How to Transition from Rainmaker to Architect
A RAINMAKER is a business owner that chooses to spend their time in their business on activities associated with business development e.g., sales, customer relations, client success, accounts management. In this bucket, entrepreneurs leverage their skills as good communicators and influencers to get people to make a decision, as well as get an immediate return on time invested.
The challenge here is that companies that are run by rainmakers tend to plateau when it comes to growth. They grow very quickly in the beginning, then they level off. Also, the value of these businesses tends to grow in lockstep with the revenue generated – Rainmakers are almost half as likely to attract an offer.
An ARCHITECT leverages the SAME SKILLS as the rainmaker does – the ability to sell, market, and influence people to make decisions, and they are investing those skills into designing marketing funnels, into defining the sales process, creating brand initiatives, and training others to execute. Instead of actually doing the selling yourself, you are teaching, training, building technology and processes that can do it for you.
A rainmaker’s business will plateau in terms of value because eventually, they will run out of hours in a day. An architect’s business will quickly outpace and go well beyond the value of a rainmaker’s business because the architect’s business is not dependent on the owner.
So, HOW do you make this transition?
- Delegate anything “below” your actual skillset – this will free up time to invest in training other people. (See our article on THE ART OF DELEGATION)
- Prioritize building funnels, documenting processes, and integrating technology – so that other people can do the selling after you have trained them
- Invest into training and development of your people – an architect that makes their people a priority will get a much higher return
By making the transition from rainmaker to architect, you are increasing the likelihood that you are going to get an offer.