Assuming the No

Recently, I wrote about the pursuit of the Big Idea, and how we prevent ourselves from making them into reality.

One of the reasons we use to prevent our development of Big Ideas is:

We decide we can’t get buy-in from needed partners or leaders.

This is "Assuming the No".

People in direct sales are very familiar with this, and to be successful, they have to do a very good job in overcoming what I suspect is a natural inclination to assume people don't want you, your ideas, your products, or your services.

I struggle with this myself! I have a nearly pathological fear of approaching people I don't already know in order to sell my services (and yes, I'm working on that).

This is related to something a friend and I were discussing the other day - the idea that we have

Protip:  Grumpy Cat will not be on board.

been programmed to ask for permission to do anything.

Starting as small children, we need to ask for permission from parents, teachers, pastors, coaches and a whole host of other people.  As adults, we include needing the permission of bosses, coworkers, vendors, and customers.

When we become small business people, we then retain this habit, even when we don't have to!

So this is what we do:

1. We ask or wait for permission
2. We assume that permission will not be granted.

I want to explore asking for permission further in another post, so lets get back to that NO you think you're going to get, and let's assume you do need "permission" to proceed with the idea (such as buy-in from a potential partner).

We all know the saying about assuming things (and if you want to see the origin of the phrase, as far as I can tell, take a few minutes and watch this scene from The Odd Couple - classic!) but that's not the real core of this problem.

Why are we automatically assuming that NO is the answer?

What happens if we change our minds and assume that YES is the answer? That the idea will sound as good to other people as it does to us?  That they, too, will be swept up in the excitement of our Big Idea?

Unlike when we were kids, where we learned that Mom and Dad were absolutely not going to allow us to eat candy for dinner every night, there's no good reason to assume that every person will give you no for an answer other than our own doubts and fears.

Here's a challenge: for one week, in everything you do, to assume that whenever you need buy-in from somebody else, that the answer will be YES.  Don't let your fear of no prevent you from getting that client, partner, or Big Idea off the ground.

Start assuming the yes.

I bet it's going to change your perception of what you can do - and you'll discover that it was you saying no far more often than other people.

Try it, and let me know how it goes!

You can always drop me a note at AbanicoMktg@gmail.com or comment below.