If you’ve ever watched COPS, you’ve seen it first hand.
If you’ve ever witnessed a crime, you’ve probably done it.
If you’ve ever been stopped randomly on the streets of New York, you’ve experienced it.
The weird way people act when they can help someone out.
People change when they have information for the cops. They act, for lack of a better word, weird. Not the criminals or the victims, but the witnesses. The bystanders. The onlookers. The people Dane Cook talks about in his classic bit about a car crash:
Officer, I’m sorry, yeah I just want you to know, if it helps in your investigation, I was in my kitchen, and I heard it, so I came out. I will testify in court I was cleaning a dish, I will bring the dish as exhibit A.
Fact is, regular people LOVE talking to the police when they’re witnesses. So much so that they’ll drop whatever they’re doing (washing a dish, perhaps) to talk to the cops. They stand around talking amongst themselves, acting concerned, often until the police actually leave. They want the chance to speak their piece, to feel important.
And it’s not just talking to the cops. On the whole, people LOVE helping out. There’s no better example than Cash Cab. It’s a TV game show in a taxi cab, and one of the “lifelines” the contestants can use is the “Street Shoutout.”
They pull the cab over and literally ask the first person they see if they know the answer to the difficult trivia question. In New York City no less! The people on the street eat it up; they love helping out the complete stranger. Even if they have no idea about the answer, they’re still extremely eager to help.
Businesspeople aren’t any different. We love helping out others too. You meet someone new at a mixer, swap business cards, and get to talking. Pretty soon you mention that you’re having trouble with your widget production, and your new friend says
“O Wow! We had that same problem last year! Let me get the number for the widget consultant we used, she’s awesome!”
The added credibility that your new friend brings to the transaction will help you immensely with your problem. And she feels happy for setting up a deal between the two of you.
My point is that given the opportunity to help out someone else or give information, most people jump at the chance. It makes them feel good.
The trick?
Gathering enough information, talking to enough people, and connecting enough dots to figure out what everyone around you needs. If you make enough people feel good (through good business or referrals), they’ll feel good about mentioning your widget when they meet new contacts.