You are networking with a friend or colleague. In this case, let’s call her Renee. There is someone you want to be introduced to for further networking. Let’s call him Dave. Ask Renee if Dave is generous. The vast majority of people say yes to this, their friend, Dave, is generous. So the natural follow up to learning that Dave is generous, is to ask is he likely to take a meeting with you? Usually this too is greeted with an affirmative, as it was just establishes that Dave is generous (and a generally good guy to boot!).
Now when you call Dave to ask for a networking meeting or informational interview, say that his friend Renee said that he is a generous person, and that he will likely be willing to meet with you. What do you think your odds are for getting a, “yes, I will meet you,” as an answer? Pretty high odds. You have honesty set up strong cognitive dissonance in Dave. Let’s face it, he is not too likely to say, “hey Renee is wrong, I am not generous, I am a greedy creep and I will not see you.” You have an appointment.
Get it? Now try it.
One caution: if you cannot sincerely ask Renee about generosity, don’t, because being disingenuous is very transparent.
Have fun with this word that works.
Great Post. I look forward to reading more like this one!