Rainmaker Sales Readiness: The Tactical Work Before the First Sales Call

Melody McDonald
May 27
4 min read

Updated: Jun 4

Chapter 1 of the How to Become a Sales Unicorn series | Rainmaker Sales Readiness

Every founder dreams of finding a rainmaker, someone who can swoop in, make a few calls, and unlock revenue seemingly overnight. And when results come, it’s easy to chalk it up to luck, timing, connections, or a combination of the three. But what often looks like a fast, magical outcome is far from random. It’s rarely luck, and it’s never effortless, it's rainmaker sales readiness.

Rainmaker level sales success is built long before the first call is ever made and the company leadership must equip the sales team with the tools towards success. The work begins with deep understanding. It starts with listening, analyzing, mapping, and questioning, until you know what problem you’re solving, who has it, how it’s funded, and how your solution fits. The calls come later. And when done right, they land.

This post is for founders, CEOs, and sales leaders who want to get real about what must happen before the phone rings.

Step 1: Sales Must Understand What They’re Really Selling

Before they make a single call, you need to know:

What the product does (not just features, but pains it solves, outcomes and impacts it delivers)
Who it helps (and what their day-to-day pain actually looks like)
Why it matters now (policy shifts, funding availability, stakeholder pressure)

This is not about parroting the value prop on your website. It’s about being able to step into the customer’s world and say something that makes them feel seen.

Tactical example: If you’re selling into state education, go read the strategic plans and state budgets for three target states. If your solution relates to CTE, locate the state’s most recent Perkins V funding allocations and initiatives. Find out which districts are being instructed to spend money to solve this problem. Find out what news articles are talking about this issue in the local press, county by county. Set up google alerts. If you can’t find that, you’re not ready to call yet.

Step 2: Map the Market (Not Just the Buyer)

Your buyer exists within a system. That system includes:

State and local politics
Budget cycles
Grant funding timelines
Competing priorities across agencies

Don’t just identify the persona. Understand the environment they live in.

Tactical example: Use tools like Burbio or state board of education sites to track what districts and states are prioritizing in real time. Read legislative minutes. Check RFP databases in your target state even if you’re not ready to respond yet. Look at RFPs from competitive products in your state to understand what they are doing and how much they are charging for it, in comparison to your product. This is how you see what’s coming.

Step 3: Build a Discovery Narrative, Not a Pitch

If your first sales call is a pitch, you’ve already lost. The first call is about discovery. But discovery requires strategy. Have a tactical session with your consultant, your sales team and/or your marketing team. Talk through the narrative out loud, focusing on it with other people in the room. THEN go in with:

A working hypothesis about their pain
Three to five targeted questions that test that hypothesis
A prepared, conversational story that frames how your product has helped similar agencies
Awareness of the pushbacks you're likely to hear (and how to ask about them without being defensive)

Use your market map to craft your tactical discovery. Tactical example: Don’t ask “What keeps you up at night?” That’s vague and outdated. Ask, “I’ve been hearing a lot from other CTE directors about pressure to show measurable outcomes tied to state funding. Is that something your agency is navigating as well?”

Step 4: Align a Pre-Call Briefing System with a Post-Call Follow-Up

I call this the double tap. Make any message you leave behind point to your email request for a pain discovery. “I sent you an email” should be a part of the message. For every call, prepare a short, structured email follow up that includes:

A call out of your pain assumptions
Region and agency context
Known funding sources tied to your vertical
Any news or recent public statements
Hypothesized pain points
Key questions you plan to ask

This is not an email to pitch product, rather it is a pause to engage with the prospective client. Take this as an opportunity to identify if the client’s pain is an actual fit for the solution you offer. This approach removes the obstacle of the prospect disconnecting because they are feeling like they are “being sold.”

Take notes on what not to say to overcome obstacles to book the call (e.g., known competitors, sensitive political issues). This doesn’t have to be long. But it should be real. If you’re making 10 calls a day and you don’t have 10 briefs, you’re winging it. And that’s not how rainmakers are made.

Step 5: Treat Your First Ten-Twenty Calls as a Live Test.

Don’t treat your first round of outreach as a numbers game. Treat it as an experiment.

Make small batches of 10 calls or emails - call accounts that matter less.
Use consistent messaging so you can evaluate and track what works
Track not just responses, but sentiment
Log every objection
Tactical Debrief with yourself and/or your team every 48 hours to refine. Share your thoughts and be open to feedback

Tactical example: Use a simple spreadsheet if you don’t have a CRM. Columns should include date, contact, message used, response type, objections raised, follow-up plan, and notes on tone.

Rainmakers Don’t Appear. They ARE Prepared.

The ability to show up in a first meeting and build instant credibility doesn’t come from charisma. It comes from preparation. From doing the work before the work. From understanding the landscape so well that you become the guide your prospect didn’t even know they were looking for.

Sales readiness is not about having the right contact. It’s about having the right approach, so when the moment comes, you’re not guessing.

You’re ready.