The Art of Rainmaking

I'll get lots of flak for saying this, but since I'm accustomed to flak from my Apple days, I'll say it anyway: Sales fixes everything.

As long as you have sales, cash will flow, and as long as cash flows, (a) you will have the time to fix your team, your technology, and your marketing; (b) the press won't be able to say much because customers are pouring money into your coffers; and (c) your investors will leave you alone because (i) they will focus on companies with weaker sales and (ii) they won't want to jinx your success.

You can blow all the smoke that you like about brand awareness, corporate image, and feedback from early adopters, but you either make it rain or you don't. To help you become a legend in annals of salesmanship, here is the art of rainmaking.

1. “Let a hundred flowers blossom.” I stole this from Chairman Mao although I'm not sure how he implemented it. In the context of capitalism (Chairman Mao must be turning over in his grave), the dictum means that you sow seeds in many markets, see what takes root, and harvest what blooms. Many companies freak out when unintended customers buy their product. Many companies also freak out when intended customers buy their product but use it in unintended ways. Don't be proud. Take the money. The guy who invented Brillo sold pots and pans; he came up with the clever idea of baking soap into steel-wool pads as a tchokes for his customers. To his surprise, his customers were more interested in these pads than his pots and pans, and that's how Brillo was born.
2. See the gorilla. You aren't going to believe this, but Daniel J. Simons of the University of Illinois and Christoper E. Chabris of Harvard University ran an experiment in which they asked students to watch two teams of players throwing basketballs. The students were told to count how many times one team passed the basketball to their own teammates. Thirty-five seconds into the video, an actor dressed as a gorilla entered the room, thumped on his chest, and remained in the room for another nine seconds. Fifty percent of the students did not notice the gorilla! If you want to make it rain, you have to see the gorilla markets in the mist, so to speak. Decades ago Univac was a leader in computers, but it believed that the market for computers was scientists; it did not see that the gorilla market for computers was business people. That's why everyone knows who IBM is and few people remember Univac.
3. “Sell,” don't enable “buying.” Marty Gruber, my old boss in the jewelry business, liked to point out that, “Everyone wants to be the VP of marketing.” Truer words were never spoken--everyone one wants to be the VP of marketing and do the cool stuff like advertising and promotion. This is fine if your product is already being bought. However, the products of most organizations is sold. For example, these days an iPod is bought: people walk into the Apple store intending to buy it. By contrast, much to my continued disappointment, a Macintosh is still sold: the hardworking Apple store employee has to convince people that a Macintosh is fast, safe, easy-to-use, and runs the software that they need. For selling to work, you need face-to-face, personalized, and intense contact. Advertising can't do this, so for most organizations the best lead-generation methods are seminars, presentations by company executives, and schmoozing. With a little luck and determination, you may wake up one day to find that you no longer need to sell because your product is being bought--mazel tov!
4. Find the key influencers. The higher you go in most organizations, the thinner the air. The thinner the air, the more difficult it is to find intelligent life. Thus, if you focus your rainmaking efforts on CXO level people, you may be dealing with the dumbest people in the organization. The biggest titles do not have the biggest brains, so don't go after the biggest titles. Instead, go after the key influencers. They have humbler titles like “secretary,” “administrative aide,” “database administrator,” or “customer service manager.” They usually do the real work, so they know what products and services are needed, and the CXOs ask them for their recommendations. The logical question is now, “How do you find the key influencers?” The answer is that you ask people at the company to answer this simple question, “When there are problems, who does everyone go to at this organization?”
5. Go after “agnostics,” not “atheists.” Ahh, the reference account: big, rich, and prestigious. It is the high-hanging fruit that every rainmaker dreams of picking because closing this sale brings credibility to the organization and makes every sale thereafter easier. For years, I tried to get Lotus Development and Ashton-Tate--the reference accounts of personal computer software--to develop Macintosh products. They never did get it, and I wasted a lot of time. By definition, reference accounts are already successful, and therefore probably fat, dumb, and happy. They are the least likely to try something new and different. Sure, give them your best shot--once. But then cut your losses and move on to the “agnostics.” In the mid-eighties, the atheists denied the Macintosh religion, and they refused to convert to the Mac. The agnostics--people who had never used a personal computer before--were the rich and fertile market for Apple.
6. Make prospects talk. If prospects are open to buying your product or service, they will usually tell you what it will take to close them. All you have to do is (a) ask questions to get them talking about their needs, (b) shut up, (c) listen, and then (d) explain how your product or service fills their needs (if it indeed does). Most salespeople can't do this because (a) they're not prepared to ask good questions; (b) they're too stupid to shut up; and (c) they don't know their product or service well enough to know whether it can in fact fill these needs. When it comes to rainmaking, there's clearly a reason why God gave us two ears but only one mouth.
7. Enable test drives. I believe that people are inherently smart. If you provide them with the right information, they are the best judges of the suitability of your product or service. I don't believe you should--or can--bludgeon people into becoming a customer. My recommendation is that you enable people to test drive your product or service in order to make their own decision. Essentially, you are saying, “I think you're smart. Because I think you're smart, I'm going to enable you to try my product to see if it works for you. I hope that it does and that we can do business.” Therefore, do whatever it takes to enable people to download a trial version of your software, use your web site, drive your car, eat at your restaurant, or attend your church service.
8. Provide a safe, easy first step. Unfortunately, “unsuccessful rainmakers” (an oxymoron?) make it hard for prospective customers to adopt their products or services. I've been guilty of it myself--for example, asking Fortune 500 companies to throw out all their MS-DOS machines in favor of a new IT infrastructure based on Macintoshes. What can I say? I was young then. The goal is to make the adoption of your product or service as safe and easy as possible. If you combine this stress-free approach with a compelling product or service, you've got it made. If your prospects have to jump through loops to adopt your product or service, then your must convince them that doing so is worth the effort. Incidentally, this is why it's so much easier to be a blogger than to be an entrepreneur. :-)

Written at: Atherton, California.

Comments

[Kim Greenlee]

You can try the Gorilla experiment at the San Francisco Bay Exploratorium. Look for the Count the Bounces exhibit.

[Guy Kawasaki]

Charles,

FYI, I cut my teeth in sales--specifically selling jewelry to jewelers.

The jewelry business is the toughest business I've ever experienced. Everyone wants to buy your product by calculating the scrap value of what you're selling. When is the last time someone came into your store and wanted to buy a computer based on scrap value?

Trust me, I understand sales. And I even know something about evangelism too. :-)

Guy

[Stacy]

So close, but yet so not in the same galaxy...almost agreed with Ric, but didn't listen to that inner voice. Good stuff as always GK.

[Guy Kawasaki]

Ric,

Very good. Where do I send the book?

I guess I can't give 4 more away now that you've spilled the beans!

Guy

[Stacy]

Hmmm, am looking for the pun, and at the risk at being wrong, I'd have to say that adoption is neither easy or safe. It can be good, extremely good to adopt a new product (service), but there are always unknowns that, until the adoptation is completed, can make the process less than easy and less than safe. Gosh...still don't thing I found the pun. Then it might be the gorilla in the mists reference. It will hit me tonight at 1 AM and then I won't be able to sleep.

[Jordan]

Bravo, Ric.

[Javier Cabrera (Emaginacion)]

Great article guy!
I'm trying to sell more myself but with your other article, more networking, more sales opportunities.

It's hard to sell through the usual methods (cold calling, direct mail, etc) but what is the perfect strategy for a small Web Design agency like mine?
Some people say "networking can do the best for you", others insist in traditional sales techniques.

I will try both and tell you which one worked best.

Javier Cabrera

[Ric]

Pun?:
"have to jump through loops to adopt your product or service, then your must convince them that doing so is worth the effort" - not bad for a guy (pun intended) who makes us watch his 'Loop du Jour"!

[Jordan]

Well said Guy.

I work for a sales training company, and much of what you said is in alignment with what we believe.

That said, I have combed through the post in hopes of spotting the precious pun, and I've come up with nothing.

Unless of course it is the reference to the ear:mouth ratio, and the latter's ability to make rain.

No free book for me.

[Charles]

Guy, you have obviously never worked directly in Sales. There is a huge difference between evangelism and sales. I learned the difference by working my way up the chain from evangelism, working in a dinky Apple dealer in Dubuque, Iowa during the early days of microcomputers when the most common question was "why would I ever want to buy a computer?" up to being a top sales rep at a Los Angeles store which was the largest computer store in the world. I learned a few things along the way. Such as:

1. Sales does NOT equal profit. Just because cash is flowing does not mean you are making a profit. The big LA store I worked at was only able to make a profit by continually increasing sales volume. This is a vicious circle, and it crashes the moment sales are flat and profit goes into the red. If you cannot make a profit when sales are flat, your company has a broken business model. It is not difficult to sell yourself right into bankruptcy.

2. Anyone can find customers. The problem is finding GOOD customers. Sales is not the art of selling, it is the art of finding profitable customers.

3. Finding buyers is better than seeking sales prospects and giving a sales pitch. Evangelism is a huge waste of time if your goal is sales. There are plenty of customers predisposed to purchasing your product. Help them buy by eliminating obstacles to their purchase decisions.

4. Nobody buys a product because your company has the best product or the fastest delivery or the best price, or any of the traditional selling points. Customers buy because you make them feel good for making their purchase decision. The way to make that happen is to make them feel good for buying from YOU rather than some other guy.

Sales is an underappreciated art and there is no formula, only artists.

[hombeek]

Great article about what should become a habit for any organization and every person involved in the sales process. The only thing I would add is how to deal with rejection. This comes from personal experience; true rainmakers turn anything negative into a positive thing.

Keep up the great posts Guy, great stuff...

[Guy Kawasaki]

I'm disappointed. So far no one has caught the best pun in this posting. I'll send a copy of Art to the first person who sees it.

Guy

[Guy Kawasaki]

Mike,

You've got it exactly right. I'm not saying that one should de-focus. I'm am saying that one should focus on what's blooming--and the only to find out what will bloom is to plant a lot of seeds.

Guy

[George]

Gee, thanks, Guy. I've got a cold right now, and I really needed the coughing fit that followed the uncontrollable laughter that came from "gorilla markets in the mist."

[Mike]

For Michael above, I think that the point is let 100 flowers blossom - not to plant 100 different species. So, no, do NOT get into the web dev business, but do let others buy your software. So for example, you might think that your key market is (and I have no idea) homemakers. You're determined that homemakers are the best target out there because they need easy tools, they like to communicate with extended family members, whatever. What may happen instead is that business people love your tools more. But you really want homemakers, damn it! Well, the business people blossomed instead, thus that is a fertile market for you. So I think the point would be to let the business people run with it, and realize that the market that loves you may not be the market that you love.

Or, I might be talking out of my ass. Guy?

[mac]

"As long as you have sales, cash will flow..."

Yes but how do you get sales!? that's the biggest mistery of life! ( well maybe not )

[Michael Sitarzewski]

“Let a hundred flowers blossom.” While this seems like a great idea, doesn't some amount of focus benefit a small company? Too many irons in too many fires can cause lots of unnecessary distraction. Maybe I'm one that should drink the kool-aid that is “Let a hundred flowers blossom.”

I'll give you an example... my company writes browser based web design software. It allows designers to build truly dynamic web sites with RSS feeds, Podcasting, and so on with no scripting required.

Customers have asked us, and continue to ask us, to build web sites for them... but we're not in that business. We're in the software business. “Let a hundred flowers blossom" to me means that we should ramp up the web design skills in house and start building site with out software (again).

That would be the “Let a hundred flowers blossom” theory in practice, yeah?

[Smittie]

I am, as yet, an unproven rainmaker. So, for most of these points I need to apply them. I'll get back to you when I've become a proven rainmaker.

Point number 4 I know something about. I spent 18 years as one of the ones doing the "real work" (is that what they call it?). Inertia can be a real problem here. People who do the real work have battles enough keeping the oxygen starved life forms from adding unnecessary and meaningless tasks to their daily lives. People that do real work have often found proven methods of doing whatever it is they do. They are not anxious to try something new.

The key then is to be able to demonstrate why your new way is going to make their life less painful. Easier doesn't always motivate. Reduction of pain, always motivates.

aloha

[Doug Hanna]

The last point is the very best one. Good post. :)

[Peter Brown]

This is very true, after-all the real intent of business is usually to make money. Strangely people will spend huge amounts of time focusing on aspects of business that don't even do this. Another good point I read recently can be summarized like this: Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into customers. And then... do the most important job: Turn your customers into salespeople.