Has your Rainmaker left?

Has your rainmaker left the building?

In a coaching call last week, one of our broker clients was musing about the future. He has a succession plan underway and said he was unclear as to what his future role should be. I asked him what role he played in the early days, while he was building his brokerage. He was the rainmaker responsible for producing new business, and the fact that he “doesn’t do that anymore”. When I asked him if he missed it, he paused and then said almost wistfully, “Yes!”.

This got me to thinking about how many brokerages can trace their current success back to the days when the founders spent most of their time acquiring new clients – either through direct sales, or networking and developing centres of influence.

Today, it seems many of those founders have “kicked themselves upstairs”!

Their days now are filled with administrative and people management tasks, for which they have little training and sometimes even less natural talent. The result? Less than optimal management effectiveness and a whole lot of personal frustration.

Meanwhile, their sales teams are struggling to put new business on the books, given COVID-19, the economy and a brutally hard market.

So, brokerage principals, how’s this for a radical idea?

Fire yourself as Chief Operating Officer

  • Re-hire yourself as Chief Rainmaker
  • Schedule some Big Dog visits. [What I mean by that is 1:1 calls on some of your biggest and best clients. No producer, just you and the client.]
  • Reactivate your networks and centres of influence
  • Go make some rain, just like you used to do!

Why do this, you may ask?

Because I think you will:

  • Open up leadership opportunities for your rising stars
  • Bring in some great new business
  • Inspire your entire team by leading by example
  • Increase the value off your brokerage
  • Have more fun

Food for thought? We hope so!