Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann is part of a triple set that includes Go Givers Sell More and Go Giver Leader. Go Giver has had a significant following since originally released in 2007, and rereleased in 2015. I have read all three and like 80% of the concept. Go Giver comes at leadership, sales and life in general from the concept of giving more value than you expect in return as the core paradigm needed in life as well as business.

Go Giver is a 5 star rated book on Amazon but I am going to break away a bit and give it 4 stars. I will explain a bit later.

Here is what I like a lot. The first 4 of its 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success (although the book says to ‘under promise’, this seems to be a bit of hype).

1- Law of Value

Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.

• Give because you love to- it’s a lifestyle not a strategy
• People do business with and refer those they trust and like.

2- Law of Compensation

Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them

• No limitation – can always find more people to serve.
• Change belief- can do good and get rich both.
• What you focus on is what you get

3- Law of Influence

Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.

• 100% /100% not 50/50
• Creates an army of personal ambassadors who know like and trust you
• Stop keeping score

4- Law of Authenticity

The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.

• Care more about the other person’s happiness than your own
• Be a friend who cares about how other people feel about themselves
• Starts with be a good listener and ask good questions

5- Law of Receptivity

The key to effective giving is to stay open to receptivity

• Every giving is also a receiving
• So be willing to receive

Their 5th Law of Receptivity, to me tends to backtrack too much on that “More Blessed to Give than Receive” truth with a concept of be open to receiving from the great unknown out there, so to me this becomes about contriving to get. My world view is there is a personal God not some amorphous something I cannot know. The root of giving starts with love that is willing to humbly sacrifice for the benefit of others, without an expectation of a return. I think this is the only way the whole 100%/ 100% relationships will work replacing the old 50%/50% concept.

That said, these books are worthwhile and interesting parables to make you think and move each of us toward being more humble; transparent; listening; asking good questions because we care about the answers; and figuring how we can add value into all our relationships.

It seems that they are improving the lives of a lot of their readers!

Go Givers Sell More released in 2010 is not a story like its 2 counterparts. It takes each of the 5 Laws from Go-Giver and expands them in the ‘improving sales results’ arena.

Go Givers Sell More was at the front edge of a major wave hitting the whole buyer/seller relationship.

The Internet of things and social media has inverted the power of the sales process from resting with the seller to sitting dramatically today with the BUYER! Old school sales will never work the same way again.

The book summarizes its approach to sales, in several major paradigm shifts:

• Instead of “adding value” after the sale or as an incentive to close a difficult deal, our model starts with adding value and makes that its principle goal throughout.
• The classic sales process culminates win the close. Ours focuses on the open.
• People typically think of sales as a talking business. Our approach is to spend less time talking and more time listening. (I will add active, caring listening)
• Conventional sales training focuses on the presentation; how you talk about your product. Ours focuses on asking great questions and keeping the conversation focused on others.
• The classic sales process succeeds if you “make a sale” and fails if you get a “no”. Our sales process starts with the understanding that it is impossible to “make a sale” – yet is designed so that you have a positive outcome 100% of the time, whether or not a sale happens.

The traditional sales process has been viewed as a control sequence:
Prospect –> Qualify –> Present –> Overcome objections –> Close –> Follow up –> Customer service

The new approach takes “control” out of the equation:
Create value –> Touch people’s lives –> Build networks –> Be real –> Stay open –> Good things happen

This concept is a paradigm shift from you are either prosperous or good to you are good and also prosperous by shifting the focus away from getting to giving.

Go Giver Leader is the final book in the series and returns to the parable method for delivering its truth. It has 5 Keys to Legendary Leadership:

Key 1- Hold the vision

• Lead with your mind
• Anyone can come up with a vision, the hard part is the holding.
• Building a business- or anything- is an act of faith
• Keep seeing in your mind’s eye where you are going, even when nobody else does; especially when nobody else does.
• Never forget where you came from.
• Watch your personal pronouns- you vs me

Key 2- Build your people

• Lead from the heart.
• Give people something good to live up to- even great- and they usually will.
• The more you yield the more power you have.
• The substance of influence is pull, not push.
• Tact is the language of strength.
• Don’t react, respond.

Key 3- Do the work

• Lead from your gut.
• Know the details, your pegs and shims.
• Stay hugely humble.
• Stay grounded.
• Get mud on your boots.
• Trust yourself.

Key 4- Stand for something

• Lead with your soul.
• What you have to give, you offer least of all through what you say; in greater part through what you do; but in greatest part through who you are.
• Competence matters. Character matters more.
• You can lead only as far as you grow. And you will grow only as far as you let yourself grow.

Key 5- Practice giving leadership

• Don’t get it backwards; don’t start thinking you’re the deal.
• Great leadership is never about the leader.
• Great leadership is about holding people up.
• The best way to increase your influence is to give it away.
• The more you give, the more you have.

There are a myriad of leadership books out there. Few say as much in so few words, and the story technique is pretty compelling. The long term issue is our brains can only apply a little bit of what we read. We will retain only about 5% after 24 hours. But if we see a multimedia presentation, that can jump a bit to about 25%. Doing something right away jumps that to over 50%. The real power in retention is teaching someone else- that jumps retention up into the 90% range.

So I suggest you pick something from these books – focus on one thing at a time. Re-read about it, begin to apply it, and teach it to someone else, and then make it a change in your lifestyle instead of a project. It becomes part of who you are and you have it forever!

The Go Giver series comes at leadership, sales and life in general from the concept of giving more value than you expect in return as the core paradigm needed in life as well as business.

Do a good job at that paradigm shift and I don’t think you can go ultimately go wrong 🙂