things are not moving as we think or hope they would. Lord Sebastian Coe once said, “All pressure is self-inflicted. It’s what you make of it or how you let it rub off on you”. Therein lies the key. A little bit of pressure when times are OK is manageable and only helps keep you motivated. When times are tough though, if you allow it, pressure can debilitate you and limit your output. Like a true professional, always prepare for the worst-case scenario. Try and imagine how you would positively handle real pressure when times are hard, before times get difficult. This mental preparation will serve you well. Your clients are also under pressure and if their timetable somehow conflicts with yours, putting them under pressure will not accelerate things but may even hamper the relationship you spent so long developing. Learn to let the pressure flow through you with 88 Insight 43 no resistance like a gentle breeze—that way you will always have a clear head to deal with the unexpected twists and turns a Rainmaker always comes up against. Remember: Pressure can give power as well as take it. Choose to be empowered. Make Rain 89 Insight 44 The Rainmaker’s Guide to… Experience is the mother of wisdom. Experience teaches. Experience moulds the professional. Experience creates a better Rainmaker. All this we know and appreciate. Without our ability to learn from our experiences, we will never grow professionally. Lack of growth in this regard costs value to your clients and will cost you money. So we know we have to use experience to grow. But, how do we find the positive in the mistakes we make through our initial naiveté? How can we capture the essence of our experiences as and when they happen to enable our accelerated learning? My answer is straightforward: Develop an Experience Journal. Yes, a journal. Like the captain’s Log that Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Archer of Star Trek would write, depending on the starship and stardate! Most of the time, when we make a wrong decision or follow the wrong process, we end up experiencing the ramifications of that mistake. We mull over the set of events in our minds again and again until our minds move on to something else. Our minds do have the capacity to learn from that episode simply by thinking about it, but the learning experience is rather limited and, many a time, negative. Why? Well firstly, the mind has a way of being emotional about everything—it’s very difficult for rationality to feature in the replay of the black and white horror or the drama movie that signifies the experience. Secondly, once the replay moves to your subconscious, 90 Insight 44 the mind gets busy with other things and thus you forget. This simply increases the possibility of making the same mistake again in some shape or form. Writing your experiences down on paper, however, completely arrests the irrationality process of your mind. Your words on paper form a new powerful learning encounter, particularly if you also write down what you have learnt from the error of your ways. The beauty of an experience journal is that you can relive the positive learning episode again and again, which can only serve to precipitate and reinforce your growth as a Rainmaker. Do it today. Buy an A5 notebook and take it everywhere. Write down your mistakes, insights, understandings, revelations and corresponding goals. Let this be your very own Rainmakers Guide to... Remember: Your journal makes your journey on the road to success a lot smoother. Make Rain 91 Insight 45 There is No Substitute Bill found himself in a sticky situation. He was smart, really smart, but for the industry he was in, being smart was not a big deal. It rained smart people in the IT industry. Bill knew that in order to make it, he’ll have to work hard, and he did. Bill stopped sleeping, stopped changing clothes. All Bill did was code, code and code. If he wasn’t coding, Bill was working out ways to out-manoeuvre the competition. He worked and worked and worked until he broke through and people stopped calling him Bill and began to refer to him as Mr Gates! Nothing really beats simple hard work. Yes, you can work smarter, you can be skilful, you can learn the tricks of the trade, you can be good with people, but nothing can substitute unadulterated hard work. You have thought through and written down your work goals such as: what will you bring in? Who will you target? How will you overachieve on your targets? You know what skills you want to develop to aid you in achieving these goals. All that’s left is to get down and do it. It takes hard work to really get things done in a sustainable manner that produces consistent output. Hard work is the “stuff ” that glues everything you have learned— skills and experiences—together. According to the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, “I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe”. 92 Insight 45 Focus on what you need to do. Ignore distractions. Control your thoughts and stick to the plan. Find the essence of what it is to work really hard, uninterrupted, throughout the year and I guarantee you will over-achieve on your targets! Remember: The better you get; the easier hard work becomes. Make Rain 93 Insight 46 Love the High Sales is a game. It therefore needs to be played. To be played well, you need to enjoy it. Enjoying what you do makes a huge difference to the process and thus the outcome. Yes, it’s true you need to be serious about selling, deadly serious, but you can thoroughly enjoy the seriousness of the game. Successful athletes, sportspeople, musicians, actors, entrepreneurs and all sorts of professionals enjoy the fundamentals of the games they play. They focus on the buzz that favourable results give them. The anticipation of that “high” gets them through the difficult lows and even the repetitive boring bits as they know once everything comes together and happens the way it should, it’s great, just great. That’s exactly how it is with our profession—Rainmaking. If you can’t enjoy what you do, irrespective of what is happening around you; if you can’t work smart and hard for the buzz of closing the deal, developing opportunities, fostering relationships and growing accounts from acorns to oak trees; then you’re simply not in the right profession. 94 Insight 46 Remember: Love your profession and your profession will love and take care of you and yours. Make Rain 95 Part Two The Rainmaker’s Practice “It always seems impossible until it’s done”. Nelson Mandela