I've Got A Problem...
If a friend or acquaintance said to you "I've got a problem" you
almost smile before catching yourself, and carefully expressing
concern. Admit it we all have problems, most of us don't talk
about it, so when someone admits a problem we're a little
pleased that their problems are worse than ours.
"...And I Could Use Your Help!" Oh, my! The Ladies clutch their
purse a little tighter, the men squeeze their butt together
either to symbolically hold their wallet or checking to make
sure it's still there. Admit it.
No matter how compassionate we are it's comforting to know
other's have bigger problems than we do. You won't admit it,
well then why do we take such comfort in the old saying "there
but for the grace of God, go I?" "I have a problem" gets our
attention because it's comforting!
No matter how compassionate we are "I could use your help" also
gets our attention! How much is it going to cost me? How much
time is it going to take? How much work is involved?
"I have a problem... and I could use your help," are powerful
words especially when followed with a request for help. If your
request involves neither money, time, or labor the people will
be so relived they feel almost obligated to help.
"I have a problem." I've gone five paragraphs and not mentioned
my book "One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single Family
Rentals." I write about real estate investment and I use "I have
a problem and I could use your help" to recruit bird dogs
(people who refer distressed home owners to me) and to request
referrals for my mortgage brokerage business. A lot of real
estate gurus teach canned sales speeches in order to provide
bulk to justify their extraordinarily high prices. I don't. I've
been in lending and real estate since 1969, and I've never met
anyone who ever bought a house repeating someone else's words,
like a parrot. But, I've never found any phrase as powerful as
those ten little words. "I have a problem... and I could use
your help." They won't buy you a single house, but they can
locate more opportunities than any "I Buy Houses" sign.
I wish I could tell you I though this up. I took it from a
motivational speaker, Art Fettig, twenty-one years ago. Art
credits someone else, and I'm sure it goes on and on.
These words will invoke strong emotions from the people you
address. I recently wrote Art (we talked twice over twenty-two
years ago, the story is in "One House At A Time") because I
credit his tapes and books for motivating me to finish my book,
I included a recent example of how I used "I have a problem" was
the only thing he saw, his answer was quick, short, and terse,
there are few thing you can say that always invoke such strong
emotions. I wrote Art back suggesting he reread the letter, and
then got a very nice letter from a great man (www.artfetig.com.)
"I have a problem" works.
Now to the point of this article. I have a problem, and I could
use your help. I wrote this great book about real estate
investing, "One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single
Family Rentals." It's available on the web at:
http://www.reii.org would you please look at the site and tell
your friends about it.