Get ready for YES
How prepared are you when you make a request of someone? Do you go in expecting to get a ‘YES’? And are you ready for what happens next?
On Friday 5/29 at the Lisa Nichols – No Matter What book event in Minneapolis, I made a request without being fully prepared for the next step and missed out on a great opportunity. It looked like I was ready when I arrived with my new Flip video camera and a plan to ask Lisa for an interview, but I wasn’t.
Before Lisa’s talk, Bill Harris of Centerpointe Research, told the story of starting his company at his kitchen table with borrowed recording equipment. Now he’s pulling in $1.5 million PER MONTH.
Bill was answering questions in the hallway after Lisa’s talk. I needed great new website material. I decided on the spot I would ask him for an interview about the lessons he’s learned in his journey From Invisible to In Demand.
With Flip in hand, I waited for my opening and I asked.
“Do you mean right now?” he asked. “Uh, yeah,” I said.
He started talking, so I turned the camera on, pressed the record button, and handed it to one of the other people gathered around Bill. My new helper pointed the camera our way and I was getting my interview, just like that.
Bill went into detail about making customer preferences much more important than what you like. He shared how Centerpointe uses the influence principle of RECIPROCITY by giving away great bonus materials to their customers. And I WAS GETTING IT ALL ON VIDEO.
That’s what I thought until my helper handed the Flip back to me with a blank screen. It shut off during the interview.
The problem was that I never really started recording and I didn’t realize it. Since the camera was unfamiliar, I was not aware there would have been a red light on the front while recording. The red light wasn’t on, but I didn’t even know to look for it.
No interview. Nothing new to post on my website.
I thanked Bill for his time and went to get Lisa Nichols to sign my copy of her book.
After this screw-up, did I have the courage to ask for the interview I really wanted to get that night? If you’ve seen my home page, you already know the answer. By the way, she was gracious enough to give that interview after signing books for 2 ½ hours. What a wonderful person!
Get ready for ‘YES’ in advance – you’ll be glad you did,
Jim