Author Ed Robinson shares secrets for embracing change to increase sales
We all experience storms in our lives. That is a good thing. Ed Robinson, author of Million Dollar Rain Maker and a speaker at Smart Meeting Southwest in November, knows that disruptions large and small are what keep people growing and moving forward. Only by moving through fear and resistance to acceptance and commitment do magic things happen. Robinson compared the shift in mindset to moving from fighting the storm to dancing in the rain. That is the key to turning you and your team into rainmakers—efficient, successful salespeople—no matter if the title is technically “event professional.” Our jobs are all about selling something in the end, even if it is a vision for a better meeting.
Here are some tips from Robinson on fine-tuning our inner rainmakers.
- The Rainmaker isn’t strictly about selling. It is a proactive mindset to grow and build relationships.
- Developing clients is synonymous with sales. Making new friends is sales. Identifying value is sales. Knowing how to sell makes you successful at many different levels.
- Sales is not just about profit and meeting goals at any expense. On the contrary, sales is about understanding what your clients deem valuable and providing them with that value.
- Regardless of what your actual title is, you are always representing your company. When you take the time to discover your potential clients’ real needs, you will be more effective for both your company and your client.
- Developing a client base involves creating long-term relationships that you can add value to. Asking questions and listening to the answers with an open mind and sincere heart are the core elements of rainmaking success.
- Intuition and technical expertise go hand-in-hand. That competency you have with numbers, deals or operations is the grease on the wheels of your intuition. Technical experience supports intuition; it never supersedes it. Your technical ability needs to be tied to intuition in order to fit your services into your client’s needs.
- To establish goals, start with a number, such as how many new clients or how much revenue you want to achieve within the next month, three months, six months, or year, etc. Then determine how many clients you need to sign to meet your goal.
- To establish goals, start with a number, such as how many new clients or how much revenue you want to achieve within the next month, three months, six months, or year, etc. Then determine how many clients you need to sign to meet your goal.
- A mother will tell you that a child spells love as T-I-M-E. That is how all human beings spell successful relationships. Your clients want you to spend time fostering the relationship you have built together.
- There is no comfort zone in sales. They are all about getting comfortable with change and moving on. There has never been a successful sales person who wasn’t moving, ever forward, toward bigger challenges.
- Intuition, or “gut feelings,” are hard to ignore. Be open to the signals that your intuition sends you and remember that what may seem illogical in the morning could turn out to be the exact right thing in the afternoon. Never second-guess your gut.
Smart Tip
Establish a Mastermind Mentoring group with like-minded peers. Having the support and encouragement of people with similar goals keeps you focused on learning about your business, the people around you and yourself.
