TIONE NDHLOVU
SO AM sitting at home, jaded out of my mind from having an early day from work, and I decide to scroll through the TV to find something interesting to watch.
I land on some channel showing the Steve Harvey Show, I almost bypass it but the little girl speaking very eloquently catches my attention, I am obviously enthralled and I decide to listen.
She is nine years old and talking about some product she has come up with and I ask myself what the difference is from her and every other nine-year-old.
Her product is a healthy lollipop she came up with because she was tired of hearing the word ‘NO’ every time she wanted to have candy. So because her parents would always tell her she could not have so much candy when she wanted to, she found a way to make her parents have no choice but say ‘YES’, make it healthy candy.
Brilliant right? Yes! Apart from the fascination that she is nine; it’s astounding how she, without prior training I presume, has already mastered something very profound about people; that they want solutions, every one of us wants a solution to the different issues we have.
You don’t think so! Okay, here is a question why do men decide it’s time to get married? Could it be because they would have realised that they lack in certain areas and they need someone to help them?
Off course it would. But here is something else, are they going to pick any girl that they meet? Definitely not, they will try their level best to find the candidate who would be the best solution to the needs they have right? Yes.
Or imagine you looking for a job; what is the reason you get hired? Because you are the best candidate right? But how are you the best candidate?
The list may go on and on, and you may say you are qualified and have the right experience and so on and so forth, some of you may just accord it to the favour of God, true!
But let me also tell you that the reason you get hired is because you would have offered a solution to the current vacancy problem, and of all the other candidates it would be you who is highly convincing to offer a solution to that company.
In my line of work, I usually get as many ‘Yeses’ as I get ‘Nos’ and recently I just lost a contract, to someone else I assume, now every time a ‘NO’ happens; I have learnt that it’s because I did not offer the client the solution they were looking for in the first place, which means I probably did not take time to know the problem and think about the best solution and someone else beat me to it.
Now, as I stated earlier, everyone is looking for a solution individuals; families; companies; countries wherever you go people have problems or issues that they need solved and as long as you do not provide a solution, you will always get a ‘NO’.
So how do you ensure you get a ‘YES’, you have to know the problem and think of the best answer to that issue, and the moment someone is convinced you are the solution they will say ‘Yes’.
Be like that nine-year-old, you have to be tired of getting ‘NOs’, ordinary candy was giving her ‘NOs’ because it is unhealthy so because she wanted a ‘YES’, she made it healthy.
Have you been knocking on doors of people and companies to offer you jobs, contracts or funds? Ask yourself what you are offering them that will solve the problem they have.
Oh! And please don’t tell me they don’t have problems, they do! Everybody has something they need solved, as the saying goes everybody has a price.
You just have to find it. So go back, but this time go with a solution. You are the key the world is waiting for.
The author is a consultant, writer, trainer/ lecturer and proprietor of Enoit Consultancy