You Ask, You Get (Or At Least You Improve Your Chances)
How often do you ask for the things you want? When it comes to things like getting ahead in your job, getting good deals, or making changes in your life, asking for what you want can really pay.
Here are a few of the things I’ve gotten employment-wise because I asked:
- A temp job
- A part time job
- A full time job
- Raises at a variety of jobs
- Additional vacation time (both paid and unpaid)
- Additional responsibilities (as you might imagine, people are often happy to let you do more work)
And those are just things related to jobs. Of course, I made valuable contributions in exchange, but people don’t just automatically go from “oh she’s doing a good job” to “oh let’s offer her this”.
So asking helps.
I’ve asked for (and received) a slew of things in my personal life too, ranging from getting items free in stores to getting samples of food that they don’t normally give samples of in restaurants.
Of course, I hear no sometimes too. I have a mental “rule” though that if I really want something that I can’t get without someone’s help (such as a special deal on a service), I ask at least 5 different people — and in a variety of ways, too — before I even think of giving up.
I just know that, generally speaking, people do want to help if they can find a way to do so. I’m nice about it, but I ask.
And it pays. Just ask any teenager or two year old. They’re very good at asking for what they want.
In fact, my son and I were talking about this same thing recently. He said that if he hears no, he asks again, because the more times you ask, the better your chances are of hearing yes.
And he’s exactly right.
What have you asked for lately?
The one thing that you can be certain of is, if you don’t ask you wont get!!!
Whenever I buy something expensive, before I purchase I always ask for a discount, or ask if they will include something that sweetens the deal.
Yup, that’s a good policy to have. Once I did an experiment where I asked for a discount or an extra on *everything* I bought, even silly things you wouldn’t expect to get something like that on. I was surprised at how many people said yes.
Asking questions is a great negotiation tool! It is far less intimidating and it gets better results.
Also, sometimes you find out things you wouldn’t have known otherwise that can be mutually beneficial.