Five Sales Habits of Successful Rainmakers

Today I have something special to share with you. These are the five sales habits of successful rainmakers.

I have outlined these habits for you in a video.  Before I share the video with you, I need to disclose something: At the end of the video there is a challenge. If you accept the challenge, and you follow the instructions, you have a chance of receiving a $500 Marriott gift card.

Watch the video all the way to the end.  If you accept the challenge, you might walk away with $500 to spend at a Marriott (or a Ritz Carlton or any of their hotels, restaurants, golf courses etc.).

Here are the Five Habits:

Habit One: Realize That Sales is Your Primary Job and Act Accordingly 

Nothing happens until somebody sells something. New relationship origination is not an ADDITION to your job. It is your job. Without it, your value is limited.

Habit Two: Make Skill Development and Professional Growth a Priority

Spend time each day increasing your sales skills.  One of the best ways to do this is by watching a different YouTube video each day and acting on what you learn.  I post at least one new video each day on my YouTube channel.

Subscribe here: http://DaveLorenzo.Link/YouTube 

Habit Three: Write for 30 Minutes First Thing Each Morning

Immediately after you wake up, write an entertaining, educational article designed to highlight your expertise.  This is a powerful sales tool because that article can be posted on your business website. It can be submitted to a trade publication. It can become a part of something bigger – like a white paper or eventually a book.

But the most important reason to write a business development article first thing in the morning is to set your thinking for the day.  The way you write is the way you think and if you focus on demonstrating your expertise first thing in the morning, you will have revenue growth on your mind for the rest of the day.

Habit Four: Pass a Referral or Give a Testimonial or Make a Recommendation Each Day

If you want referrals, you must pass referrals. If you want letters of recommendation, you must write letters of recommendation. Get into the habit of giving first and you shall receive those which you give afterward.

Habit Five: Make One Last Phone Call at the End of the Day

Right before you go home (you can even do this in the car), call someone and just check-in. This can be a client or an evangelist. You’re simply letting them know you are thinking about them. Six times out of ten, this will result in new business or a referral for you.

Now, watch the video all the way to the end for the special challenge I have for you.

Here is the transcript of the video: Five Sales Habits of Highly Successful Rainmakers

Today I’m going to share with you the five habits of highly successful sales professionals. That’s right, these are rainmaker habits that I’m going to share with you. And they’ve served me well throughout my entire career and I’ve taught them for the past 28 years to my clients, and the return on investment has been phenomenal.

So today, I want you to listen and absorb these five habits and then take action immediately. And if you do, if you do, I have a tremendous reward for you, and I’m going to share that reward at the end of this video so make sure you watch all the way to the end.

The five habits of unbelievably successful, phenomenally successful sales professionals are as follows:

Habit One: Focus on Relationship Development as Your Primary Job

Habit number one is focus on relationship development as your job and not as something you do in addition to your job.

Today I was on the phone with a lawyer and the lawyer was telling me that he didn’t have time to sell. He didn’t have time to go out and connect with new people. He didn’t have time to go out and find speaking engagements. He didn’t have time to write articles. He didn’t even have time to make a five minute video on his mobile phone with a selfie stick. He didn’t have time to develop new relationships. When I asked why, he said because he was busy practicing law. He was busy reading up on the updates to the laws of his state.

What this lawyer doesn’t understand is that his entire job is relationship development. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. You’ve got nothing to do until you create a relationship and deliver value for someone and receive compensation in return. Your entire job if you’re a lawyer, your entire job if you’re an architect, your entire job if you’re an entrepreneur, your entire job if you’re a senior executive at a software development company is to create relationships for people who can receive the value you provide and pay you in return. That’s it. Without that, there is nothing else. So habit number one for highly successful sales professionals, habit number one for rainmakers is to view selling as their job. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. So, it’s not that you don’t have time for sales, it’s that your priorities are all screwed up. You don’t have a choice. Go out and develop relationships every day, then do that other thing afterward.

Habit Two: Make Skill Development and Growth a Priority

Habit number two of highly successful rainmakers is they’re constantly sharpening the saw. They’re constantly sharpening the saw. They’re growing, they’re improving every single day. They’re growing and improving every single day.

A great way to grow and improve is by watching professional development videos and taking action. I have over 400 videos on my YouTube channel. Just plug my name into YouTube, Dave Lorenzo. You’ll find over 400 videos. Watch one and put it into action. Grow and develop every single day.

Habit Three: Write for 30 Minutes First Thing in the Morning

Habit number three of highly successful rainmakers is they focus on the task at hand first thing in the morning. They get it out of the way first thing in the morning. So, for you as a rainmaker, first thing in the morning you need to do something that’s going to get your day started on the right foot as it relates to origination, as it relates to relationship development. The origination of new relationships, remember, is your primary job. So, first thing in the morning what I want you to do, I want you to write a business development article.

Write something first thing in the morning. Spend a half hour writing and put it up on the website. It’s gotta go up as a blog post. You need to be a thought leader, you need to be perceived as an expert, so I want you to write something first thing in the morning so that it can go up on the website. And if it’s not something for your website, it’s something for a weekly email that goes out, and if it’s not for the website or the weekly email, I want you to write in a journal. I want you to write something that will help educate people. Put it in your journal and you can refine it for an article later.

Why do I want you to write something first thing in the morning? Well, the way you write is the way you think, so if you think about educating people, either in your field or on an industry that you’re interested in or delivering value to people in some way that could become your clients or could become evangelists, if you do that first thing in the morning it will focus your thinking for the rest of the day. So I want you to focus on writing first thing in the morning every single day.

Now, I know, you don’t have time to do that first thing in the morning. Why don’t you have time to do that? Well, you’ve got to wake up and you’ve got to get the kids out to school and you’ve got to exercise and you’ve got to take care of all this other stuff. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to get up a half hour earlier. Problem solved, that’s it.

I want you to write first thing in the morning, deliver value either in your area of focus, your area of specialty, in an industry that you’re interested in or giving advice in some other way. It will clarify your thinking. Use it as a weekly email, use it as a blog post for the website, use it as an article that can be published in an industry trade publication. Write first thing in the morning, that’s habit number three.

Habit Four: Pass a Referral or Make a Recommendation or Give a Testimonial Each Day

Habit number four in the five habits of highly successful, super successful rainmakers, habit number four is pass a referral or write a letter of recommendation every day. Every single day, pass a referral or write a letter of recommendation.

If you work in a company or at a law firm, refer someone in the firm to a client who can benefit from the value he/she provides.  Pass some business to someone within your organization. If you are an independent professional, if you’re a lawyer, refer something to someone who can do business with you or connect two people together who can do business with each other every single day.

If you don’t have a referral to pass, you don’t have a connection to make today, I want you to write a letter of recommendation for someone. I don’t care if it’s the person who walks your dog. I don’t care if it’s your babysitter. I don’t care if it’s the person who teaches your kid karate or the coach of your kid’s baseball team. I want you to write a letter of recommendation if you don’t have a referral to pass.

Why do I want you to do this? Because what goes around comes around. The more referrals you pass, the more letters of recommendation you write, the more people will want to do it for you. It’s not only a mindset thing, it’s an activity thing, so write a letter of recommendation, give a testimonial or refer someone every day.

Habit Five: Make One Last Call at the End of the Day

Habit number five in the habits of highly successful rainmakers is to make one last call before you leave the office at the end of the day. Make one last call before you leave the office at the end of the day, and that call should be to your best client or to your best evangelist, somebody who refers you the most business.

Why?

Because at the end of the day people are likely to be in their office so you’re likely to be able to get past the secretary, the administrative assistant, the gatekeeper. You’re likely to get through. It won’t be a long call, it’ll be a short call because they’ll want to go home. You can connect with them and see how they’re doing. The last call at the end of the day will deepen a relationship, so make that one last call at the end of the day.

These are the five sales habits of highly successful rainmakers.