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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