What do your prices include?

 We like to keep it simple for both us and our clients. We charge a rate per day based on the size of the group to be trained and make no additional charges for Manuals, Handouts, Development, Printing, Mileage or anything else. With the exception that if our trainers require an overnight stay then we ask that be discussed and costs agreed beforehand.   

 Where do you deliver your training and development?

Usually we deliver on a client site. We are also happy to discuss delivering it in a nearby hotel,  Regus building or similar. (These will incur additional costs)

How do you deliver your training?

The short answer is “To fit our client’s needs”. The slightly longer answer is that our clients have found that a series of 2 hour modules delivered over a number of weeks, building the knowledge in the attendees and giving them a chance to try things and run a project over the course of the programme has been very effective. We call these Learnburns. We also deliver in the standard ways of classroom training with a major emphasis on interactive and involving learning that can be applied to the work place easily.

How long does a coaching programme last?

The answer is it depends on who and what is being coached. However we are happy to provide Fixed Price and Fixed Duration Coaching programmes if these are important to our clients. This is where we specify the process and the boundaries in detail with our client and then we will deliver a set of coaching interventions with a guarantee that the outcome will be a coachee “owned” coaching plan that they can take back to their manager to agree and support. You and we know the price upfront to achieve this and can make decisions accordingly.  

How experienced are your coaches?

All of the Rainmaker coaches have a tremendous experience of coaching and specifically coaching in business. Each has a number of areas of strength and focus and we endeavour to have the “chemistry” work between coach and coachee.

What do you think is the difference between Coaching and Mentoring?

Our view is that a Mentor has some useful knowledge of the subject matter and experiences that they can share with coachees who are in unfamiliar territory. Our view of coaching is that it helps if the coaches do not know specific details on the subject and they focus their attention on getting the answer out of the coachee.

What’s a Rethinking Workshop?

It’s a technique we have perfected to have a team of people who have a common set off responsibilities come up with a new plan for their part of a business. This could be the Board of Directors of a company or everyone in a department. We have run this workshop for between 4 to 74 people.

What’s different about your facilitation services?

We are told by our clients that our investment in understanding how they work and preparing the ground beforehand ensures that the outcome is that all the workshop attendees walk away feeling that what they have built is their plan and they are comitted to see it implemented. We are also told that we are a company of very few who are happy to handle large numbers of attendees.  

What are the aims of an account development workshop?

 We aim to have our client’s team take a step back and look at where they are going with their client, where their clients wants to go and how they can help. We then, sometimes with their client in the room, jointly develop a shared goal and a plan to get them there, to the mutual benefit of both parties.  

Isn’t Rainmaking just Sales Training for Non-Salespeople dressed up?

No. Categorically not. Our research has found that whilst there are some similarities between the behaviours of good salespeople and great rainmakers there are some fundamental differences. It is why the two ideally need to co-exist and why our rainmaker programme will be successful and “Sales for non-salespeople” will not be.

Where did the term Rainmaking spring from?

The term originated in tribes in both North and South America. They had a member of the tribe who performed magic and ritual to make it rain. If it rained the cops grew and if the crops grew the tribe prospered. In the early parts of the 20^th century American business adopted the term to describe senior directors who job was to wine and dine clients to find business opportunities for the rest of the firm to mop up.

Why Rainmaker Coaching?

 The fact of the matter is that a programme will contain parts of training, coaching, coaching your coaches and even a look at your IT systems that support the rainmaking activities. We feel that it describes what we do and the style we bring.

Who’s the career coaching aimed at?

It’s aimed at anyone who feels that they are experiencing difficulties with their career direction. Sometimes it can be breaking into a career in the first place, sometimes people want to take a look at alternatives in a safe environment. Other clients want to discuss with a critical friend ideas they have and learn tips to be more successful.

What’s the benefit of having Career Coaching?

Clients tell us that they view the investment well worthwhile. They imagine being stuck in a job they don’t want for a long time. They say that the pay rise they gained as a result of the coaching they received more than paid for any costs incurred. Others say just to able to work this out with a supportive person with techniques to help was the first time they had spent any time thinking about themselves for along time.

Where do you carry out the coaching?

We find on neutral ground works best. We have a variety of arrangements with room providers that mean we can meet privately and discretely if that is required.

How did you get into Small Business Mentoring? 

Working with our local BusinessLink we discovered that a number of owners of SME’s were finding it useful to have a senior business person work with them on a one-to-one basis. Sometimes informally sometimes with very targetted aims. The Coaches can sometimes act as a Non-Exec without the complications. Sometimes act just a confidential sounding board for ideas yet to be released into the business.

What sort of things do you work on with the owners?

The answer is on whatever they want to work on but we find they are usually focused on revenue generation or people issues. These are the topics that keep most SME’s awake at night. Business plans, Marketing and Sales plans, Attracting and keeping good people have all been topics for our coaches

Why is this not just called Manager Coaching?

The reason is that it’s combining the knowledge of our mentors with the inexperience of new managers or managers who are new to a role. This is where our team of experienced business people, managers and coaches can provide content and knowledge to new managers. We would not dare to do this with experience managers and know that our role here is different.

What sort of managers do you mentor?

We usually focus on new managers in the fields of Sales and Marketing and HR. Our team has in-depth knowledgeand experience of these roles in a variety of industries and whilst we would entertain other ideas in other areas this is where we excel today.