Never forget the great value of free.
And here’s one more phrase to remember: never forget the
great value of free.
When you give your time, talent and attention to another
person for free, you never know what might come back to you.
You can give your information, insights and introductions to
other people for free. Free is an amazing thing. It might open up
new valuable relationships for you, and you never know where
they might lead you.
A few personal stories from my own ecosystem.
When I was starting my business in 1997, I was still
teaching high school math. I had a student named Tim. I
volunteered to organize an event for parents on leadership, and
I had heard that Tim’s father was good at strategic planning, so
I invited him to speak. It turns out his dad was a regional vice
president of McDonald’s USA. He ended up not being able to
speak, but we met for lunch. We developed a valuable relation-
ship. He eventually guided me into 10 years of consulting work
at McDonald’s USA that stretched across the United States
and involved more than 700 of their executives, managers and
franchisees.
In 2001, I met a woman at a meeting who was just starting out
as an independent consultant. I offered to meet with her to offer
some insights on how she could grow her business. Then we didn’t
talk at all from 2003-2015. She remembered my name and in 2015
introduced me to three people who became great clients of mine.
Whenever someone says he or she is interested in working
with me as an executive coach, I always say, “Here’s how I do it.
The first three sessions are free. There is no charge at all.”
Free allows both the other person and myself to see if we
can have a good working relationship. We can see if we have
good chemistry in working together. It also allows the other
person to actually see what executive coaching really is like in the
way I do it. Most people really don’t know what it is in they’re
getting into with a particular executive coach, and free allows
them to learn if it’s something that will be of value for them.
Whatever your organization sells, if there is a way that you
can allow people to experience it for free and to learn what it
would be really be like to have it, I encourage you to offer it for
free. The person will get to know whether they like your product
or service, and he or she will get to know what it’s like to work
with you and the other people in the organization.
Never forget the great value of free.
Conclusion
Continually pour effort into strengthening and broadening
your ecosystem of valuable relationships. Meet a person, learn
his or her name, find out something about the person and then
provide the person with information, insights and introductions.
In all likelihood, you will never sell that person anything, but
you never know what doors that person might open for you or
how big the room will be. S
DAN COUGHLIN is president of The Coughlin Company Inc., a
management consulting firm focused on improving executive
effectiveness and significance. He teaches The Any Person
Mindset Management Approach. Visit his free Business
Leadership Idea Center at www.thecoughlincompany.com.
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