7 mindset shifts you will need to make to be known as a rainmaker

This is taken from a transcription of our recent webinar “How to become a rainmaker when you are known as a great technician”. John Moss discussed the mindset shifts you will need to make to become known as a rainmaker. John Moss (JM): I’m always hesitant when we start to talk about this, I think there are tough messages in here. 1.       You can’t remain a jack of all trades, you’ve got to choose what you want to become known for.  It’s next to impossible putting together an effective marketing plan if you’re planning to just be a generalist.  That might be acceptable for very small firms, but I think if you’re going to be playing in the space of large organisations, or even medium sized firms, you’ve got to pick a niche that’s right for you. 2.       You need to think of business development as your day job, rather than something you just fit in when there’s not much delivery work to do.  You need to make a choice every day about how you will do some business development.  Those people who are successful at business development, are the ones who choose to create a daily habit, and as the word implies do it every day. 3.       You need to create the time to do business development, and that often fits in with the need to change your mindset.  That means choosing not to go over your billable time targets too much, so that you do have some time to get business development done.  Part of that is thinking how to delegate more and more things, so that you have more time.  I know that’s incredibly easy for people like Heather and I to say it, but much more difficult to do it. 4.       You need to get comfortable with sticking your head above the parapet, and growing your own profile in the marketplace, you need to come out from the shadow of the partners that you work with. 5.       You need to create a long-term mindset.  Winning clients does take time, and that’s particularly true for large opportunities. 6.       You can’t expect to win clients based on one meeting, or just a few email exchanges. 7.       The final point which a lot of professional’s struggle with, and that’s a very fundamental marketing message about repetition.  You need to keep reminding people about your key messages, and remember that not everybody is going to read that first email, or that first blog, so saying it again and again doesn’t do much harm at all.