Rainmaking Recommendations

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If you’re a regular Zen follower, you’ll know that this week’s topic from rainmaking trainer and coach, Jaimie Field, is a favorite of mine – using gratitude in business development. Read on to learn why!

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In one week’s time, it will be Thanksgiving in the United States.  And, you will probably be feasting with friends and family, watching football games (and probably arguing with them). I believe that many of us have forgotten that Thanksgiving is a time when we are supposed to be grateful for all that we have received during the past year. …
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While I’m out of the office today attending the Economist’s Annual General Counsel Conference in London, I’m bringing you another Rainmaking Recommendation from trainer and expert, Jaimie Field! I’m a big fan of Jaimie’s recommendations in this post, and use them myself – in fact, as a holdover from my days in high school (yes, that long ago), I still use a paper agenda to schedule my daily tasks, even breaking up long term projects so that I work on them a little bit every day to make progress. For me, it works really well to have a tangible list that I can cross things off of. I also create a monthly plan, which is tied into my overall operational plan for the ILN, which I review weekly to ensure that I’m maintaining continuity on my goals, and my organization’s goals.

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There is a “law”, really an old adage, you may have heard of called Parkinson’s Law.  This proverb says “work expands so as to fill the time allotted for its completion.”

What this means is that you will get the work done only as fast as needed to beat the deadline. In the case of procrastinators, if you only have a day till the deadline, then you will get the work done on that day – it may not be spectacular work, but it’s done. …
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In today’s rainmaking recommendation post, coach and trainer, Jaimie Field is talking about a huge pet peeve of mine – a lack of follow up, and the impact it can have on your business development efforts.

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Way back in April 2014, I came across some sales statistics which floored me.  In Rainmaking Recommendation #95, I wrote about Following Up for Success.  There was a meme that was floating around that looked like this:

Except, I recently found out that these statistics are false!  While I do not mind admitting when I am wrong for posting this meme (I should have done a bit more research), and apparently I am not the only one who has because that meme has been floating around for a number of years, I do think that the main idea behind it is an important concept. …
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Following on my recent post about the month of October, Jaimie Field is talking about the last twelve weeks of this year in her latest Rainmaking Recommendation. Also, I was able to negotiate a special rate for Zen readers on Jaimie’s upcoming roadmap class – see the details in her post below!

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Time is running out on this year.

In 12 short weeks, the earth will have completed its 365-day orbit around the sun once again.  Look back at the past 40 weeks at when this year started.  Did you have dreams you wanted to achieve? Did you have plans for their attainment? Did you even have goals for this year?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have not achieved all of the goals I have wanted this year – YET! But I still have 12 weeks.…
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What happens when you lose touch with someone who may be a good connection for you? In today’s rainmaking recommendation post from coach, Jaimie Field, she explains how you can reconnect!

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In a perfect world, you would never lose touch with anyone you have met.  You would never lose touch with your clients; you would never lose touch with a referral source; you would never lose touch with any prospects.

But this is not a perfect world and life creeps in to steal time from you every single day.  You look up and a week has passed, a month.  Another year has flown.   In fact, I cannot believe that it is already fall and that there are less than 4 months left to 2019. …
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In today’s guest post, rainmaking coach and trainer, Jaimie Field, is teaching us how to handle negative reviews – these can and do happen, and how we deal with them can be an opportunity as well as a challenge.

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For the past few Rainmaking Recommendations, we have been discussing recommendations, reviews, and testimonials.   In one we discussed the differences between these; in the second we discussed how to get more. And, in this one, we will be discussing what to do if you receive a negative review. …
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Following up on part one, in this post, rainmaking trainer and coach, Jaimie Field, discusses how to get more reviews (and since ethics is her thing, you know she’s advocating doing these in an ethical way!). Read on!

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(In part one of this series, the differences between recommendations, reviews, and testimonials were detailed. In part two we will discuss how to get more reviews, And part three will be how to deal with negative reviews.)

Recently, I have been offering a complimentary rainmaking training session to attorneys (please feel free to take me up on this offer if you are interested).  Prior to our conversations, I do a quick search of the attorney so I am aware of their practice areas and what their online footprint looks like.  And I have found that many of the attorneys with whom I have been speaking have lackluster amounts of information, particularly reviews, available to research. …
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In today’s guest post from Jaimie Field, she’s talking about the difference between reviews and testimonials, as part of a three part series that you’ll definitely want to tune in for.

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Testimonials, reviews, recommendations – these have always been important to growing your book of business, but it is now even more so.  In this three-part Rainmaking Recommendation series, I will detail the differences between a testimonial, a review, and recommendations (part 1).  In part 2, I will discuss how to obtain these important evaluations of your services on a regular basis. And in part 3, I will write about how to deal with bad reviews. …
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Are you stuck thinking that business development is too big of a hurdle? Read today’s guest post from rainmaking expert and trainer, Jaimie Field, to find out why it’s not rocket science.

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On Saturday, July 20, 2019, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  Think about this for a moment.  50 years ago, technology was rudimentary comparatively speaking to today’s tech (and even tomorrow’s tech).  Yet, they were able to land a man on the moon. …
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Today’s post from rainmaking expert and trainer, Jaimie Field, comes at a fortuitous moment – I’m in the middle of reading “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal,” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, which delves into the balancing of energy in four key areas in order to maximize your performance. We tend to believe that pushing forward all the time is the key to success, but there is great evidence to suggest that taking breaks (not just extended vacation breaks, but short breaks during the workday) are key to doing your job more effectively and efficiently. It sounds like a cop out, but I’ve been working to implement some of their suggestions in my life this week in places where I see the most issues, and I can already feel a difference in sustainability and focus. I highly recommend picking up the book!

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While my last Rainmaking Recommendation told you that you should not allow the summer months to make you lazy in your business development activities, since tomorrow is the 4th of July in the United States, a National holiday, this Rainmaking Recommendation is devoted to telling you that you NEED to take time for yourself.  Take a vacation, even if it is only a few days, to rest and recharge. …
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