RAINMAKER - Commercial

A Rainmaker ‘creates rain’ i.e. they bring in the sales. So to be a good Rainmaker, you need to be good in front of the customer and accurately translate what it is that they want, and not what you have to offer them.

This module covers three key areas:

  • Mastering scope & bid management
  • Client meeting effectiveness
  • Client needs identification

This PS Professional Rainmaker Foundation course has been designed to familiarize delegates with the basic principles for a strong rainmaker, being good in front of customers and accurately translating what the customer wants, not what is on offer. The key to building these foundations is developing the ability to research and plan the customer meeting in advance and ensuring the right conversations occur during the meeting, and then mapping to requirements to their portfolio and finally translating this into a clear scope or bid. 

You Will Learn How To:

  • Prepare for and pass the PS Professional Rainmaker certification
  • Accurately assess the customer needs and align them with current and future business offerings
  • Ensure that every customer meeting has the relevant return on investment
  • Use the PATHS to Action framework for meeting effectiveness

Audience:

The guidance is written for people working, or aspiring to work, within Professional Services. Roles may include, but are not limited to, pre sales, solutions architects, project managers, consultants, service managers, engineers, sales people and team leaders or managers.

Reference Materials:

  • Shipley Proposal Guide by Larry, PPF. APMP Newman
  • Shipley CAPTURE Guide by Larry Newman, PPF.APMP
  • Insight Selling by Mike Schultz, John E. Doerr, Neil Rackham

Agenda:

  • Identifying the Needs of the Client
    Making connections with people
    Creating intimacy by finding shared interests and experiences
    Developing integrity by thinking about buyer success first
    Demonstrating competence through knowledge

    Connecting the dots
    Identifying the buyer’s aspirations (goals) and afflictions (pains)
    Quantifying and painting the “so what” picture, establishing how important it is to buy from you
    Using disruptive questions to challenge the buyer’s ideas, assumptions, strategies, and agenda for action

    Creating RAIN
    Using advocacy and inquiry to clarify and demonstrate your understanding of the buyer’s pains and goals
    Painting a picture of possible new realities illuminating what they will get when they work with you
    Using both interaction and opportunity to close the gap between the buyer’s pains/goals and your products/services

    Client Meeting Effectiveness
    Buyer collaboration
    Preparing the buyer to collaborate before the meeting
    Gaining the buyer’s psychological ownership and commitment
    Defining the parameters and allowing buyer to shape it

    Power of a convincing story
    Clarifying what you want the buyer to learn, feel and do differently
    Combining a focus on ROI – the potential gain – with fear of loss to help the buyer see the negative impact of inaction
    Apply the key components of a convincing story where the buyer is the hero

    Facilitating collaborative group discussions
    Using broad, open-ended questions to elicit assumptions from the group
    Probing deeper to separate the facts and truths from the gut feelings, corporate myths, and personal prejudices
    Encouraging the buyer to collaboratively examine possible actions

    Mastering Bid and Scope Management
    Business development processes and milestones
    Planning and scheduling capture activities and decisions
    Identifying and assigning the best people to the roles in your capture and proposal team(s)
    Being prepared to end the pursuit if decision–making information is vague, cannot be obtained, or the team lacks the commitment to win

    Creating your value proposition
    Getting on the buyer’s to do list
    Differentiating by providing overall distinction and difficulty of substitution
    Substantiate to gain buyer’s trust in your ability to deliver

    Developing the persuasive proposal
    Designing the document for maximum impact
    How to disclose your price early in the executive summary and quantify your added-value
    Ensuring compliance and responsiveness in your proposal

  • Rainmaker Foundation:

    • Eksamen tilbys på slutten av siste kursdag
    • Eksamensspråk: Engelsk
    • 75 simple multiple choice questions (including 5 trial questions)
    • 60 minutes duration
    • Closed book
    • 50% pass mark (35 marks out of 70)

    Eksamen er ikke inkludert i kurset, og kommer som ekstra kostnad: kr 3900 + mva. / exam is not included in the course price extra cost: NOK 3900 + MVA.

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