Fabulous Financials & Fitness

I have not achieved my level of career success by running a one man show.  Although I’d like to believe that I’m the greatest [insert my title] that has ever lived, but the truth is, I’ve received assistance – a lot of it – from people whom I respect and admire.  Sometimes it was offered, but most of the time I asked.  And 90% of the time, I received what I needed.

It takes a lot of courage to approach someone you respect and admire.  It takes even more courage to ask them to do something for you. You may assume the person is extremely busy and will never have time to help little ol’ you.  But don’t worry.  They’ve been in your shoes before, so they understand. However, when you are ready to ask them for assistance, DO NOT EVER:

• apologize for approaching them; or
• ask them for assistance without providing all of the information they need

Why? Because it’s just dumb!

The first offense is akin to saying “I’m not worthy of your time, but I’m going to waste it anyway.”  It also tells the person that you lack confidence.

The second offense is akin to asking “can I ask you a question?” *blank stare* It requires the person to respond to your question with a question.

See what I mean…dumb!

If you were afraid of wasting their time, good for you because you just did.

If you’re guilty of the above, here’s what I’d recommend next time.

If the person doesn’t know you, introduce yourself as quickly as possible – make a personal connection – two sentences or less.  Assuming the person already knows you, after standard salutations, get straight to the point of your request. There is no need to waste an entire paragraph with compliments about how well they walk on water.  If they are as good as you think they are, trust me, they already know it.  And give them everything they need to do whatever it is you are requesting.  For example…

Good Morning XX

Congratulations on getting the xx account!  I’m a xx in the xx Division and I’ve been following your accomplishments through our xx newsletter.

The purpose of this email is to request your assistance on xx. When you have a moment, will you please xx? Attached is the xx and the point of contact for the xx is xx. If you have any questions or would like to discuss, I can be reached at [phone number] or [email address].

Thank you very much,  I appreciate your time.

Again, congratulations!

XX

Simple.

Most people who are at the top of their game are action oriented.  They skim written information to seek out the main point, they have an intuitive “BS” filter, and they zero in on important details that require action.  With a clear, concise, and well defined request, you will increase the odds, exponentially, of getting the response you desire.  Even if they are busy, you’ll be surprised at how quickly a multi-tasker will find the time to help you.

On the other hand, there are times I have not provided assistance because:

• The request (voice mail, email, letter, etc.) was too long.
• I didn’t understand what they were asking me to do.
• They didn’t provide enough information for me to do it.
• They didn’t provided their contact information or only provided one source that was inconvenient for me.
• I didn’t like the person because they were not sincere/genuine.
• Very rarely – they were asking for too much and I didn’t have time.

Or one of my personal pet peeves and final piece of advice – when you finally get a response to your request, no matter how long it took them to respond, DO NOT EVER allow more than 24 hours to pass before you acknowledge their response and/or express appreciation.  To do so is just rude!  It also tells the person, the time they spent helping you could have been spent doing better things. As a result, you’ve just secured yourself a permanent position on the ignore list in their mental rolodex.