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Margaret Brower | The Rainmaker

@rainmakersalesmarketing

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✨ Catering & Event Venue Sales Strategist
✨ Revolutionizing Teams, One Sale at a Time
Speaker | Storyteller | Swiftie
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Dearest Gentle Reader,

The ton is talking. ☕

A ride-share suitor arrives with $2.3 billion for the catering prize. A Gold Coast castle changes hands. The Plaza’s ballrooms go dark.

And This Author has opinions on all of it.

The Rainmaker Society Papers lands in your inbox Tuesday.

Kindly read it in your finest British accent. 🎩

Link in bio to subscribe to the newsletter before it arrives.

Yours in gossip and good business,
Lady Rainmaker

#ladywhistledown #CateringSales #VenueSales #EventIndustry #WeddingIndustry by @rainmakersalesmarketing

Ten days after I secretly shopped a wedding venue, the salesperson emailed me:

“Are you still interested in looking for a venue?”

TEN DAYS.

Think about what we know about today’s wedding buyer.

Couples are researching longer, exploring more options, comparing experiences, and doing much of that work independently before they’re ready to make a decision.

And here we are, ten days into their inquiry journey, asking if they’re STILL interested.

Of course they are. They’re planning a wedding.

They may be comparing venues, talking to family, revisiting budgets, watching videos, reading reviews, or trying to figure out what actually matters most to them.

Your job is to become valuable during that process.

Every touchpoint is an opportunity to help them make progress.

Tell them something about the experience they couldn’t have learned from your website.

Answer a question they haven’t thought to ask yet.

Keep it short. Personal. Useful. Human.

And keep showing up.

The couple who inquired ten days ago may still be making their decision weeks or months from now.

Your follow-up should be built for the way people actually buy. End of rant. by @rainmakersalesmarketing

I promise this is NOT a paid ad about @ezcater ⁠and @uber ⁠.

It’s an invitation to every independent caterer to start thinking about where our industry is headed.

If the way people discover, order, and receive catering is changing, what role do you want your business to play in it?

How will you make yourself valuable in this new buying experience?

I believe there is enormous opportunity for independent caterers who are paying attention, asking better questions, and thinking about what comes next.

The game is changing. What’s your next move? by @rainmakersalesmarketing

This is the (Hudson Valley) day.. 🎶 by @rainmakersalesmarketing

If you’re responsible for the event signage, you are VERY IMPORTANT.

As the VIP who is in charge of menus or personalized prints, here are TWO things I’d build into your process immediately.

1. CREATE ONE SOURCE OF TRUTH.

Before you open Canva, create one approved document with every name, date, menu item, dietary designation and personalized detail.

Pull directly from the final BEO and client-approved information. Copy and paste names exactly as provided.

Make this the document everyone works from, including your designer, printer and event team.

2. GIVE AI THE JOB OF PROOFREADER.

Upload your approved document and final signage design into ChatGPT.

Use this prompt:

“Compare these two documents line by line. Check every name, date, time, menu item and personalized detail. Identify spelling differences, missing words and inconsistencies. Review the final design for spacing, alignment, readability and visual balance. Flag awkward line breaks, uneven margins or anything that looks out of place. Create a checklist of recommended corrections and flag anything you cannot verify.”

Then give the final design one last human review before printing.

Personalization creates an expectation of precision.

And when someone trusts you with the details, getting their name right is a pretty wonderful place to start. by @rainmakersalesmarketing

One of the highlights of my year has been working alongside the incredible Ambassadors @jwyckoff22, Chef Matt, and @casilk at The Burnt Chef Project, and Charessa Sawyer @iamcharessa from The Event Therapy Network through @icacater and @ascendtheconference.

These are people doing deeply important work for the people who take care of everyone else.

And I want every single person in catering, events, and hospitality to know about them.

Both organizations offer mental health resources, including free support and education, for people working in our industry.

For your salespeople.
Your chefs.
Your event managers.
Your servers.
Your leaders.
And YOU.

I have learned so much from these passionate advocates, and I am incredibly proud that ICA has helped bring their work into our community.

Please spend a few minutes exploring what they offer, and share these resources with your teams.

❤️ @theburntchefproject

❤️ @eventtherapynetwork

Taking care of our people is some of the most important hospitality work we will ever do. by @rainmakersalesmarketing

1. I’d be obsessed with my numbers.

I’d know exactly how much I wanted to sell, and how many events will take me there.

Then I’d reverse engineer it.

What’s my average event?
What’s my conversion rate?
How many qualified leads do I need?
How many tours?
How many proposals?

Financial fluency is a sales superpower.

I’d know my math, and I’d be relentless about what I expected from myself.

2. I’d become known for being FIRST.

First to respond.

First to send the proposal.

First to follow up.

First to offer a solution.

First to give the prospect their own words back so they know I heard them.

First to raise my hand and say, “YES, I want that experience.”

I’d build a reputation very quickly: She’s on the move.

3. I would remove “I’m too busy” from my vocabulary.

My book is my business.

Every time someone asks if I can take another lead, another tour, another opportunity, I want the answer to communicate:

I want more.

More relationships.
More experience.
More revenue.
More commission.

I can protect my time.
I can manage my pipeline.
I can ask for support.

And I can stay open for new opportunities.

Because if I were starting in hospitality sales today…

I’d want everyone around me to know three things about me:

𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀.
𝗜 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁.
𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗜’𝗺 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗿𝘆. by @rainmakersalesmarketing

My dad is 85 today. ❤️

The first love of my life and one of my greatest inspirations for how to live it.

He has taught me to be selfless. To be deeply interested in other people. To give more than you take. That everything is figure-out-able.

He is still my coach on all things sales, home improvement, family gossip, and gardening.

He is everyone’s favorite guy, and somehow, I’m the lucky girl who gets to call him Dad.

85 years of making people feel important, cared for and loved.

Happy birthday to the original Rainmaker. ❤️

I love you, Dad. by @rainmakersalesmarketing

Your salespeople want to be happy and make money.

You want them to be happy and make money.

And we are in the revenue business.

So TALK about the revenue.

Talk about conversion.
Talk about pipeline.
Talk about average sale.
Talk about activity.
Talk about pacing to goal.
Talk about these numbers so often that hearing them becomes completely normal.

Because a conversion rate isn’t a character assessment.

A light pipeline isn’t a personal criticism.

It’s data.

And data gives us something incredibly useful: clarity about where we are and what we need to work on next.

Normalize the numbers.

Then sit beside your salesperson and figure out what you’re going to do with them.

Photographed here talking numbers with one of the best salespeople I have ever known @taylor.checchia, who is so many things, and one of them is NOT afraid of numbers.

Your worry about how someone will receive your feedback may be getting in the way of their progress.

Say the thing.

“I need to see more activity here.”
“Your conversion is below where we want it.”
“You’re leaving opportunities sitting too long.”
“You told me you want to make $___ this year. Let’s look at what needs to happen to get you there.”

Clear.
Kind.
Specific.
And then coach.

Because the person sitting beside you deserves to know what you see.

They deserve the opportunity to work on it.

They deserve to understand what great looks like in their role.

And they deserve enough clarity to decide what they’re going to do next.

Say the thing. Then help them get there. by @rainmakersalesmarketing

One of the greatest gifts of my work is getting to watch a new hospitality professional “click” into their role.

I saw it today.

Teresa has been leading marketing at Beets for over a year. She came in incredibly talented in graphic design, with this being her first run in the world of catering and venues.

And anyone who works in this industry knows, it takes a full year to understand the cadence.

✨ Engagement season.
✨ Tour season.
✨ Wedding season.
✨ Corporate rhythms.
✨ What Sales needs.
✨ What Operations needs.
✨ What the client is thinking three months before the event.
✨ What they’re thinking three days before it.

And then what does marketing do with all of that?

There is so much to learn.

And today, I watched Teresa step into her next chapter.

She is OWNING IT.

And she has worked for that confidence.

There is something incredibly special about watching someone go from learning the role to realizing:
“This is my role. I know what I’m doing here.”

Teresa, I could not be more proud of what you are doing “courageously.”

Keep going. You’re there. 💛 by @rainmakersalesmarketing

Exactly that. ✨ by @rainmakersalesmarketing