The Rainmaking Two-Step
Many professionals dislike selling, and if you do, this posting is for you.
More accurately, this posting is for those who dislike the concept of selling, because the dislikers I am writing for have actually sold little.
Please don’t read into that any condescension towards you for having a strong opinion about something you haven’t tried. Everyone has such things. (Bungie jumping comes to mind in my case.)
But, when one of these dislikes stands in the way of career advancement or keeps you from having the control you want over your own destiny, it’s worth reconsidering from time to time. That is what I want you to do.
When I ask professionals like yourselves if there is any selling that they can stand, most say that they enjoy selling to a client who comes to them with a problem.
If you ask what they dislike about other selling situations, and, if you patiently tease the full story out of them, you will find that they don’t like the pushiness of selling. They feel it is distasteful and, much worse, it requires falseness, because you pretend an interest in someone so that you can get his business.
And that is a short step from being nice to him so that you can get his money. With such a foul picture, it’s no wonder that those who paint it don’t want to sell. But the selling most professionals do, that all honorable ones do, is nothing like that.
Let’s review what it is like. Before she buys anything, a client must take two steps. By taking Step One she determines that she needs something.
So, for example, she may look at growth projections for her business and realize that she will have to hire more people and with more people she will need extra office space. This, in turn, creates a need for a real estate broker, an attorney, an interior architect, and others.
Or she may marry and realize that her current will doesn’t allocate her property to the right people. This creates a need for a lawyer. When she realizes she has a need, then she can take Step Two, the identification and selection of a professional to help her get what she wants.
As you probably realize, when you say that you enjoy selling to a client who comes to you with a problem, you are saying that you like selling to a buyer who has completed Step One and now is engaged in Step Two.
What you dislike, then, is selling to a client who doesn’t realize she has a need or that she needs a professional’s help. If that is true, please think about the following;
Many rainmakers never try to sell to a buyer who is still in Step One. Rather, all the marketing they do; networking, publishing, speaking and all those other things; are ways to surf across the market, looking for buyers who have already reached Step Two.
This is especially true in event driven niches. Firms selling disaster-related service have a hard time getting potential clients to talk with them, because few clients want to talk about an event they have never experienced. Who wants to hire a forensic engineer while their buildings are all in good repair?
While some people try to sell in Step One,
Others say, “Hey, that’s no fun!’
For them the best thing to do
Is to wait till the client arrives at Step Two.
Rainmaking for these people consists of making it easier for clients at Step Two to find them. Selling professional services isn’t about pushing people to buy something they don’t want or need. It’s a lot closer than you might think to selling to a client who comes to your door looking for help.
