No matter what business you’re in, at some stage you will need to become a “Rainmaker”.
And being a Rainmaker means making things happen to build the business that you’re in. If you’re working with external clients, it means generating revenue or new business. Or you may work with internal clients, in which case it’s about helping to drive innovation and deliver other outcomes that contribute to the firm’s results.
Whoever your clients are (and we all have clients), the more you can make things happen from the seat you’re in, the more valuable you become and the more you can achieve. Plus, it’s joyful to be able to make a difference, and to be able to stand up and say, “I contributed to that!”.
Now is a great time to get focused and set yourself (and your team) up to make things happen this year.
Our new department head had just announced an initiative to broaden our base of clients. Each of us had to choose a prospective client and come up with a plan to build the relationship and ultimately do first-time business.
My prospect was a big food and tobacco company. We had 5% market share overall, but this was from “winning” one of the sporadic money-losing deals that were auctioned on price, and we had none of the profitable deals awarded on relationship.
Being the rule-abiding “nice Chinese girl” (it’s hard to undo those decades of cultural conditioning), I followed the department head’s advice.
I put together a game plan, shared it with the ecosystem of colleagues who would need to be involved, and made sure each person knew what they needed to do and was willing to do their part. We blocked out the client meetings and touch points that had to take place across the year, and held quarterly update meetings to check in on our progress.
By the end of the year, we were invited into our first piece of relationship business! Those of us who followed the steps ultimately got results.
While it’s important to have the idea and the ambition, it’s the focus and implementation that determines who succeeds in making things happen.
Identify the most important project or piece of business that you want to focus on delivering this year.
Take 5 minutes to jot down the answers to the following questions, then schedule time later this week to fill in the gaps as needed.
What are you focused on making happen this year?
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May is an executive coach, speaker, advisor, and author of the #1 international bestseller VISIBLE: How to Advance Your Career Without Playing Politics, Selling Your Soul, or Working Yourself into the Ground. She’s a seasoned business executive with a passion for helping leaders be the best they can be.
As an executive coach and mentor, May brings 24 years of front-line corporate experience and expertise, most recently as COO of Morgan Stanley Europe, to help professionals overcome (often hidden) obstacles, advance to the next level in their careers and reach their full potential.
