Making It Rain

Simon Bozeat's picture

Hello fellow business professional,

My colleagues laughed when I said I was going to train accountants, bankers and lawyers to sell… but their laughter turned to complete surprise when sales performance shot up by 30% in less than 30 days!

It's true, since forming my business in 1997 I have coached professionals in banks, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, white goods, financial services, automotive, aerospace, energy, IT, the government, estate agencies, a university and even a museum. When I told my friends in 2005 that I was making professional services a priority they thought I had lost the plot!

Come and genufluct to Simon at the following Midlands based 151-minute introduction workshops:
Date Time Location
4th April 9.01am - 11.32 Kegworth White House Hotel
11th April 9.01am - 11.32 Yorkshire Bank (Birmingham City Centre)
Click here for info.

These were just some of their ever-so-slightly jaundiced views.

"Partnerships are different, it will take you ages to get them to agree to buy what you have to offer"

"Accountants are not people people, they can't and don't want to sell"

"Lawyers are so left brain they will never accept that sales is emotionally led"

"Bankers just want your money any way they can get it"

It's also true that I had some views about the professions. I did believe that the majority of professionals just wanted to do the job they were trained to do and viewed selling as a dirty word.

Undeterred my team set out to find the truth and to learn what needed to be learned if we were going to help professional services firms create armies of Rainmakers.

Between October 2005 and February 2006 we interviewed 31 movers and shakers in leading UK based law, accounting and financial services firms. We also conducted an in-depth research project in a friend's fabulously successful solicitors practice. We asked them all just one question:

What are the factors that contribute to and inhibit sales success in your firm?

The respondents kindly gave us permission to write down their candid responses which together created a ground-breaking 90-page research report entitled:

Making it Rain: Learning to skate anti-clockwise

Firms who have embraced 1 or more of the 12 rainmaking strategies detailed in the report have dramatically increased sales, developed managers into inspirational leaders, eradicated any silo mentality, vastly improved the results from their sales and marketing efforts and continue to trounce the competition.

Some of the national and midlands-based professional services firms who, so far, have contributed to and/or benefited from the research include:

Plus a host of micro-businesses and individual entrepreneurs.

My name is Simon Bozeat the lead business Guerrilla Coach at Bozeat Consulting. I have been in the sales, leadership, training and coaching profession on-and-off for 20 years. In that time I have learned a few things:

  1. 80%+ of training in the UK is a waste of time, money and effort
  2. Inspiring and experiantial training combined with just-in-time coaching tied explicitly to the delivery of high-priority business goals achieves outstanding results.
  3. Despite what my competitiors might tell you there is little that is new in training and coaching. Many of the 'sales, personal and leadership secrets' have been around for decades. The challenge is so often in the implementation i.e. turning knowledge and great intentions into habits.
  4. It is fairly pointless engaging in any training and coaching activity unless you can measure the results.
  5. Measurable returns from training and coaching of over 1,000% are possible by equipping the right people with the right skills at the right time.
  6. Firms who divorce business development, leadership and corporate culture do so at their peril.

Despite these truths many leaders of firms still continue to commit, what I call, 'learning crimes', for example:

The research revealed 30 separate business development challenges that professional services firms face. We subsequently asked leaders representing approximately 7,500 professionals which were the most important to them. These are the top 6 in priority order:

  1. How to ensure the support teams in marketing, HR and business development have the credibility, skill and power to influence the fee earners
  2. How to turn exceptional professional services practitioners into inspirational leaders
  3. How to inspire the fee earners to consistently measure the 'cause and effect' of their rainmaking activity i.e. measure what they do vs the quantifiable results of their actions
  4. How to capture and analyse information emanating from conversations between the fee earners and customers in order to make strategic decisions regarding the future of the business
  5. How to protect the workforce by skilfully and sensitively disengaging senior fee earners from management activities and duties that they are uncomfortable with, unsuitable for or unwilling to carry out
  6. How to create the conditions where the fee earners and support staff are proactively and enthusiastically collaborating with their colleagues in order to share client information, combine their expertise and plan how to create and exploit up-sell and cross-sell opportunities with existing and potential clients.

In 2008 I shall be delivering a series of 151 minute breakfast, lunch and evening workshops where I will be delighted to tell you what firms across the UK are doing to address these and many more business development challenges.

At each workshop you will receive the following, which includes a FREE COPY OF THE 90-page MiR report :

Plus two bonus reports carefully crafted to equip you with two of the most important skills every leader needs.

All this for the ridiculously small fee of £99 per person!

One thing I know about sales is that 3rd party testimonials are essential to allay potential client's fears and reduce the risk from future investment. These 3 people would be happy to hear from you.

"Simon has certainly captured the attention of the professional services world. The Making it Rain research proves that his firm has done its homework. There is no one else in the Midlands that can match Simon for his ability to capture the attention of the audience and inspire seasoned professionals. It is an increasing and amusing phenomenon to find partners across Birmingham discussing which way they want their people to skate!"

Sally Beavan - Director PKF (UK) LLP
Telephone : 0121 609 3258
E-mail: sally.beavan@uk.pkf.com

"Making it Rain identifies succinctly the critical success factors that differentiate the great professional service firms from the good. It proves in no uncertain terms why solicitors, accountants and others in professional service firms must adopt a commercial focus first and a process focus second"

Tim Moore - Financial Director - Vision Express
Telephone : 0115 988 2390
E-mail: tim.moore@visionexpress.com

"This is a very well researched and thorough document. It makes us realise that there is so much more to learn and so much more we should be doing. Some readers may rightly be unsettled by the breadth and depth of the business development issues facing our profession. This report will light the spark that creates the motivation to do something about them."

Mike Copestake - Senior Partner - Freeth Cartwright Solicitors
Telephone: 01332 361 000
E-mail: mike.copestake@freethcartwright.co.uk

For details of the events and booking information please click here.

Alternatively if you would like to know more and/or would like to arrange a workshop tailored specifically to meeting the business development challenges you and your colleagues face then simply drop me an e-mail info@bozeatconsulting.co.uk or call me on 01530 271272.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Until then I wish you and your colleagues…

…every success in 2008 and beyond!

Simon Bozeat
Lead Business Guerrilla Coach

P.S. Since the launch of Making it Rain I have been delighted with the response. People from across the professional services spectrum have fully embraced the findings in the report. We are delighted that representatives of financial services, law, accounting, high street banks, insurance companies and estate agents, to name just a few, are reaping the rewards from applying the principles outlined in the report. We are marketing these seminars to hundreds of professional services firms across the Midlands and I would not like you to miss out. Please contact us now to reserve your place(s).

P.P.S. I also guarantee that you will be delighted with giving up your precious time to attend the seminar, so much so that I will have no hesitation in refunding 100% of your investment if it does not do what it says on the tin! No ifs, buts, maybes or questions asked.