No matter how skillful and successful you and your sales and service team have been in the past, Michael Vickers can take you higher.

Vickers calls himself a rainmaker, though the technical term is professional business development teacher. And when you attend sessions of his Rainmaker Coaching System, bring your umbrella. Because you, too, will soon be making rain, as you learn to:

* Become the preferred provider of your particular product or service;

* Create distinctive value in a crowded marketplace;

Michael Vickers is the author of Becoming Preferred: How to Outsell Your Competition.

* Insulate yourself from volatile market trends while using technology to optimize results;

* Protect your client base from competitive erosion;

* Earn more, work less, boost productivity and attract more customers.

Sounds like a tall order.

But Vickers delivers. A popular speaker, entrepreneur, educator and best-selling author, his humorous and insightful sessions have helped thousands of experienced professionals improve their individual and organizational performance.

"Rainmakers make things happen. You can too," says Vickers, who's also author of a must-read book entitled Becoming Preferred: How to Outsell Your Competition.

"We see the business community as divided into two types: Hunters and farmers," he continues. "Most sales organizations employ farmers. They're very good at looking after the territory once it's established, but may lack the skills to go out and hunt up new business."

That's where the Rainmaker Coaching System excels: It makes you a hunter and you may be surprised where these innovative and exciting new strategies take you. "We want to take our farmers and teach them the skills they need to go hunting once in a while, without forgetting the ever-important task of maintaining that all-important customer base."

In his sessions, Vickers likes to talk about his "Six Engines of Growth."

1. Habits. "We identify and teach the habits of successful sales professionals. It's like training an athlete. We identify our ideal model of top performance and learn to duplicate it."

2. Distinctive Value Strategy. "We learn that, to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, to set ourselves distinctly apart, we can't look like anyone else."

3. Process. "Most sales organizations have a process in place. Once the customer says 'yes,' they know exactly what to do and I can't really help them with that. But I CAN help them learn what to do when a customer says 'no' or 'maybe.' " 4. Focus. "My program is designed to force students to analyze their performance on a quarterly basis. They learn new techniques and apply them.

Then their performance is measured by their superiors.

It's a fact that when performance is measured, the rate of performance always accelerates."

5. Skills. As sales professionals, we do have to re-acquaint ourselves with the fundamentals and rehearse the basic drills.

It's all about enhancing the skills that we already have."

6. Technology. "How do we leverage today's business professionals to get them in front of more people? It's a time'-management process. We actually teach them a 21st Century Time System, which has been proven to increase performance by at least 25 per cent and, in some cases, to double and triple productivity."

Vickers serves up his wisdom in palatable, digestible and entertaining portions. He coaches everybody, from Fortune 500 companies to modest one- and two-person operations.

Many clients touch base with him on a quarterly basis. Others register for one-day, two-day or four-day sessions, according to their specific needs and wants.

"The good news is there's not really any cost to the client," Vickers adds pointedly. "There's a front-end investment, yes.

But those who buy into the Rainmaker Coaching System don't just get their money back, they get it back a hundredfold. Otherwise, it's not a success, as far as we're concerned."

Vickers went into business for himself during the early 1980s, operating a successful video retail chain. He continued his business career via a number of corporate enterprises, which included manufacturing and distribution companies, as well as a highly successful publishing venture.

He won't try to kid you that every one was a roaring success.

"I had successes and I had failures," he said candidly. "To tell you the truth, I think I learned more from the failures."

For the past several years, he has been fine-tuning his system and passing along his secrets to North America's leading corporations. His client list covers a myriad of industries and is a virtual who's who in business - everything from Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial companies. If your company sells or services anything, Vickers' strategies can take you to the next level.

And his principles apply, equally successfully, to every one.

For information, please visit www.michaelvickers.com and www.therainmakercoach.com.

Or contact the Vickers team via telephone (403.265.8133), toll-free line (1.800.367.5381) or fax (403.283.4044).