All You Have to do is Ask!

Having spent most of my career in sales or new business development roles, one of the earliest lessons I learned was from my dad, a 30 year veteran of insurance sales.  As a young sales person, he always reminded me that the one thing you can't be afraid to do in sales is to "ask for the order."  He said that too often, this basic but critical step was overlooked and sales were lost because the sales person just assumed the prospect would ask to buy when they were ready.  This always seemed so simple and obvious to me, but I have learned through the years that not only is this harder to do than it sounds, but lots of us forget this most basic step in all parts of our business and personal lives.

Where else in life are you too busy, pre occupied or too afraid to just ask?  What about in high school, that attractive girl that you watched from across the room, to nervous to just ask her out.  Or when you check in to a hotel or pick up a rental car - deep down wanting an upgrade to a bigger room or nicer car.  Heck, even when you are negotiating on a purchase of an appliance, furniture, car or major home improvement project.  Did you ever want them to throw in a few extras, but didn't ask?

Twice this week I encountered this "Just Ask." principle.  The first was an E-mail Insider column by Neil Berman called "The More You Know Your Customers, The More They Love You."  Neil's first point is that so often with our marketing message we just assume we know what customers want from us.  But do you really know for sure if you don't ask?  Use surveys, interviews, whatever it takes to become familiar with your customer preferences.  Then use this information to augment the way you deliver messages related to frequency, content, and channel of your message.  I can think of probably 8-12 e-mails that I get regularly from retail stores that I like, but rarely do I open their messages anymore because the information is so far from what I want from them, or their frequency is way too high.  Not only will your customers love you more, but they're likely to spend more money with you too if you take the time to ask.

Dayna Steele

The second time I encountered this topic was a few days ago at an  AMA Houston event that featured Dayna Steele (@daynasteele), author of "Rock to the Top," Fast Company Blogger, and motivational speaker.  Reflecting on her extensive radio career, Dayna shared tips on "Finding Your Inner Rockstar."  She told numerous stories of real encounters she has shared with big music stars like Billy Idol & Van Halen.  One of her major themes was the importance of networking and making sure you know how to utilize your own personal network. She did a very basic (and hysterical) demonstration by walking up to a table of folks listening to the talk and asked each one for $5.  Everyone at the table handed over the money without thought.  She gathered it up, and headed back up to the front of the room.  Point made - sometimes all you have to do is ask.

So as we head into a great holiday weekend, and officially cross the halfway point for 2011, take some time to reflect on missed opportunities in your life and career when you could have asked, but didn't.  The main reason why we don't ask is usually out of fear of rejection.  Fear that the person won't say yes, or that they will have an adverse response to your request.  I would like to challenge you to get over it and speak up!  The worst they can do is say no.

Happy July 4th to all.