Give To Get

Give to Get

Business is the exchange of value. To conduct business requires the exchange of resources. This includes time, money or knowledge. It really is very simple; to get you have to first give. This is true today as it was 2500 years ago, but the popular belief in today’s world is to give with an expectation of getting. We all want an immediate return.

What if you give with no expectation of getting; to give and hope to receive- but not expect it? Some would argue this is gambling or just plain carelessness.  The difference is the mindset in which it’s given. Every business in every industry has the ability to provide the unexpected to their customers. Giving without any expectation of immediately receiving can pay dividends well beyond the margin gleaned from a few sales. Giving plays on the individual physic and connotes reciprocity. Giving correctly and nobly can pay dividends ten-fold. But, it requires changing the way you think and work for it to be effective.

As a macro example of this logic look at Google. Google provides free software to the world. If the world embraces it, Google makes the software just a little bit better or different and sells it to a small minority (enterprise) of buyers. Google spends millions of dollars investing in software and then gives it away to the masses for free.  

On a much smaller scale I had a friend that owned a busy convenience store on the North side of Chicago. Every Tuesday and Thursday he would bring in two high school students between 3-8pm. Their job was to “hang out” in the dispenser area and pump gas. They also handed out free mints. No big deal, right? But when was the last time you saw someone pumping gas for you?  His average inside sales were 5% less those two days but his month-over inside sales have increased 12% and fuel sales up 4%! Even with the added payroll he’s still north of a 5% increase in NOI. My friend provided a service that was not expected and it paid dividends.

I had another friend that sold cars. He would send out a Happy Anniversary card to each one of his customers every year along with a short hand written note thanking them for the business and then include something relative to the customer that he learned earlier. He would send an anniversary card for 10 years to the same customers. He would NEVER solicit trying to sell or refer another customer. Yes, the underlying spirit is a sense of marketing but he does something that very few people do and does it with little to no expectation of a return.

Most of us walk around day-dreaming and thinking about our own issues without seeing what’s right in front of us. We have all experienced situations in business when somebody did something for us that was totally unexpected. Think back right now; are these people still in business and successful?  I’d bet most are quite successful.

It’s such an easy concept but hard to practice; if you want to be successful then do the unexpected for others. Plan it without any expectation of an immediate return.     

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