Mike Michalowicz's Blog, page 42

Season of Giving Part II

In my last post I discussed a gift I received. I was grateful, humbled, and I will always appreciate it.

That gesture was a reminder of how much I enjoy the act of giving as well. It doesn’t have to be monetary – it can be giving time to your community, a kindness, even mentoring.

What are some of the organizations you give to? One that I love is Kiva. Kiva is a wonderful non profit which lends funds to low income entrepreneurs and students through crowdfunding. Knowing I can play a small part in someone getting their start is so rewarding.

The greatest gift of giving? The way it makes us feel.

Think about some ways you can give back to your community. Not just this month, but all year round. See how inspired you remain through this generous act.

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Giving – Part I

It’s the season of giving, and as entrepreneurs we are in a unique position to be generous in various ways.

You have heard me talk about the importance of entrepreneurs serving others. What better time of year to be reminded of this? I was happy to see other entrepreneurs feel the same way recently when I was speaking at a Robin Robins Technology Marketing Toolkit event.

Robin donated $5,000 to Alzheimer’s research. You’ll have to watch the video to find out the painful bet that got me my 5k! Jokes aside, The cause Robin donated to is something personally near and dear to me and my family. This individualized act of generosity is something I will never forget.

The power of giving is so impactful. It doesn’t have to be an exorbitant amount of money. You can give time, kindness, even a compliment. You never know how much of an impact it can make in another life.

How will you be giving this season and how can you continue your generosity through 2020?

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Season of Giving – Part I

It’s the season of giving, and as entrepreneurs we are in a unique position to be generous in various ways.

You have heard me talk about the importance of entrepreneurs serving others. What better time of year to be reminded of this? I was happy to see other entrepreneurs feel the same way recently when I was speaking at a Robin Robins Technology Marketing Toolkit event.

Robin donated $5,000 to Alzheimer’s research. You’ll have to watch the video to find out the painful bet that got me my 5k! Jokes aside, The cause Robin donated to is something personally near and dear to me and my family. This individualized act of generosity is something I will never forget.

The power of giving is so impactful. It doesn’t have to be an exorbitant amount of money. You can give time, kindness, even a compliment. You never know how much of an impact it can make in another life.

How will you be giving this season and how can you continue your generosity through 2020?

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Eliminate This for a Successful Business

Want a superpower in your business? Be user friendly.

Watch me open my new iPhone. Left handed. Which I am not. You don’t get more user friendly than that.

User friendly. There’s an attractive phrase. As a profitable entrepreneur, you know one of the main keys for a successful business is to be user friendly. What’s the opposite of user friendly? If you ask Roger Dooley, he will tell you: friction.

If you haven’t heard already, we have a book club here at home base. Every quarter we are assigned a new book to boost our performance and growth. Roger is one of my favorite authors and we have read several of his books. Roger has written Friction, his latest book which we all read, The Persuasion Slide and Brainfluence. Roger came on our podcast to drop some logic bombs about the user experience and how we can eliminate friction. Listen up!

So what is friction in business? Friction is anything that interferes with your client’s ability to utilize your services effectively.

If you read Friction (as you should) you will see all the places you are getting in your own way of profit in your business. Stop for a minute and think about where you yourself have found friction in your own user experience. Now think about yourself as a consumer of your business.

Customer experience should be seamless. Websites that don’t log you out (thanks, Amazon!), cable companies that don’t change plans or service (do you know of one?), car rentals without lines, toy packaging that you don’t need power tools to open and communication when needed. Sounds wonderful, right? The same goes for your business. The last thing you want is friction and frustration in your client’s experience. At least, not if you are looking to keep and increase customers.

Can you identify instances of friction in your own business? How can you eliminate it?

What is friction? Friction exists in large and small businesses. How do we identify friction in our business and what are the hidden frictions? Take a look at your current rules and reporting systems. Often times they can become entities are no longer enhancing productivity and customer experience. They create organizational drag – time and money wasted on meetings, reports and protocol that benefits no one. This drag makes it difficult to get anything done because you are so consumed with system imposed time. These things detract from the user experience and we know the opposite should be happening.
What is the result of friction in our business?

Friction impedes the outcome in business. The end. Hopefully not the end of your business.
How can you avoid friction in your business? The biggest way to eliminate friction in your business is to spend time researching and identifying what aspects of your business are friction points. Make yourself a differentiator from other companies. What is their feedback? How can you enhance their experience? How can you make their experience frustration free and the most user friendly?

Once you have identified the aspects of friction in your business you can get to work on making those systematic and behavioral changes. Atomic Habits, by James Clear, is another book we read here in the office. Through it we learned that to make real, long lasting behavioral changes, we must adopt new habits. The easier you make it the more likely you will be able to do it. Adopt simple new habits in your business. Revamp or do away with systems that stood in the way of profitability. Match the priorities of the customer so they have a far more user friendly experience.

The friction free company beats the company with high friction processes in place. Every time. Listen to your customers because if you don’t get it right for them they will go somewhere else.

What systems do you have in place that eliminate friction in your business? Keep things and friction free as possible and say hello to a more profitable business.

For more tips like this go to Mikemotorbike.com or Mikemichalowicz.com and click on Get the Tools for tons of tried and true resources for business help and how to run a truly profitable business. Let’s rock entrepreneurship!

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The Benefits of a Mastermind Group

I believe no man is an island. So I offer this tip – if you’re an entrepreneur, you need to be in a mastermind.

Belonging to a mastermind group is one of the most powerful tools to help you increase profitability in your business.

1. What is a mastermind group?

If you aren’t familiar, a mastermind is a group in which entrepreneurs can mentor each other and help each other grow their businesses. It can be an important catalyst for grown and in shaping your business.

The mastermind I run is called The Edison Collective. We get together face to face every quarter to expand our business (and occasional musical) knowledge. We share our ideas, solutions, best practices, successes and challenges as entrepreneurs. Most of all, we motivate and inspire each other.

2. What are the benefits of belonging to a mastermind?

While some mastermind groups run on a digital platform, face to face meetings are important if it’s an option. What I love about being in a mastermind is the connection. We are truly there to learn from each other. No one walks in with their ego. We gather to benefit ourselves as well as each other by sharing and learning from other entrepreneurial experiences.

To benefit from a mastermind you must be willing to collaborate, share and learn from each other. At times, it’s almost like free coaching. You get sneak peeks at how businesses run behind the scenes and oftentimes, we take those ideas and implement them into our own practices. And remember, trust is imperative. There is total confidentiality, so feel free not to not be boss for a bit.

I have found that meeting with this group has raised the bar for me. My business is more profitable. I find support from my peers, education and resources I may not have been exposed to in the past. Even better, I have another venue for accountability (yup, even I need it!) and a place to share my goals. So next quarter when we meet, I better bring the results!

3. Who can be in a mastermind?

The beautiful thing is that you don’t have to join an established mastermind. You start your own. Find like minded entrepreneurs who are driven to achieve the same goals and vision you are. Get together once a quarter face to face, have open discussions about your business and get your insights from each other. That right there? Priceless!

If you want more tips like this go to Mikemotorbike.com or Mikemichalowicz.com and click on Get the Tools for tons of tried and true resources for business help and how to run a truly profitable business. Let’s rock entrepreneurship!

The post The Benefits of a Mastermind Group appeared first on Mike Michalowicz.

Business Fundamentals & Fix This Next

Not much beats spending time with an old friend. I recently visited with one of my close friends from college, Greg Eckler. You may recognize his name as the weirdo I mentioned in Profit First who loves tax time (of COURSE he does, since he implemented Profit First in his business years ago!).

Greg and I were chatting about my next book, Fix This Next. (Greg also has a nickname he was so graciously given in our business fraternity, but if you want to know if you have to read chapter 5 in Profit First!) Greg owns a real estate business called Denver Realty Experts. We were discussing the fundamentals of Fix This Next, some of which are based on Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The Hierarchy of Needs for Business is very similar to Mazlow’z. What am I talking about, right?

If you look at Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you see the base is physiological, then safety, followed by belonging and love, esteem and finally, self actualization. Fundamentally speaking,The Business Hierarchy of Needs is not that much different.

The BHN consists of:

Sales (which is the base)
Profit
Order
Impact
Legacy

Sales, profit and order are known as the “get” levels of business. If established as a solid foundation, those are the three keys to a profitable business. Impact and legacy are considered the “give” levels of business. They are likely the reason you became an entrepreneur in the first place.

So back to Greg. While kindly nodding at me while I explained all this, Greg had an interesting point. Since he is in real estate, and is a genuinely good guy looking out for his clients, he practically skips over the order aspect in the “get” level and goes straight to impact in the “give” level. At least at first.

For Greg, his business is profitable because it is based on establishing a relationship. Sure, most business relationships require trust, but when you’re helping someone find a new home, it can be a whole other ball game. It’s not just about selling a house. Greg is helping create the future of that sale for the buyer. (Man I hope everyone in real estate feels this way!) You’re not selling a sweater, here. You’re selling a home where a family will live. A home where a family makes a future, including a potential resale of that home. While focusing on the order makes things way more efficient, the impact is what really matters for the customer.

The point in all this is yes, I am still right, ha! There is a hierarchy of business needs. It is not, however, a ladder that you climb and they stay there. For instance with Greg, he went from profit, right to impact in selling a home – but that doesn’t mean the other steps are skipped. To have a successful business, Greg still must ensure there is profit and order, even though that impact already occurred by default.

To run a profitable business you know that as an entrepreneur there will be times you ping pong around this model of needs. But, the closer you stick to it, and build that solid foundation, the stronger your business will be.

If you are an entrepreneur, you likely started your business with a burning desire to make an impact and change the world. I know I did. Thing is? You can’t make an impact without the means (sales, I’m talking about sales, here, people).  Once you have the money, you need to make sustainable profit. And, after your profit, you must have financial order.

Now, with this formula and the rest of the tools in Fix This Next, you can go on with your bad self. Sales, Make that impact and leave your legacy.

If you want more tips like this go to Mikemotorbike.com or Mikemichalowicz.com and click on Get the Tools for tons of tried and true resources for business help and how to run a truly profitable business. Let’s rock entrepreneurship!

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The Rise of Successful Female Entrepreneurs

There are more female entrepreneurs now than ever before.

Check out these magazines featuring successful female entrepreneurs on their cover – Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Fortune and Success, all heralding an era of female achievement. The ratio is changing.

In the past it seemed the media was trying to perpetuate the perception of female entrepreneurs and executives as if they were males. They were posed like men, dressed like men…but check out the cover of Inc. Magazine. They made media history by featuring Audrey Gelman, CEO of The Wing. She is the first visibly pregnant women featured on the cover of a business magazine. Blaze. That. Trail!

Look, I’m not here to mansplain. And, I know I am scratching the surface of gender in business. But as you know, I love seeing others succeed, and even better when it’s a group who statistically has had less entrepreneurs. One female entrepreneur we were lucky enough to have on Entrepreneurship Elevated podcast is Michelle Pippin. Michelle is the founder of Women Who Wow, a coaching and mentoring program for female entrepreneurs. She offered some insight regarding female entrepreneurship and women in the workplace.

One of the questions I posed to Michelle was what sets female entrepreneurs apart from their counterparts? Well, aside from the obvious?

Expectations

Successful female entrepreneurs are not that different from men, however, Michelle notes there are different expectations placed on each party. She says women, along with the rest of society, place the expectation of being all things to all people squarely on women’s shoulders. I’ve seen it in my own life. Let’s face it, when my wife and I had kids, no one asked, “Oh, what are you going to do Mike? Are you coming back to work?” But you bet just about every female in the workplace is asked this if she’s building a family.

Entrepreneurship and traditional female roles

While not every woman becomes a mother, statistically there are more female entrepreneurs who are indeed mothers. Michelle and I discussed the stigma women, and society, place on mothers. A bit of damned if you do damned if you don’t. Sometimes there’s shaming for “just” being a mom, and conversely, shaming for being a working mother. Stigma aside, what’s the best way to manage that conflict? Michelle says it’s tough to navigate balance for love of family and burning desire to follow your passion. Her fix? Flip that script and feed your own priorities vs someone else’s expectations.

Finding balance

Speaking of priorities. Michelle says don’t seek balance! Instead of the eternal search for The Holy Grail of Balance, guide yourself by priority. One day your priority may be your keynote speech or appearance on MSNBC, the next day your priority may be your family. If you truly tap into a sense of what your priorities are (again, priorities, not other’s expectations), a sense of balance will likely fall into place naturally.

Different management styles of men and women

Michelle also says women have a tendency to place standards of perfection on themselves, and feel a need to be perfect in all of the many roles they are expected to fulfill – did we mention perfectly? Let’s face it – society expects women to be strong, yet soft, professional, yet maternal, shrewd, yet kind. Michelle’s work around that? Defiance! Defy all the expectations with no excuses. Example, you don’t have to temper saying no to someone by following it up with an explanation. And that could certainly ruffle feathers.

A strong or defiant man is a leader, but a woman can be labeled a “bitch”. It’s not something I have ever believed or supported and often wondered how women deal with that. We loved Michelle’s perspective and it resonated with us deeply: not one drop of another’s opinion should affect your confidence or worth. (Repeat that if it didn’t sink in the first time.) If you are strong in that conviction, the concern of others is diminished and you can focus on your priorities. Determining what you want from your life as an entrepreneur should be your gauge for your own self esteem. It should be your measurement – not the measurement of anyone else.

Michelle has two favorite tips on how to defeat challenges of entrepreneurship and they apply to men as well as women.

Defiance

Yes, there it is again! Defiance! Entrepreneurs need to be defiant. It’s a main strategy that Michelle uses. Simply put, Michelle breaks rules to avoid blending into the masses. (Man, does this sound familiar!) 

Consistency

Michelle attributes a huge part of her success to practicing consistency. It’s a quiet strength in a loyalty to your own goals. What you do every single day gets you farther. That consistency dramatically sets you apart. Consistency makes people notice you.

Female entrepreneurship is an important topic, one that cannot be summed up in one blog post. But for now, this is me saying how grateful I am that the entrepreneurial field is leveling out. I am so excited to collaborate with more entrepreneurs across the board.

If you want more tips like this go to Mikemotorbike.com or Mikemichalowicz.com and click on Get the Tools for tons of tried and true resources for business help and how to run a truly profitable business. Let’s rock entrepreneurship!

The post The Rise of Successful Female Entrepreneurs appeared first on Mike Michalowicz.

How to Use Gifting as a Marketing Channel

In this interview, Mike interviews John Ruhlin, author and founder of GIFT∙OLOGY. John has been praised as a world-class gift marketer by people like Gary Vaynerchuk, Shep Hyken, Lewis Howes, John Lee Dumas, and has been featured on places such as Inc, Forbes, Fast Company, Fox News, and the New York Times.

But before GIFT∙OLOGY was featured everywhere (literally everywhere), John’s entrepreneurship journey started from humble beginnings. In his own words: “I grew up on a farm in Ohio, milking goats. Know this: nothing is more motivating than pulling teets at 5am in negative thousand degree weather. I needed out. …but how?”

MIKE: MOST PEOPLE DON’T THINK OF GIFTING AS A MARKETING CHANNEL. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THAT?

Marketing is nothing more than starting, building, and keeping relationships. Gifting does all those things. Cynical me, of course, would smirk and tell the masses, “Keep thinking that. It gives the rest of us an unfair, ridiculously-large, competitive advantage.”

MIKE: HA. OK THEN! TELL US HOW TO THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT GIFTING.

Behind every business decision is a human being. Human beings are hard-wired to love (and reciprocate) great acts of kindness. Mike, think of it this way. There’s no ad campaign you can create that’ll emotionally anchor your audience the way a personalized gift will. There’s just not.

We’re all familiar with the law of reciprocity. Do nice things for others (with no ASK behind it) and people will do nice things for you. In 1985, Ethiopia sent $5,000 to Mexico after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake killed thousands. Why? Because 50 years earlier, Mexico went to bat for Ethiopia when Italy invaded. Humans are hard-wired to reciprocate kindness… without being asked.

MIKE: I’M NOT A GOOD GIFT GIVER. HOW DOES ONE GET STARTED WITH THIS?

Yes you are, Mike, and you know it. But I’ll humor your humility. MOST people say “I’m not a good gift giver.” I’m not either. But for a one-off gift, guys like us don’t need to be good gift givers. We need to be good listeners. And we need to be willing to try 25% harder than we’ve tried in the past.

Social media and the digital world make it easy to do research. There’s no excuse for you to know nothing about your dream targets. Enroll their inner circle to help you (spouses are my favorite, even if I’ve never met them). Look for clues in every interaction you have with these VIPs and, for gosh sakes, write things down. 

But here’s a big key: Gift∙ologists (as I call my tribe) don’t focus on the WHAT as much as they focus on the WHO. When you gift the right people, you open yourself up to:

Getting referrals without asking – because we always want to recommend those we love.
Affair-proofing customer, client, and employee relationships. Forever.
Differentiating ourselves as a brand – whether we’re a Fortune 500 company or a solopreneur.

MIKE: ON YOUR WEBSITE, I SEE THAT THE CHICAGO CLUBS AND OTHER PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS ARE YOUR CLIENTS. DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE ‘MADE IT’ IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT STRATEGIC GIFTING?

Absolutely not. Strategic gifting is what will CAUSE YOU to ‘make it.’ When I was a Vector/Cutco sales rep (how I got my beginnings), I was a 23-year-old-kid sitting down with Fortune 500 CEOs. I had no right to be in that room. But I knew which gifts to avoid and I knew how to network up.

One high-powered executive even told me: “Umm… I was expecting somebody older. What are you here to do, kid?” And I looked him dead in the eye and said: “I’m here to teach your thousand sales reps to do exactly what I just did for you.”

You could actually see the lightbulb going off above his head. He became a client the same day. And also hired me to speak to his company.

MIKE: THAT’S PRETTY EXCEPTIONAL.

That’s the thing! It’s really not, though. It’s simple. NOT EASY. But simple. But most people don’t do it. They bring their experience of personal gifting to the world of business gifting. And it’s not the same at all.

MIKE: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

For starters, people need to think “gifting-at-scale.” Most people think, “buy the same cheap gift for a hundred people.” OR they think, “buy one special thing for ONE person, based on their hobbies and interests.” When instead – they need to be thinking, “buy an exceptional gift for my top 20-40 relationships.” It can be and (in most cases) should be the same type of gift. A practical luxury, that they use every day.

MIKE: TELL ME MORE. WHAT GIFTS SHOULD MARKETERS BE BUYING?

GIFT∙OLOGYgive best-in-class artifacts. That means items your recipients would love-to-have but would never buy for themselves. Example: if you have five hundred bucks to spend on a business gift, don’t buy your recipient a kinda-nice watch. Gift them a handcrafted, hand-carved, personalized coffee mug. And no, you’re not going to put your name or company logo on it, because then your gift is about you.

Buying people gifts based on their hobbies almost always fails. Think about it. You’re entering a world you know nothing about, but your recipient knows everything about. You’re not going to succeed. Example: my business partner, Rod, is a cigar-aficionado. People learn this and buy him cigars. Most of which he would never smoke (I have no idea why) and windup in the garbage. 

The first thing a Gift∙ologist receives when they sign up for my email list (shameless plug) is a TOP 10 list of the world’s worst gifts. Every single professional has purchased some of these: food, gift cards, money, alcohol, and other emotionless things that your competitors think are brilliant. And while we’re attacking the predictable? Gift randomly. Everyone expects something around Christmas. A Gift∙ologist will knock your socks off on a random Tuesday in February.

MIKE: AREN’T YOU WORRIED THAT THIS WILL COME ACROSS LIKE BRIBERY? ALMOST LIKE, “Ok. This person obviously needs something from me. What’s the catch?”

Everybody asks that. It’s every generous person’s number one fear.

Our tribe makes fun of those people – we call them “quid-pro-quo gifters.” They are the worst kind of people. “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.” Look, dude, my back doesn’t itch. I see these folks all the time. Their gifting formula is “give something cheap and/or worthless and ask for something big.”

It’s the very opposite of what we teach: “Give something big and valuable. And ask for NOTHING.”

Transactional gifting is the stuff of over-dramatized political thrillers. So avoid any words in your handwritten note (yes, handwritten notes are a must) that insinuate you’re expecting anything in return.

“But where’s the ROI in that,” you ask? Just trust me. Or better yet – try it.

MIKE: OK, I’M CONVINCED. HOW DOES SOMEBODY GET STARTED WITH THEIR FIRST STRATEGIC GIFT?

You don’t have to go all-in. In fact, start small. But start. Buy one gift. Business leaders always ask about the budget. We recommend $250 per gift for a dozen reasons we won’t go into here.

If you’re currently marketing, move dollars over from a low-performing channel to a gifting test. Easy. Depending on your industry margins, you can make 30x ROI from a $3K-$5K campaign.

If you’re NOT currently marketing? Maybe you’re a solopreneur or just getting started. Step 1 is to make a gifting list of people who –if they were so inclined– could open the customer floodgates for your business.

(Last plug, I promise). If you want to get more, no-cost, education on the topic of strategic gifting, join our newsletter at TheGiversEdge.com.

The difference with gifting compared to other branding and marketing channels is that this makes you memorable. Your goal is to be gifting heirlooms. You are creating marketing artifacts that are too good to ever be thrown away.

Or you’re not. And you’re like everybody else.

GIFT∙OLOGY is the deep versus wide approach. It’s for people –like me and like YOU, Mike– that believe relationships are the number one asset any business leader can have.

Successful people aren’t generous because they’re wealthy. They’re wealthy because they’re generous. You, too, can attract the most (and best) attention by being the most generous version of yourself.

Be the type of leader that makes remarkable, unforgettable, impressions. Because it’s not the thought that counts. It’s the thoughtful thought that counts.

The post How to Use Gifting as a Marketing Channel appeared first on Mike Michalowicz.

This is how to Use Gifting as a Marketing Channel

In this interview, Mike interviews John Ruhlin, author and founder of GIFT∙OLOGY. John has been praised as a world-class gift marketer by people like Gary Vaynerchuk, Shep Hyken, Lewis Howes, John Lee Dumas, and has been featured on places such as Inc, Forbes, Fast Company, Fox News, and the New York Times.

But before GIFT∙OLOGY was featured everywhere (literally everywhere), John’s entrepreneurship journey started from humble beginnings. In his own words: “I grew up on a farm in Ohio, milking goats. Know this: nothing is more motivating than pulling teets at 5am in negative thousand degree weather. I needed out. …but how?”

MIKE: MOST PEOPLE DON’T THINK OF GIFTING AS A MARKETING CHANNEL. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THAT?

Marketing is nothing more than starting, building, and keeping relationships. Gifting does all those things. Cynical me, of course, would smirk and tell the masses, “Keep thinking that. It gives the rest of us an unfair, ridiculously-large, competitive advantage.”

MIKE: HA. OK THEN! TELL US HOW TO THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT GIFTING.

Behind every business decision is a human being. Human beings are hard-wired to love (and reciprocate) great acts of kindness. Mike, think of it this way. There’s no ad campaign you can create that’ll emotionally anchor your audience the way a personalized gift will. There’s just not.

We’re all familiar with the law of reciprocity. Do nice things for others (with no ASK behind it) and people will do nice things for you. In 1985, Ethiopia sent $5,000 to Mexico after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake killed thousands. Why? Because 50 years earlier, Mexico went to bat for Ethiopia when Italy invaded. Humans are hard-wired to reciprocate kindness… without being asked.

MIKE: I’M NOT A GOOD GIFT GIVER. HOW DOES ONE GET STARTED WITH THIS?

Yes you are, Mike, and you know it. But I’ll humor your humility. MOST people say “I’m not a good gift giver.” I’m not either. But for a one-off gift, guys like us don’t need to be good gift givers. We need to be good listeners. And we need to be willing to try 25% harder than we’ve tried in the past.

Social media and the digital world make it easy to do research. There’s no excuse for you to know nothing about your dream targets. Enroll their inner circle to help you (spouses are my favorite, even if I’ve never met them). Look for clues in every interaction you have with these VIPs and, for gosh sakes, write things down. 

But here’s a big key: Gift∙ologists (as I call my tribe) don’t focus on the WHAT as much as they focus on the WHO. When you gift the right people, you open yourself up to:

Getting referrals without asking – because we always want to recommend those we love.
Affair-proofing customer, client, and employee relationships. Forever.
Differentiating ourselves as a brand – whether we’re a Fortune 500 company or a solopreneur.

MIKE: ON YOUR WEBSITE, I SEE THAT THE CHICAGO CLUBS AND OTHER PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS ARE YOUR CLIENTS. DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE ‘MADE IT’ IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT STRATEGIC GIFTING?

Absolutely not. Strategic gifting is what will CAUSE YOU to ‘make it.’ When I was a Vector/Cutco sales rep (how I got my beginnings), I was a 23-year-old-kid sitting down with Fortune 500 CEOs. I had no right to be in that room. But I knew which gifts to avoid and I knew how to network up.

One high-powered executive even told me: “Umm… I was expecting somebody older. What are you here to do, kid?” And I looked him dead in the eye and said: “I’m here to teach your thousand sales reps to do exactly what I just did for you.”

You could actually see the lightbulb going off above his head. He became a client the same day. And also hired me to speak to his company.

MIKE: THAT’S PRETTY EXCEPTIONAL.

That’s the thing! It’s really not, though. It’s simple. NOT EASY. But simple. But most people don’t do it. They bring their experience of personal gifting to the world of business gifting. And it’s not the same at all.

MIKE: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

For starters, people need to think “gifting-at-scale.” Most people think, “buy the same cheap gift for a hundred people.” OR they think, “buy one special thing for ONE person, based on their hobbies and interests.” When instead – they need to be thinking, “buy an exceptional gift for my top 20-40 relationships.” It can be and (in most cases) should be the same type of gift. A practical luxury, that they use every day.

MIKE: TELL ME MORE. WHAT GIFTS SHOULD MARKETERS BE BUYING?

Gift∙ologists give best-in-class artifacts. That means items your recipients would love-to-have but would never buy for themselves. Example: if you have five hundred bucks to spend on a business gift, don’t buy your recipient a kinda-nice watch. Gift them a handcrafted, hand-carved, personalized coffee mug. And no, you’re not going to put your name or company logo on it, because then your gift is about you.

Buying people gifts based on their hobbies almost always fails. Think about it. You’re entering a world you know nothing about, but your recipient knows everything about. You’re not going to succeed. Example: my business partner, Rod, is a cigar-aficionado. People learn this and buy him cigars. Most of which he would never smoke (I have no idea why) and windup in the garbage. 

The first thing a Gift∙ologist receives when they sign up for my email list (shameless plug) is a TOP 10 list of the world’s worst gifts. Every single professional has purchased some of these: food, gift cards, money, alcohol, and other emotionless things that your competitors think are brilliant. And while we’re attacking the predictable? Gift randomly. Everyone expects something around Christmas. A Gift∙ologist will knock your socks off on a random Tuesday in February.

MIKE: AREN’T YOU WORRIED THAT THIS WILL COME ACROSS LIKE BRIBERY? ALMOST LIKE, “Ok. This person obviously needs something from me. What’s the catch?”

Everybody asks that. It’s every generous person’s number one fear.

Our tribe makes fun of those people – we call them “quid-pro-quo gifters.” They are the worst kind of people. “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.” Look, dude, my back doesn’t itch. I see these folks all the time. Their gifting formula is “give something cheap and/or worthless and ask for something big.”

It’s the very opposite of what we teach: “Give something big and valuable. And ask for NOTHING.”

Transactional gifting is the stuff of over-dramatized political thrillers. So avoid any words in your handwritten note (yes, handwritten notes are a must) that insinuate you’re expecting anything in return.

“But where’s the ROI in that,” you ask? Just trust me. Or better yet – try it.

MIKE: OK, I’M CONVINCED. HOW DOES SOMEBODY GET STARTED WITH THEIR FIRST STRATEGIC GIFT?

You don’t have to go all-in. In fact, start small. But start. Buy one gift. Business leaders always ask about the budget. We recommend $250 per gift for a dozen reasons we won’t go into here.

If you’re currently marketing, move dollars over from a low-performing channel to a gifting test. Easy. Depending on your industry margins, you can make 30x ROI from a $3K-$5K campaign.
If you’re NOT currently marketing? Maybe you’re a solopreneur or just getting started. Step 1 is to make a gifting list of people who –if they were so inclined– could open the customer floodgates for your business.

(Last plug, I promise). If you want to get more, no-cost, education on the topic of strategic gifting, join our newsletter at TheGiversEdge.com.

The difference with gifting compared to other branding and marketing channels is that this makes you memorable. Your goal is to be gifting heirlooms. You are creating marketing artifacts that are too good to ever be thrown away.

Or you’re not. And you’re like everybody else.

GIFT∙OLOGY is the deep versus wide approach. It’s for people –like me and like YOU, Mike– that believe relationships are the number one asset any business leader can have.

Successful people aren’t generous because they’re wealthy. They’re wealthy because they’re generous. You, too, can attract the most (and best) attention by being the most generous version of yourself.

Be the type of leader that makes remarkable, unforgettable, impressions. Because it’s not the thought that counts. It’s the thoughtful thought that counts.

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Coaches are AWESOME!

You have a TREMENDOUS impact on entrepreneurs and I want to serve you better!

 

The post Coaches are AWESOME! appeared first on Mike Michalowicz.