Customer Reviews

Go-Givers Sell More

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The heart of our economy is selling. And, for decades, sales experts have written wonderful books detailing ways to improve the sales process. Having spent much of the early years of my career on the front lines of selling professional services (high-end consulting) and having taught professionals selling for the last 20 years, I have long been a voracious reader of the latest books on how to improve the selling process. At long last, someone has written the perfect companion to all those wonderful process books - this a beautiful gem on a winning sales philosophy. The perfect companion for all those wonderful process books.

I loved this book! It jumped off the bookshelf and into my arms on Sunday while passing through the Orlando airport. On the ensuing plane ride, I read with delight a book which captures the essence of the philosophy that I have personally seen as the differentiator among professionals selling high-end services (i.e., lawyers, accountants, consultants, and investment bankers). The five "laws" are brilliant, the explanations of the laws are very clear, and the short stories crisply support the point being made.

I thought the Go-Giver, the prequel to this book, was a delightful book. This book takes the concept espoused in that gem and transforms the concept into a comprehensive and implementable sales philosophy. This is the starting point for being successful at selling. Compliment it with your favorite sales process (eg "Consultative Selling," "High Trust Selling," "Integrity Selling," etc.) and you will have the winning combination for times that require every sales person to be at their very best.

If I have one concern about the book, it is that the book will get thought of as being just for "sales people." I share the belief that authors Bob Burg and John David Mann point out that almost all of us are involved with sales, in some dimension of our life. From the President of the United States, to non-profit CEOs, to professionals, to solo-entrepeneurs, we all need to be sell effectively and honorably. This book lays out the guidemap for building the foundation for doing so. Best of all, it does so with five laws that any of us can master.

The best indicator of the depth of my feelings about any book is when I start gifting a book in significant numbers. Not only have I started doing that with this book, but I already have one CEO who has told me that he appreciated my gift, loved the book and is buying copies for his entire sales force and his senior management team. And another CEO is giving copies to each of the lawyers in his firm. Their actions have me convinced this book is going to the top of the charts, and deservedly so.

This my 100th review here on Amazon, where I write reviews only on the best of the best of the many dozens of books that I read each year. Because I only write on the best of the best, my ratings here are generally a 4 or 5 star. This book not only deserves a 5 rating, but also goes down as one of the most important of the 100 top books I have reviewed here. It really is that good! And, that important for a world that needs principled approaches to all the important things in life!!

Length:: 1:37 Mins

Go-Givers Sell More is about the new way to connect with people. Watch this video to discover a key concept that might be different from what you've heard before. This book is a must-have for serious business people who want to move beyond the old way of "control" and into a much better way to dealing with people through relationships. Watch this short video and learn about how it can help you.

Whether in business or our personal lives, relationships are all about adding value to other peoples' lives. Creating giving relationships is the core of Go Giver's Sell More. Yes, the book guides up to be better sales people. But it's SO MUCH MORE than that. This book guides everyone of us toward a better way to be, as human beings, friends, lovers, partners, associates or strangers who pass on the street.

Go Givers Sell More helps us remember our truth - that giving is the key to all relationships. Giving for the sake of pure joy, for the sake of the giving, without a thought for personal gain - or the popular Win/Win that has us keeping score on our relationships. That universal law is quite simple. We just have a hard time remembering it, much less following it.

Our social training is all about getting ahead, doing for ourselves, giving to receive - keeping track of our family and friends in the balance of giving vs getting. Sure, some of what we're taught in sales (and marketing) is useful. But the core premise is flawed. We're all taught to focus on our product and our goal of selling it. We're taught tactics that take us out of the focus on relationship building for the joy of relationships - and into the 'me, me, me' zone.

Human relationships weave the fabric of all business. Relationships also weave the fabric of life. When we put our relationships and others first, focus on creating value for them and give freely of ourselves - that's when we return to our truth. The pure goal of sales, and life, is to create VALUE for others. That's what Go Givers Sell More teaches us to do.

This little book shares life-returning concepts. Many of us are stuck in society's training. We are like gerbils on a wheel - racing as fast as we can to get ahead by working hard, refining our business skills, doing what everyone else has taught us to do along the way. Focus on Our Goal, Our Lives, creating Our Value.

What if everyone else is wrong? What if success, in life and business, is as easy as giving to others, creating value for them, helping them succeed. Trusting in the knowing that the more you give, the more you have. That's what Go-Givers Sell More shares with us. A better way to live, be and create relationships. When we do that - the rest just happens.

Go Givers Sell More is eye-opening. Applying its lessons is life-changing. I highly recommend it and its sister book - Go Givers. Both will change the way you view life and the pursuit - forever.

Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann (Portfolio published by the Penguin Group, 2010) reviewed by Steve Gladis, Ph.D. (For an extended review also, see: [...])

In an episode of Seinfeld, my all-time favorite sitcom, George Costanza starts doing the opposite of what "old George" would do, because whatever old George did, it never worked out the way he wanted. The minute he starts doing the opposite of what he would have done, George meets with success. Go-Givers Sell More preaches rather convincingly that George was right. The authors of a previous giant best selling business fable, The Go-Giver, Burg and Mann have created a sales manual for every person who wants to provide a product or service for fee. The trick is never to sell...do the opposite--give. Start with value, don't end with it. Talk less, listen more. Ask what you can do--not if they'll buy your product or service. Their model is the opposite of the old sales model that had sales people prospect, qualify, present to them, and finally close the deal. Rather, their sales model is to create value, touch people's lives, build networks, be real and stay open. There are Five Laws of Stratospheric Success: The Laws of Value, Compensation, Influence, Authority, and Receptivity. Why am I so passionate about this? Because it works! I've practiced an iteration of this model for years, but these guys have given it structure, definition, and legitimacy. It's a book I'll be buying for a number of my friends.

In December of 2007, I reviewed a business parable called The Go-Giver - and you can read my recommendation here.

I've known for over a year that a sequel was coming, titled Go-Givers Sell More. The book has just been published and I just received a copy. I was in-the-know about the title, but not clear on the content. This book isn't a sequel, in that it extends the story of the first book, or is a story at all. Rather, it is a tightly written book full of great advice, counsel and approaches that are based on the concepts of The Go-Giver cast into the world of sales.

The premise of the initial book, "Shifting your focus from getting to giving is not only a very nice way to live life and conduct business, but a very profitable one as well" is expanded and made even more practical for anyone who sells (which is all of us) in this book.

Each chapter is short and could be read as a standalone bite. These chapters are categorized into "The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, which are:

The Law of Value
The Law of Compensation
The Law of Influence
The Law of Authenticity
The Law of Receptivity

This categorization makes sense and ties this volume back to the initial book as well. I have not yet read the entire book, as I just received my copy last evening. I can say that I have read more than enough to recommend it whole-heartedly, and I can say with confidence that before you read this, I will have completed the book.

With any book in a series the first question people ask is, "Do I need to read the first to gain value from the second?" While a valid question, this book ties the two together without making assumptions that you have read the first. Perhaps you were aware of The Go-Giver but aren't a fan of the parable/novel format. If so, I strongly encourage you to read this as the content is excellent and written in a format more useful for you.

On the other hand if you like the parable approach, I recommend you buy not just this book, but The Go-Giver as well. I will likely go back and re-read it after finishing this wonderful little book.

Just a little secret: this book is not about selling! It is about life, how to interact with others, how to be motivated, how to be successful at anything that relies on others.

OK! I bought it because I sensed my approach to marketing my leadershp advisor services was not thebest it could be...that people simply did not know the value of what I could do for them.

So after reading this gem, I am no longer an Executive Coach to leadership teams; what I do is make leaders jobs easier, less stressful and help them make the time for more golf, sailing and time with their family.

Thanks to Dave Carpenter (1st reviewer) for the tweet and the intro to Burg.

In the network marketing profession, most top-performing teams have their own "Top 20" recommended reading lists for members of their growing communities, and in those lists you will typically find at least 15 books on people skills. After all, developing your people skills is what creates the biggest long-term results. Today you'll find "The Go-Giver" on nearly every successful team's list in the "people and relationship skills" category, next to such classics as Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich."

So you can imagine my excitement when I heard a companion to the Go-Giver was in the works. Yet I have to admit, at first the title was a turn-off for me: "Go-Givers Sell More". "Sales," I thought. "Ugh, not another how-to sales book." Had the wonderfully pure, true Go-Giver philosophy turned to the dark side?

When I think sales, I think of Blake, the ruthless Alec Baldwin character in David Mamet's award-winning film Glengarry Glen Ross, brought in from downtown to motivate the lackluster sales team:

"Put that coffee down! Coffee's for closers."
"... Only one thing counts in this life: get them to sign on the line which is dotted!"
"ABC--A: always, B: be, C: closing. Always be closing! Always be closing!"

Exactly the kind of thing that makes so many people dread sales and salesmen.

So it was purely out of my respect for John David Mann and Bob Burg, along with my love of The Go-Giver, that I went ahead and cracked open "Go-Givers Sell More"--and I couldn't put the book down. Although I had vowed not to write in the advance copy I'd received (I figured, like it or not, it would be a collector's edition), I found myself underlining entire paragraphs and adding stars, notes and exclamation points in the margins. As I read, my mind was buzzing with these new and far better ways to present the idea of sales to our community.

The information the authors present is 100 percent counterintuitive to the vast majority of books and seminars on sales. Yet the philosophies outlined so clearly in "Go-Givers Sell More" are exactly those at the core of all super-successful sales leaders I know. But here's the catch: most of them have a hard time putting what they do into words. And that's the magic of the "Go-Givers Sell More". In its 180 easy-to-read pages, John David Mann and Bob Burg communicate what is at the core of sales at its most effective, most fulfilling and highest values. I have a feeling everyone will find "Go-Givers Sell More" a much-needed and much-appreciated breath of fresh air--well, everyone except Blake.

You might be wondering, "Okay, so it's a nice philosophy--but does it really work?" There's only one way to find out. Read "Go-Givers Sell More" yourself and personally implement what you read there in your business. You'll be more than pleasantly surprised.

I've already added "Go-Givers Sell More" to our Team's Top 20 list--and choosing a book to knock off that list to make room for this one was truly tough, because all twenty are tremendous books!

I was hooked when I read Bob and John first book the Go-Giver. This book really dives in the "how-to" in applying all the principals they teach in the first book. I love the fact that they incorporate real life stories, allowing you to relate quite easily. I will read this one many times :)

I was given this book to read by a friend and have to say the insight and thought processes are right on target. The products I sell tend to have a long sales cycle and my competitors have very similar products that perform equally as well as mine. The only thing to differenciate my products from theirs is the extra value I provide. While the book wasn't a revelation to me, as I already do many of these things, it certainly helped me refocus my efforts and gave insight into how I can apply these principals to the rest of my life and relationships.

As for the discenting reviews I examined it is clear that this book would be very poor for extremely short or high pressure sales cycles, such as telemarketing and car sales. There simply isn't enough time to build any rapport or relationship with your customers. Lets also be honest that nearly anyone can go out and get that one time sale but where we make the money is developing relationships and networks that keep our pipelines full and overflowing with referrals. These types of relationships are not only customers they are friends and that is really what makes us rich in the end.

It's not about you, it's about them.

Burg and Mann hammer this point in so much that you'll never look at sales the same way again. Worried about what people will think of you? It's not about you. Wondering if you'll make the sale this time? It's not about you.

This practical manual is designed to change your thinking and your actions towards an agenda of giving to others. Ultimately, this focus on adding value to people is what will sell your prospects on you as a salesperson. Once they believe, like, and trust you, you will have 'opened' the person rather than 'closed' them, and this is what makes a sale possible.

The authors promote a belief in abundance and giving, which is fantastic. I would have liked to have seen more practical ideas on deciding who to trust with different things, but the book does not suffer from lacking this information. Action still gives us the best decision making skills, which is another point the authors deliver well.

Personally, I have held three sales jobs in the past. One was selling life insurance, another was in real estate, and the third is my current position writing and selling my own books. I have read many good books on sales, yet Go Givers Sell More has by far been the most helpful.