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With a Little Help from my Friends Others or Even Strangers

Written by: Eva Gregory

Article Overview: Do you know what almost all successful business owners have in common? They all possess the ability to ask for what they need, no matter who they have to approach in order to bring them closer to their goals. Depending on one’s personality, this could be one of the scariest parts about business. Being afraid of making cold calls, soliciting business from potential clients, and/or being rejected the 8-9 times out of 10 (which is typical for a business owner) is often what causes most businesses to fail.

With a Little Help from my Friends Others or Even Strangers

Do you know what almost all successful business owners have in common? They all possess the ability to ask for what they need, no matter who they have to approach in order to bring them closer to their goals. Depending on one’s personality, this could be one of the scariest parts about business. Being afraid of making cold calls, soliciting business from potential clients, and/or being rejected the 8-9 times out of 10 (which is typical for a business owner) is often what causes most businesses to fail.

Look at some of the most successful businesses over the years. Take the Chicken Soup for the Soul ® enterprise by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. They began their book and found that they were too busy after three years to compile the 101 stories they sought, so they first reached out to others to help them find the rest of the stories for their book. When they selected the stories they submitted the book to 140 publishers before the first book was accepted and published. Now, we know how successful their first book was and how successful their new books continue to be, but that would never have happened if they’d been afraid to ask for assistance. They’ve created a successful formula for soliciting stories from the population for their wildly popular series.

Everyone can take a page from our REAL leaders. There are mastermind groups, think tanks, authors collaborating to get their books at the tops of the best-sellers lists, Oprah starting her Angel Network ® and asking for donations from everyone interested in helping others, consultants collaborating to offer services for access to each others’ electronic newsletter subscribers and leaders like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett collaborating on philanthropic projects. No matter what the venture is, business leaders have learned that in order to be successful, they must ask for assistance and keep asking for it until they reach their goals.

Maureen was thrilled at the prospect of her new business. She had a business plan, had done her research and was ready to hang her copywriting shingle and start making money. However, Maureen had not factored in the new business process. True, it may take some money to make money. But it also takes time to build a steady stream of clients and more time to tweak things to keep business flowing for profit. After approximately three months of sporadic sales, Maureen was disheartened. She was watching her bank account dwindle and her sales seemed to be stuck. Maureen was a proud woman and had a difficult time asking for assistance. Lucky for her, her best friend Dee did not suffer from this affliction. She knew of a few businesses with services complimentary to Maureen’s and asked to place free ads in their newsletters to fill empty space, She was an experienced cold-caller and contacted local businesses on her behalf and went online and asked graphic artists if they wanted to collaborate. Dee enlisted the services for friends, strangers and acquaintances to help Maureen put her business on the map.

This is the kind of go-getting successful people have become masters at. One should never be afraid to ask for anything that can help them reach their goals. In fact, have you ever stopped to think that if you don't ask, the answer is automatically 'NO'! So get out there and ASK, ASK, ASK!

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Article Tags: business, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Eva Gregory, friends, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, success



Related Forum Posts
Re: pitching - Friendliness is closely related to the concept of "permission marketing" as articulated by Seth Godin. The subtitle of his book says it all: "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." The old method was "interruption marketing" where you suddenly get an ad in your face whether you want it or not...
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: Your Gmail Account can be hacked! - Very informative post , thats why i don't like to use free services for My own business , but still i'm using gmail for some Product Promotion and talking with Strangers And after reading your post i'm going to change my gmail setting right now , Thanks again for sharing
Maze Inc - Greetings Friends,
Re: How do you budget your life? - Here is my financial management categories for today: 15% Long Term Savings; 10% Home Expenses; 45% Business and Marketing charges; 10% Friends (Meeting); 20$ Scientific and Law Books. But this will change when it is August or September. Orxan


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