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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