I had the very good fortune to attend a webinar hosted by Veronica Pullen of Word of Mouth Local with her guest, Bob Burg. I read Bob’s book The Go-Giver quite a few years ago and the essence of adding value to other people has remained with me.
The book is a business parable about a young, enthusiastic salesman called Joe. He’s a real Go-Getter, but the harder he works the
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg & John David Mann
further away he feels to achieving his goals. His mentor introduces him to 5 Go-Givers and the 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success that teach Joe to become a Go-Giver.
Here are the Laws with my thoughts from a marketing perspective:
Law # 1 – The Law of Value : Create Value
Bob says, “Give more in value than you take in payment.”
Creating value is your chance to wow your customers; giving something extra that they’d not expected and that has value to them.
A simple means of giving value to visitors to your website (and an excellent way to capture their contact details to stay in touch) is an eBook that can be downloaded from your website. It may be free for you to give away but holds value to the recipient because of the useful information that it contains. I have directed many people to Veronica Pullen’s eBook ‘Unlock the 3 best kept secrets and sky rocket your sales from Twitter’.
Law # 2 – The Law of Compensation : Touch People’s Lives
Bob says, “Income is determined by how many people you serve. The more you serve the more you are rewarded. If you do a good job you will get repeat business, more referrals and therefore more profit”.
A common marketing mistake is to take a scatter gun approach; trying to reach as many people as possible and see what sticks. A more targeted approach will deliver a much higher success rate. Know who your target market is; know what they need; communicate to them the solution that you can provide and why you can serve them better than anyone else.
Law # 3 – The Law of Influence : Build Networks
Bob says, “Influence is determined by how abundantly you place others’ interests first”.
We’ve all attended networking meetings and been trapped by someone who wants to sell, sell, sell and has not a blind bit of interest in who you are and what you do.
The most successful networkers are the ones that ask “How can I help you? Who do I know that I can put you in touch with that would benefit from what you offer?”
Law # 4 – The Law of Authenticity : Be Real
Bob says, “The most valuable thing you can offer is yourself. All business or sales skills count for nothing if you are not yourself. Being real and sincere will allow you to build trust”.
When writing copy for communications use language that is genuine and empathise with the person that will read your marketing material.
If you are making a telephone call to someone that you’ve not had contact with before, be honest and say “we’ve not spoken before”. This will put you in a much better position to start the conversation.
Law # 5 – The Law of Receptivity : Stay Open
Bob says, “The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. Giving and receiving is an equation; you can’t have one without the other.”
I’ve recently received some very practical and hugely helpful feedback from a business coach, Nicci Bonfanti of Manage2Improve, about how I can improve my presentations. I really valued this feedback because, when applied, it will make a significant improvement. I was very thankful and told her so.
It takes 2 seconds to say thank you and it’s a shame that more people do not do this.
So, are you a Go-Giver or a Go-Getter?
