I had 2 instances of this today. Tony, a senior man at a big bank asked if I’d do a free hour for him and his mteam on a particular aspect of networking. No problem. When I arrived they asked how they could help me..this was even before I had given any advice.
I hope I helped and then mentioned the introductions I was loooking for. I know I will get more business from this 1 hour.
This evening I did a presentation at a discounted price. The organiser knew this and her gratitude showed when she asked if I could do some more work at a commercial rate.
It’s so true, only yesterday I got asked to make contact with someone who was having problems with a certain software product we use. I had posted on a forum the day before with a question relating to said software and he had called in the hope I might now have the answer. At first I grumbled and thought why should I be bothering to help him for nothing, I was busy, I didn’t have time. I caved in and had a 5 minute chat with him. We both vented our spleen at how poor we thought aspects of the software are and I passed on knowledge I had gathered relatng to the problem we shared. He then sent me a copy of a training document relating to the software which he’d obtained during an expensive training course with the makers of the software the week before. So, I gave a bit and got a bit back and it took 5 minutes of my time, worthwhile I’d say.