Less sometimes really is best

When inviting someone to consider a new business opportunity, less is best.  One of the things that they emphasize with the company that I now work with is how important it is for folks to make a decision about this business opportunity only when they have 100% of the information.  It is so tempting to try to explain a portion of the business when first making contact.  Unfortunately, this usually results in people making their decision without enough information to make a ‘good’ decision.  By ‘good’ decision, I mean one that is made from a position of strength and not a position of weakness.  Having 100% of the needed information allows a person to look at the opportunity from multiples directions.  The more information a person has the stronger and more appropriate their decision will be.  In contrast, having only 25 to 50% of the needed information prevents a person from gaining a full perspective of the opportunity resulting in a weak decision.  Both “yes, I’ll do this” and “no, I won’t do this” can be weak decisions.  A weak “Yes” comes when someone has not counted the cost to see whether they have the time and resources to commit to the proposed venture.  The result can be that they fail to schedule the needed time to work the new business or it does not produce in accordance with their unrealistic expectations.  In either case, they give up.  A weak “No” comes when someone knee jerk reactions to one aspect of the opportunity that they don’t like or they think is not feasible for them to accomplish.  Instead of seeking more information to address their concerns, they shut down and dismiss the opportunity completely.  Sometimes if they just made the time to hear all of the facts, their questions would be answered and their concerns allayed and they would not have missed out on a great opportunity.  So, remember less is best until you can set a time to give a person 100% of the information that they need to make a strong decision.