One of the nifty “gets” from blogging is that publishers sometimes send me free review copies of books they think may be relevant to our readership. So when the courier package arrived and I opened Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann, I thought, once again, isn’t it cool to receive nifty intellectual gifts in the mail.
Book gifts can be powerful generosity resources for readers but the publisher, Penguin (under the Portfolio imprint) isn’t giving the book away just to be generous: Strategically, the publisher knows that positive reviews help to sell books and while this Construction Marketing Ideas blogger doesn’t have the same readership as the New York Times, if you aggregate all the bloggers out there who might promote the book, the overall numbers justify a few review copies.
So, you may ask, do I like the book? Yes, it is a worthy read and won’t set your bank account back too much. (Amazon pays me a 5 per cent commission if you order it through this site’s link. If you order it with my own book, you’ll see that Bob Burg, David Mann and I share many of the same philosophies. In fact, when you read my chapters about association involvement and contributions, you’ll see a virtual mirror of the unconditional generosity principles that advocate you redirect your efforts away from selling to generosity without worrying about “return” — and returns will occur from places you often least expect.
The challenge with this book and others who advocate similar philosophies is turning the stories into action, especially in the sales and business development space, where too much of the old-style rote stuff is practiced and far too many weak salespeople ply their repetitive “sales techniques.” My solution: Practice these principles in an environment where you are most likely to be surrounded by potential clients and engage them with the activities and interests which reflect your real passions. (Yes, that is selfish, but I’m seeking sustainability — it is hard for most of us to be consistently generous when we try to be anyone other than ourselves.)
