Asset Management & Recovery: You Gotta Ask

Let me introduce myself.  I am an opinionated, arrogant, stubborn, sometimes foolish businessman, husband and father. And yes, I think I am always right.  My wife, among others, would dispute my absolute correct nature, but many of my babblings ring true.  We all quote Those Old Sayings, sometimes we even listen to ourselves.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

“What goes up, must come down.”

“Don’t run with scissors in your hand.”  Ok, that’s probably a good one.

Let’s focus for a minute on one of my favorites.

“IF YOU DON’T ASK, YOU DON’T GET.”

Asking for what you want is the most basic of skills and is learned at the earliest stages of life, yet even the most savvy business people sometimes forget this.  If you are a parent, I’ll bet that your 3 year old is the best negotiator you know.  They ask for the chips or water or sucker non stop until you give it to them.  They have no fear and if you say no, they look at you funny and ask again.

In business, contract negotiations, making a sale or even getting a free meal are matters of asking for what you want.  Once a week I need to tell someone that I am not kidding.  At least once a month, I am surprised when a seemingly absurd request is complied with. 

For example, a few years ago some friends and I went to dinner at a popular Mexican restaurant in Virginia.  When the waiter approached, instead of asking for our order he asked what he could do for us that evening.  We all looked at each other and responded that we would be pleased if he bought dinner.  As it happens, this was a busy night and our real waiter was tied up with other customers.  The gentleman who approached us was the regional manager for the chain and he picked up the tab for the evening.  In return for his generosity, we didn’t splurge and tipped the waiter very well. 

Putting a little more of a local twist on this, let me tell you about my friend Tommy.   Tommy is residential builder here in town who, as a side business, buys, rehabs and sells single family properties in the “executive” market.  His partners thought that it would be an insult to offer less than 85% of the asking price on any potential project.  Their rationale was that the listing brokers were professional and the asking price was what they thought the property should bring.  “Should” being key word here.  Anyway, Tommy told me the story and asked what I thought. 

Well, it’s been a while, but every so often I sit through a “pre-motivational” seminar.  You know the ones where they give you a little information and try to sell you the whole program for $499.99?  I like the pre-seminar because I can sometimes pick up a nugget or two for free.  I remember one speaker that talked so fast there was little opportunity to understand his plug, but I left with my nugget and I regurgitated it to Tommy.  It went something like this…….

If you spend the time to review the opportunity and do your research, even if you don’t think it will pan out, spend an extra few minutes and make the offer.   The research was the hard part anyway, right?  By now you know I am big on sayings, so I added this to the mix.  “There is the way it should be and then there is the way it is.”  In Tommy’s case, what the professional broker wanted and what the seller would accept were two totally different things.  Again, you gotta’ ask.

Individuals including my wife, my banker, my friends and my bookkeeper keep telling me “You can’t ask for that!”  Well why not?  What is the worst that can happen? Truth is, most business people will say “I can’t do that, but I can do this…”.  Many times they just say yes.

So don’t be afraid to ask.  Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.  So using my Dads old sayings, “swing for the fence” and “give it all you got” because “a free dinner is a lot better than a stick in the eye.”  And if that didn’t make my point, think about this question….What did your children get from you today just because they weren’t afraid to ask?