I just finished Go-Givers Sell More — I loved it! What a breath of fresh air.

Working in the alternative health care industry in a culture where “you don’t pay for health care,” selling my MacGuffin can oftentimes feel very “schmarmy.”

Reading the book has reframed sales for me into a context that I can do. The nature of what I do every day is to focus on the patient, listen to them and add value to their life. Every time I would think about sales — developing my “pitch,” contacting prospects, dealing with objections, closing the sale — it would make me cringe. Now I know why: it takes the focus away from the other person, which goes against the very grain of my training as a naturopathic doctor.

Go-Givers Sell More has given me permission to stay in my core genius as a naturopath when thinking about growing my business — focus on the other person, listen and add value. I will definitely be recommending it to my colleagues who are struggling with this part of their business and careers.

If ever an endorsement by an ND is of value to you I’d be happy to oblige.

Keep up the good work!!

Heather thought she would have no trouble finding a new job. She had strong academic credentials and an impressive résumé of corporate experience. But as she began going through her connections, cold calling and doing whatever else she could think of to find her new position, no job materialized. A month went by, then two, then three. Here is how Heather tells it:

I had never been unemployed before; recruiters were always finding me. Now nothing was working.

Eventually I got together with seven other laid-off executives who all belonged to a networking group and created an event for executives who were looking for work.

A couple of people in the group had your book, and they said, “Whatever we do for our event, we need to make sure we are helping others and giving first.” Here we were, all out of work — and our conversation revolved around how we could help others find jobs!”

The newly formed ExecNet of St. Louis adopted a mission statement and a vetting process for new members that included the question, “Are you committed to helping other executives first?”

By the spring of 2009, we had over 150 members in our group — and we were all focused on helping each other first. Many of our group had landed new jobs, others were in final stages of interviews, and others were just getting started. Our group was only three months old and already moving mountains!

Heather and her colleagues were in dire straights — but instead of giving in to recessionary anxiety, they took control of their own state of mind. In focusing their efforts on providing value to others, they created their own booming economy — and it paid off handsomely.

We reprinted this entire exchange in Go-Givers Sell More. A few weeks after the book appeared in the spring of 2010, Heather gave us this update:

We are changing our name to ExecLink, and now have standing-room-only monthly meetings with 500 members, and a regular 130+ executives attend the meeting. Can you believe it has only been a year?!

And here’s the best news: all the original seven founders have landed new jobs and continue to participate in the events.

Thanks, Heather, for the fantastic story for our book — and for the inspiring example!

“In today’s economic climate, influencing the culture of a retail company is a daily challenge. In our company, The Go-Giver has helped us move the whole organization toward providing more value and better service. We had all our store General Managers read it—and Go-Givers Sell More will be the next book we give them!”

Rick is a true go-giver — and a man of his word:

How many is that? we wondered. She told us:

“We have approximately 140 General Managers, 12 Regional/District leaders, 10 corporate-office field support positions, and another 100 or so Assistant General Managers. All told, we ordered 200 books — and will more than likely be ordering more as the year goes on.”

We wrote back to thank her and Rick, and here’s what Jennifer replied:

“Your book is a part of our culture. Just to share another tidbit, it is actually woven throughout our brand new General Manager-in-Training Program as a sales resource.”

And to demonstrate her point, she sent us an excerpt from the company’s winter newsletter:

# # #

Are you a “Go-Giver”? If not, take note of what some of your peers are doing in their stores to show their associates that “the secret to success is giving.”

In Fredericksburg, Virginia (Store #102), children who pass through the checkout receive a free coloring page. The children are encouraged to return the colored page to the store for a trip to the Treasure Box, which holds small toys for the children to take home. General Manager Bob Horn shared the below story with us.

“We had our second birthday party and when I came in [to work] I found a small stack of our free coloring pages (nicely colored) on my workspace. I asked my Activities Specialist what they were for and she told me that the girls at the birthday party had enjoyed their craft, but were much more excited to get a coloring page and free trip to the Treasure Box. It made an unexpected and apparently much enjoyed addition to their party.”

Bob says, “This program practices the Law of Value by giving more to the customer than we receive in payment. On a personal level, it allows me to practice both the Law of Value (giving something extra to the company) and the Law of Authenticity (by giving my ideas).”

About a 100 miles away, in Frederick, Maryland (Store #41), another management team was also inspired by The Go-Giver. The team gave each associate a “Fourth-Quarter Survival Kit,” which included some of the following:

1 Yellow Highlighter — to highlight your accomplishments.
1 Black Sharpie — to remind you to be sharp and aware of your surroundings.
1 Rubber Band — to keep things together.
1 Smiley Face Sticker — to remember to keep smiling.
1 pack SweetTarts — to remember to be sweet to our customers.
1 $100,000 candy bar — what you are worth to your team
1 energy bar — to pick you up.

With the holidays just around the corner, the associates were delighted that their managers thought about them and put their interests first by practicing the Law of Influence. The Survival Kit showed the team how valued they are by their managers, and at the same time, it reminded them to provide Quality Customer Care.

# # #

Thank you, Rick — and have a fabulous time on that Ohio farm!

Photo: Laura DeVeau Smith

Not too long ago Nikki, my Within Co-Owner, told me about a book called The Go-Giver. She also announced that she wanted to be our “Director of Customer Experience.”

I thought that was a very cool title, and really true to what Nikki was already doing.

Of course we are a company with a product, but the experience around that product is equally important – everything from posting inspiring quotes and videos on Facebook and Twitter, to handling shirt exchanges and answering emails. It’s all a part of what makes us Within Organics, beyond our clothing. It’s where we really get to interact with people, whether or not they are customers. And Nikki is the finest “Director of Customer Experience” I’ve ever seen. That girl truly, truly cares and pours her heart into every tee shirt she folds and ships and every newsletter she writes. It is an honor to work with her, and she constantly inspires me.

Photo: Within owners Laura, Amie and Nikki

While reading The Go-Giver, it became clear that Nikki had taken this book to heart. In a way, I’d heard it all before, but the way this book explained it got me really excited about giving.

Reading this book reinvigorated the way I look at Within and what we’re doing. We’ve always thought about it as more than selling a product, and now I truly understand what that means and what it takes. I’d rather wake up in the morning and say, “How can make someone’s day?” instead of, “How can I convince people to buy what I’m selling?” Ew, that second question is not the best motivator for me.

It was so easy to go out and test the theory by randomly giving, or contacting someone I hadn’t spoken to in a while and telling them something I always liked about them. It was amazing to watch how it spiraled into all kinds of wonderfulness, and I was touched by how the simplest gesture could make someone’s day.

It seems at the same time I started getting free help from respected mentors and in-demand consultants, as well as sincere compliments back from the people I had reached out to. It is so easy and so perfect and really the way the world should and can be.

I was recommended The Go-Giver by a business colleague. I read the book over a weekend and immediately started implementing the Five Laws.

The first thing I did was to make over-deliver our quarterly theme for the third quarter of 2009, in order to implement the first law, the Law of Value: “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”

I gave each of my staff the book and had them read it immediately. At our next staff meeting, we implemented over-deliver. At the end of each week, each employee was required to submit two ways in which they had provided more in value to their clients.

We continued this for four weeks. The catch was that you could not use an over-deliver method that you or someone else had used in previous weeks. This made everyone get very creative.

After four weeks, the staff had mastered the First Law — and now it is a part of the fabric of our company. This is just the way we do business, and it has helped our company to thrive in these rough economic times.

Thanks, Bob and John, for such an amazing and business-changing, life-changing book!

“I introduced your book and led the group through a discussion of the five ways of creating value,” said Jim. “We brainstormed ideas, and I challenged the group to use the welcome sign strategy used by Marie Jakubiak’s firm [described in Chapter 1 of Go-Givers Sell More]. Three of them took me up on the challenge, including Dan Ginnaty, who implemented the strategy within 24 hours.”

And Jim then forwarded a few notes from Dan, who runs GT Flooring in Great Falls, Montana, along with some pictures Dan took:

Got our Welcome sign up with the names of four people who might’ve been coming in today. One lady did show up.

Rose [an employee] said the woman backed up, read the sign, then proceeded to my office. She did not say anything to me—but Rose said it opened her eyes. Might just work better than expected. — Dan

… and the next day, another note from Dan:

We have a long-time customer who is building a new house. Her husband told me she would be stopping with plans, so I placed her name on the Welcome sign. When she walked into the store, she stopped, read her name, then backed up to read it again and smiled ear to ear.

After working with her for several hours (we’re talking about 5,000 sqare feet of carpet), we discussed the sign. I told her about our coaching program and the idea behind the sign. I explained that our business is very personal in how we work with customers, versus a place like Walmart that just herds them through the doors.

Her words were, “I always feel welcome here, but I have never felt so welcomed.” No more to say. My investment of $57 is paying dividends. — Dan

I loved reading The Go-Giver and got super excited when I first learned of Go-Givers Sell More. You see, it was this very concept that inspired me to start my company nearly four years ago.

Here is a brief video clip that gives a quick sense what I mean, followed by my story.

“They made fun of me…”

At 23, I began selling cars and spent the next 11 years with one Acura dealer. As an ex-insider, I can tell you that the car business, by and large, has done plenty to earn their not-so-stellar reputation.

And, I saw that as a wonderful opportunity.

I thought, “Wow, if my clients could actually enjoy what could otherwise be a very grueling process, I can really build something here.” I envisioned a long list of clients that would continue to buy from me over and over again and send me everyone they knew.

I’d been car shopping myself just four months before entering into this new career. A restaurant manager at the time, I’d spent several months looking around, visiting dealers, and meeting all kinds of salespeople — and I do mean all kinds. After an 8-year restaurant career, I ended up going to work for the very place that had sold me a car and had truly earned my business.

At first, some of my practices were not all that well received by my managers and co-workers. They actually made fun of me for being “too nice,” making friends with my clients, spending too much time with each client and even letting a client leave without a fight so they could, “go home and think about it” or “talk it over with their spouse.”

You see, I trusted that they’d actually be back. Imagine that: trusting them to honor their word instead of going in for the high-pressure close. While this didn’t always work, it certainly felt better than the alternative — and to the amazement of my managers and co-workers, most of the time it actually was working.

Thinking back on my own experiences as a consumer, it was easy to see why clients were so leery, cautious or even fearful of the car-buying process. I decided I was going to help dissolve their fears, put their needs before my own, ask meaningful questions, listen with both ears, and earn my title of Consultant. I also learned it was important to under-promise and over-deliver. Too many people, especially in the car business, practice the exact opposite. Many of my peers saw me as a bit of a consumer advocate. I was on a mission to make car buying easy, low-pressure and even fun.

It wasn’t long before all of this began paying off. After a turnover in the management and sales staff, my new peers weren’t making fun of me. Instead, they were trying to figure out why my clients were so loyal to me. Year after year, my repeat and referral base continued to grow. My CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) was in the top 1 percent nationally. Eventually I was working by appointment only, 70 percent of my business was repeat and referral — and I’d achieved Salesman of the Year seven years in a row.

I was selling a product I believe in (still drive one today), alongside people I respected, to wonderful clients … and I was only working 35 to 40 hours a week and making a very comfortable six-figure income. Could it get any better?

I suppose I had faith from the very beginning that by investing in my clients, I was investing in my own future. By following the golden rule (or better yet, the platinum rule) I trusted that I would benefit as much as, if not more than, my clients. It felt good. It felt right.

I originally founded Driven To Excel, Inc. as a Sales Training company, setting out to share this “system” — this methodology and its best practices — with other salespeople. While today’s clients might still refer to it as “sales training,” I prefer to call it what it really is: Client Service Training. My business has since evolved into much more, but one thing remains true: I trust that by providing value and putting my clients first, it will all work out in the end. I’m living proof of it.

My hope is that anyone reading this is either able to reinforce an existing belief or have newly found faith in a mindset that will prove beneficial to all human parties involved.