Position the Ask; Steve Sims

Hey, how are you doing? This is Steve Sims. You probably already knew that. In any case, I just did a Facebook Live a little while ago and I called a position you asked, because something was actually aggravating me. As you know, a book came out recently. For those that don’t know, I actually got around to doing a book called, Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen.

In the book, it talks about positioning your ask. I’m a great believer that whenever you go to someone, you already know what you want. That’s why you’re contacting them. The other person is now faced with a question, “Who is this person? What do they want?” The higher you get up the ladder in business or in celebrity or whatever, you become very cynical because, quite simply, a lot of people are coming to you and they’re asking you questions.

You’ve got to be able to communicate with these people very quickly why you need to be there. You see, you can get your foot in the door. The secret sauce is to be so irresistible, they don’t want you to leave. So when you actually speak to someone, you’re going to say, “Hey, how are you? I appreciate you taking this time. I believe you’ve got a cause going, a charity, you’re working on a project. I believe I can do this for you. I can help this for you, because I need this.”

So, what you’re doing is you’re very quickly giving them a reason, from the research you’ve done ahead of time before you’ve contacted them, as to why you should be involved in that conversation. Again, you want to chat with them, get them to converse with you. It’s a tennis tournament. It goes backwards and forwards.

Now, I’ve put in this book the whole point of how to position them and ask how to communicate with people, how to be more interested, then interest him, but I’ve been getting emails, texts, PMs, DMs, depending on what social platform you’re on, recently, where there’s been a few people, amateurs, I’m going to go as rude as to call them amateurs, where they’ve got a hold of this book. And then they’ve reached out to me, send me these lengthy texts on, “Hey, I’m launching this business and I want to work with this, and I want to work with the super affluent, and I want to be doing all of this. How do you do it, Steve?” Or, “Tell me how this has done?” Or, “What should I be doing here?” And I’m emailing those people back or I’m messaging them back and I’m going, “Why?” Or I’m saying, “What’s in it for me?”

Now, I don’t want to come across as a prick. If I do, well, maybe I am. But I want to challenge you to give me a reason why I have to give up my 50 odd years of doing what I do to give you this information. You see, you don’t pay me to tell you the answer. You pay me because I’ve spent my time falling over to learn how to do things. So you pay me for my knowledge. You’re the same out there. People pay you because you have something that they don’t have. Maybe if they spent 30 years practicing your talent, your trade, your skill, they would be as good as you, but they’re not. So they’re paying you for that reason. So when they communicate with you, you need to be blunt and value your time and say, “Well, what’s in it for me?”

Now, if someone says to you, “Well, good question. I want to be able to give you this.” Then it’s your decision to go, “Well, okay. That’s a good trade. Yeah. I’d like that.” It could be, “Hey, I’m going to do something for a local school, if you give me this knowledge.” Or I had someone actually contact me saying, “Look, I don’t have a lot of money. I need some help with this. And do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go to my local village, my local community, and I’m going to go to people and knock on their door. And I’m going to free clean their car, put out their garbage, clean up their lawn. I’m going to do something to those people that maybe they can’t do it themselves or maybe doing that chore would help them with their time.” Now that makes me feel good. That’s what’s in it for me.

So my point is, position the ask and give them a reason why they should listen to you. Now, if you’re reading this book and you’re one of those people to send that, try again. Send me another message to maybe get me engaged or for those people that actually got insulted when I asked why, or what’s in it for me, then be challenged. Step up and go, “Good question. This is what’s in it for you.” And remember the next time you ask a question, don’t ask someone or don’t allow someone to come back with a why or what’s in it for me, answer that in the question, “Hey, I realize you’re busy at the moment, but I want to ask this question and I noticed you’re interested in this. This is what I can do for you.” Or, “You’ve got this coming out. I can spread this out to my people.” Or, “I have an opinion on that project. I would really like to express it with you.”

So the bottom line of it is, position your ask. And if you’re on the receiving end, challenge people, “Why? what’s in it for me?” Or “Why?” Just simply why. It will actually be a great filter and the more busy you get within your life actually gets rid of those flakes that just are after you for instant information and are not willing to give back to either you, the community, or someone else.

Anyway, that’s my little rant. All the best.

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