'Getting It': Three Insights From Proven Rainmakers

Rainmakers aren't born. They are made. And often there is an event when someone suddenly gets it. They get an insight into selling that allows them to embrace it.

Some people have that experience early in their lives. Rainmaker and civil engineer Steve Rush got it one night as a ten-year old selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door in Ohio. To win a contest, he had to get fifteen new customers to sign up and he was three short. For three hours he went house-to-house, but no one was interested.

He was ready to quit, but his mother said, "Let's try just one more." The next three houses in a row signed up. Steve learned perseverance and the numbers game aspects of business development. When he started his firm he made cold calls all day for a week. On Friday, at the suggestion of a friend he made one more call. The firm he called on became his first client.