HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
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Tips on how to provide value to your customers and contacts with Bob Burg
- The answer was they’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
- All things being equal people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like, and trust
- Giving simply means, again, providing value to others in a way that others find it to be a value.
- Trust is both in terms of Stephen M. R. Covey, who wrote the great book, The Speed Of Trust would say, trust both in terms of competence and character.
- He had a binder with 66, not questions, but bits of information about people. It was about the spouse’s name, the kids’ names, where this prospect went to school, or of what college were they an alumnus of, what were their hobbies.
- I think that with both the podcast and Facebook Lives, I think what maybe I bring to the table is wisdom from other people because I bring people who not everybody has necessarily heard of.
- He did a total shift and looked at how he could bring more value, which didn’t mean spending more money. That’s not what you need to do, but how he could really focus on that person and bring as much value to the table as he could above and beyond.
- I would define networking simply as the cultivating of mutually beneficial give and take or really give and receive win-win relationships. The focus is on giving.
- Instead, what I suggest people do is focus on this person. Invest 99.9% of the conversation with that person asking them questions about themselves and their business.
- How can I know if someone I’m speaking with that would be a good prospect for you?
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
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Interview Highlights with Bob Burg…
Years and years ago, back in the, I think the early 90s is when I came out with my first book, which was called Endless Referrals, and the subtitle was Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales. It was about business networking back in the day before everyone was writing about business networking. Back then there were just a few of us. The idea was really to teach salespeople and entrepreneurs who knew they had a great product or service. They were proud of what they did. They understood the value it brought to others, but they just were not comfortable or knowledgeable about the process of going out and creating relationships that would lead to direct business with people and with referral business.
I began to think, and this was back in the early 2000s I began to think, wouldn’t it be great if we could take the basic premise of Endless Referrals, which was that all things being equal people will do business with and refer business to those people they know like, and trust, which had been the major theme I’d been teaching for years and years. So the first thing I did really in thinking of the title was what’s the essence of those people who are able to create those know, like and trust relationships quickly, effectively and sustainably.
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
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The answer was they’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others. So we came up with the name, the Go-Giver and with the basic premise of the story and really all the stories in the series being that shifting your focus from getting to giving. And when we say giving in this context, we mean constantly and consistently providing value to others, and understanding that not only is that a pleasant way of conducting business, it’s the most financially profitable way as well.
Giving simply means, again, providing value to others in a way that others find it to be a value. There are a couple of distinctions that I think we’ve got to know when it comes to this. One is understanding the difference between price and value, which is too often confused. Price is a dollar figure. It’s a dollar amount. It’s finite. It is what it is. Value can be defined as the relative worth or desirability of a thing, of something to the end-user or beholder. In other words, what is it about this thing, this product, service, concept, idea, what have you, that brings so much worth to someone of value to someone that they will willingly exchange in the business sense, it would be their money for that and feel, and be grateful for doing so. Feeling great about it while you make a very nice profit.
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
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Of course, there’s, before that happens, there’s also giving of value in a way that the other person would find to be a value. So it might be through connections, it might be through information or help in some other way. It might be through a number of things. But the other part of that I want to mention is that value is always in the eyes of the beholder. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is they begin to… They attempt to build a relationship with someone through bringing value or giving value to them and they wonder why they’re not successful in doing so. And often what they’re doing is they’re taking what they find to be a value and giving that or providing that or communicating that when that other person may not value it all.
I think what you’ve got to always go back to is the know, like, and trust and ask yourself if that has been established because the chances are if they know… They already know you, if they don’t like you and trust you. Trust is both in terms of Stephen M. R. Covey, who wrote the great book, The Speed Of Trust would say, trust both in terms of competence and character. If the like and the trust isn’t there it doesn’t matter how much you feel you’ve given them or not, it’s probably not going to happen. But if the like and trust are there, then sure, at any time you can discuss business with them.
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
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Exactly. How did they do it? Well, here’s Mackay’s 66, which you brought up and of course this was long before the day of the internet where you could find out information on people by doing a simple search. He had a binder with 66, not questions, but bits of information about people. The salespeople were sort of charged with filling in as many of those blanks of information that they could, but it had nothing to do with envelopes or even the prospect’s company. It was about the spouse’s name, the kids’ names, where this prospect went to school, or of what college were they an alumnus of, what were their hobbies. Where did the family like to go on vacation? Everything, what are their charities?
I think that with both the podcast and the Facebook Lives, I think what maybe I bring to the table is wisdom from other people because I bring people who not everybody is necessarily heard of. It’s not always those are doing the rounds of the podcasts, and the lives kind of like me. A lot of times these are people who just accomplish magnificent things, but they’re not in the mainstream. They’re doing their business, and so forth. And I get to bring them on, and I ask them questions and it’s about them. I never make the podcast or the lives about me. I’m not there to show off whatever quasi knowledge I think I have. It’s always about the other person and just connecting the wisdom of those people with my listeners and viewers.
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
He did a total shift and looked at how he could bring more value, which didn’t mean spending more money. That’s not what you need to do, but how he could really focus on that person and bring as much value to the table as he could above and beyond. Also in terms of helping people figure out what the insurance would pay for and what it wouldn’t and doing all the things that his competitors were not doing and his business just went hog-wild. I want to say went through the roof. But that would be just such an obvious pun. It would, you know.
That is not networking. I would define networking simply as the cultivating of mutually beneficial give and take or really give and receive win-win relationships. The focus is on giving. So what you see so often is people will introduce themselves to each other and they’ll immediately go into their elevator speech. I always find that that is very counterproductive. Or at least at best just nonproductive. Why? Because when someone first meets you their level of interest in you and your business can be summarized in three words, they don’t care.
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
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So, instead, just listen to them. I know they say, you ask the person what he does and he says, “I sell high-end copying machines to businesses that need to modernize or whatever.” Does his thing. So, listen attentively, and that’s fine. When he asks you what you do just give a very simple answer like I’m a realtor with so and so, or I’m an accountant with a local firm or blah, blah, blah, blah. Why? Because again, they don’t care right now, and they’re not listening and you don’t have to bother. There’s plenty of time.
Instead, what I suggest people do is focus on this person. Invest 99.9% of the conversation with that person asking them questions about themselves and their business. I often say to my audiences when I speak at sales conferences, “Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who let you do practically all the talking?” Well, didn’t you come away from that conversation saying to yourself, “Wow, what a fascinating conversation that person is.” You can be the fascinating conversationalist, but ask them about themselves and that’s going to actually attract them to you and want to know more about you much faster than trying to give them that elevator… even if even a benefit statement, which is so much nicer than an elevator speech, either one right now, it’s going to go right past their minds.
You’re right. Exactly. We ask a couple of those questions then once we have that kind of rapport step established, I would suggest asking what I call my one key question that will separate you from everyone else and truly attract that person to wanting to know more about you. And that question is, “Gary, how can I know if someone I’m speaking with that would be a good prospect for you?” Dr. Mary, how can I know if someone I’m speaking with… Let’s say she’s a chiropractor, how can I know if someone I’m speaking with would be a good perspective patient for you?
Another way to ask which has kind of a nice frame to it is, “Pat, I always love connecting good people with other good people. How can I know if someone I’m speaking with is a good prospective customer for you?” However, you want to do it. And then if the person’s not in sales, you might just say, how can I know if someone I’m speaking with is someone you’d like to meet or would be a good connection for you?
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HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS AND CONTACTS
They’re always giving. They’re giving value to others. Their focus is always on how they can bring value or give value to others.
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Get in touch with Bob:
- Website – The Go Giver
- Website – Bob Burg
- Bob on LinkedIn
Find out more about Bob:
- The Go-Giver Podcast
- Bob on Facebook
- Bob on Instagram
- Bob on Twitter
Links to other related podcasts:
HOW TO TARGET, CONNECT AND CONVERT SALES LEADS
LEAD GENERATION FOR CONSULTANTS AND ADVISORS