The Power of Asking

“If only you knew just how much power, you hold inside of you, you would be unstoppable!”

Early this year in February 2020, I held my first sales seminar. We called it, Ignite Your Sales Seminar 2020. It was hosted in one of the best locations in the CBD in Mombasa, Kenya.  Back in the year 2019, I had written down one of my strategic goals in 2020 was to organize and host a Sales Seminar that would bring together a diverse number of people who were employed and or did businesses.

I have always held to the belief that sales is the cornerstone of any business. If you are employed, doing business, earning an income of some kind or simply living life in anyway, you are always selling something hoping that someone would buy.

In business, if you are not selling, you may as well not be in business.

I wanted to organize a sales seminar that would be empowering to anyone who was in sales.  The idea was for people to come together and learn how to ignite their sales in the year 2020 while at the same time network with likeminded individuals.

Since this was my first seminar, I had a lot of fears within me. First, I was working with a very tight budget. Secondly, being fairly new in the consultancy world, I was not sure if anyone would show up for the event – I was not a household name. Thirdly, I needed to have a mix of speakers that would speak on different topics geared toward the theme of the seminar- Ignite your sales in 2020. Lastly but not least , I needed the right people to work with me in the logistics to bring this vision into reality.

Take a second and imagine the pressure I was in.

Immense.

I needed to get everything in order in good time. Booking of the venue. Advertising. Assembling of the speakers. The right pricing. Getting the right workforce to work with, meet the deadline etc.

That is not even the story.

Truth is, I was cash strapped. All I had was my vision and the determination to see it come to fruition. I had no money to pay the speakers. And I was faced with the dilemma to charge the delegates a premium fee that would be enough to also pay the speakers. I contemplated that for a second.

Then again, I was a new player trying to get my footing in inspiring and motivating lives. Who would pay a premium?

It took a lot of will power and the fire within me to continue with the planning of the sales seminar despite the challenges I was facing. I strongly believed in the value that I was offering, and I knew whoever attended will not leave the same way they came.

That was the transformation I was gearing for.

I identified professionals and experts in their fields within my local community.  Personalities that I knew would add value to my delegates.

Then, I exercised my power of asking.

You can imagine, the brevity and the strong fort I put when I made those calls to the potential speakers as I sold my sales seminar vision to them. At some point I thought I was overselling myself. I was not going to back out. I was focused on making it happen. I largely explained the value that both the delegates and the speakers would get from the sales seminar. I humbly asked if they could please make time from their busy schedules and come to give value -for free?

I made calls. I pushed. Some said No. I persisted.

In the end, through persistence and strong belief in my work, I got five YESs from five different speakers!

Let this sink in.

We finally had our dream team speakers! I was super excited!

The day of the Ignite Your Sales Seminar 2020 came. Delegates did not disappoint. They showed up in numbers that really encouraged my team and I who had worked so tireless to make that day happen.

Saying that we had a great time would be underselling the success of the sales seminar! The speakers gave more than a hundred percent of themselves, something that to this day, I humbly appreciate with the whole of me. The seminar sessions were interactive, fun and with incredible lifetime lessons.

Exactly as I had envisioned it.

All this happened because I ASKED.

Ignite Your Sales Seminar is an annual event that we hope to be hosting. The success of our first, encouraged me to dream for a much bigger, better sales seminar for the year 2021 and the consecutive years.

This is for you!

Go forth and ask, ask, ask! Ask shamelessly! Get rejected and move on to the next person. Ask for help. Ask for ideas. Ask for whatever resources you know you need. May the fire in you burn more than the fear of asking!

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Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new

Barack Obama

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