I don’t know about you, but I love to celebrate special occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries and holidays are all good excuses for me to buy gifts for people, go out for a nice dinner, and/or share a good bottle of wine or bubbly. (Life’s too short to drink bad wine, after all!) I’m also a big believer in celebrating successes outside of those kinds of events. You got a good review or promotion at work? Cheers.
What does that have to do with Rainmaking? A lot! Rainmaking, in theory, and the way I share my knowledge around it, is about continually building relationships with people. In turn, those relationships, cultivated with people who can drive business to you by either being in your target market or knowing people who are (i.e.; your referral partners) will ultimately turn into revenues. It’s not easy to build relationships that lead to money at your door. People have to know you, like you, trust you and have faith that you will do a great job for them or their clients before they’ll shower you with money! (Or even sprinkle a little your way.) So, when your hard work around building relationships leads you to a sale or other success in your marketing effort – celebrate it! And reward yourself.
My Jumpstart Your Rainmaking series includes a system which helps track “touches” – the activities you do during the month to interact with people. Those touches will ultimately lead to revenue events down the road. Maybe not each one, but many of them. I track the ones that do turn into revenue during the year. And every time one of them turns into a project for me, I celebrate it. A new client is something to be celebrated. We work hard to gain a new client. So, let’s celebrate it and be grateful. Otherwise, it’s really just a job. We’re in the people business – so let the universe know (in a small way, of course) that you’re grateful for the new work. Thank those that helped you to land the deal. Thank the new client for trusting you with their project. Thank your co-workers that helped lend their energy. And then, give yourself a pat on the back for all of your own efforts. And if landing the client helped you hit a big milestone, really celebrate!
How? In your goalsetting for your revenues this year, think about setting a few milestone goals, that, if you hit them, will involve gifts for you. For instance, you might reward yourself for the first project of the year that brings in at least $10,000. Take yourself out to dinner. If your first quarter goal was to sell 5 new projects – buy yourself some new (fabulously expensive) shoes if you hit 6 instead. Sure, it’s a mental game. But it’s also a trigger. Every time you wear those shoes, you might think about making that sale – and how good it felt! Obviously this is a self-motivational thing – and each of us gets motivated in different ways. So, it doesn’t have to be shoes or dinners. But think about something that would be a nice reward for you after an accomplishment. And allow yourself to celebrate the successes so that you can remember how good it feels – on those days that you may not be able to close that deal that you wanted.
I’ve got to run. I’m having a fabulous dinner in Las Vegas tonight – to celebrate a recent victory in my business! Cheers!
