Barrett’s R.A.I.N. Making program helps partners and associates in law, accounting, financial advisory, and other professional services move from share of wallet to share of mind, online and in person.
- The Problem: Professional service providers, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, bankers, consultants, engineers, architects, face a unique tension: present a genuinely professional face, not an overt sales pitch, while still proactively earning new and additional business.
- The Shift: Conventional selling chases share of wallet, a bigger slice of a client’s existing spend. In professional services, where quality of service is broadly comparable across firms, what actually differentiates you is share of mind, being the first name a client thinks of, not one of several they consider, and increasingly, being findable at all when they’re forming that shortlist.
- The Solution: R.A.I.N. Making gives partners and associates the skills to build that share of mind, online and in person, through genuine relationships, visible expertise, and the judgement to know what a client needs before they’ve fully articulated it themselves.
When a client feels like their advisor genuinely understands where they’re trying to go, not just what they’re asking for today, the relationship stops being transactional and becomes the kind of partnership that compounds over years.
Why Share of Mind Matters Now
Selling has gone through several evolutions over the past century, and professional services selling has its own distinct version of that shift. Differentiation between competing firms has narrowed, the quality of service delivered is broadly similar across firms in the same category, so what actually shapes the client experience and the decision to stay or refer is the quality of the professional guidance and relationship that surrounds the work.
Share of mind used to be built almost entirely face to face, at the golf club, over lunch, through referral. Increasingly, it’s built before any of that happens. Clients now research and shortlist legal, financial, and advisory firms using AI tools the same way B2B buyers shortlist vendors, well before they ask a colleague for a recommendation. A partner with genuine expertise but no visible digital presence is invisible at exactly the moment a client is forming their shortlist. The same buyer behaviour shift driving our Commercial Alignment Audit work applies here just as directly.
Conventional sales training doesn’t account for this complexity. The skills and techniques overlap with other solution-selling environments, but their application is genuinely different in a professional services context, where overt selling can undermine the professional credibility the relationship depends on.
What the Most Effective Rainmakers Actually Do
Partners and associates who consistently bring in business aren’t doing something different when they sell versus when they service. They:
- Prospect for new business through genuine relationship-building and visible expertise, online and in person, not as a separate, awkward activity bolted onto client work
- Prepare exceptionally well for every client interaction
- Genuinely listen to their clients
- Solve problems, rather than simply respond to instructions
- Care about their clients’ wellbeing, not just their billable engagement
- Stay invested in their clients’ success, beyond the current piece of work
R.A.I.N. Making provides partners and associates with the skills to:
- Build visible expertise and digital presence, so they’re findable and credible before a referral conversation even happens, not relying on referral alone
- Prospect for new business and manage their individual pipeline effectively
- Conduct meaningful client conversations, with genuinely sharper listening, not just better talking points
- Create the conditions for clients to discuss confidential or sensitive information needed to craft genuinely effective solutions
- Harness the full range of services the firm offers, so the client experiences a single point of entry for a total solution, not a series of disconnected specialists
The shift from share of spend to share of mind happens through four moves: Relationships, built deliberately rather than left to chance. Ambitions, genuinely understood, not assumed. Implications, of decisions clients are weighing, made clear. Reality, a new, more desirable future the firm helps the client build toward, not just a problem solved.
Built specifically for partners and associates in law, accounting, financial advisory, banking, management consulting, engineering, architecture, and comparable professional services environments.
- Isn’t this just sales training repackaged for professionals?
No. The dual role professionals carry, advocate and trusted advisor at once, makes overt selling counterproductive. This is built around that specific tension, not adapted from a generic sales curriculum. - How is this different from general business development training?
Most BD training for professionals still focuses on pitching and proposals. R.A.I.N. Making focuses on becoming genuinely top of mind, online and in person, before a formal opportunity exists. - Does visibility online really matter in professional services?
Increasingly, yes. Clients shortlist firms using AI and search the same way B2B buyers shortlist vendors. Genuine expertise that isn’t visible doesn’t make the shortlist. - Does this connect to Barrett’s other work?
Yes. The same emotional intelligence and discernment underpinning our Neuroscience & EQ work, and the same value-based, human-centred approach behind Sales Strategy & Messaging Design, both apply directly here.
Speak to us about your sales training needs.
Talk to us, your selling better advisory team, and we’ll be able to advise you on the best training solution for your business.
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