Seeking advice as a prospecting tool?

If you reached out to people in your sphere and asked them for their advice about building your referral business, what effect might that have on their thoughts of you?

The common answer to this question is that we are revealing our lack of knowledge and that it makes us seem lesser.

In fact, the opposite may be true.  Adam Grant, in his new book, Give and Take.  A Revolutionary Approach to Success, writes, “Seeking Advice is a subtle way to invite someone to make a commitment in us.”

When we give our time, energy, and expertise to someone, we become invested in their success.  We want our input to be valuable to them and we want to see them succeed.  It validates our input.

This has powerful implications for real estate sales as it gives us an authentic and meaningful reason to reach out to the people we respect.  We’ll get great advice and likely build some strong advocates.

If you have a little summer reading time left before the fall market hits, this book is exciting.   Adam Grant is the youngest tenured professor and single highest-rated teacher at The Wharton School.