Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep #9: Bob Burg Bestselling Author of The Go-Giver

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Ep #9: Bob Burg Bestselling Author of The Go-Giver · Mortgage Marketing Radio

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Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute,
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our number one source for truth in mortgage marketing.
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Welcome to another episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio.
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I'm your host, Jeff Zimper, thanks for being here and listening.
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As always, we have a fantastic guest for you this week and I want to start off with a question.
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Can a subtle shift in focus really make that big of a difference in your business and
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your income?
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Our guest today says absolutely yes.
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Our guest is Bob Berg.
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He's the author of a number of books on sales marketing influence with total book sales
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of well over a million copies.
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You may have heard of his book called The Go Giveer, co-author with John David Mann.
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It's self-hissolved over half a million copies and published into 21 languages.
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It's been reissued in a new expanded edition with a forward by Huffington Post founder and
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publisher, Ariana Huffington.
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Bob's also the host of the Go Giveer podcast available on iTunes.
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I encourage you to check it out and Bob's an advocate and supporter and defender of the
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free enterprise system believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional
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to how many people they serve.
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He's also an unapologetic animal fanatic and serves on the board of trustees of furry
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friends adoption and clinic in his hometown of Jupiter, Florida.
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So without further ado, let's bring on Bob.
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Welcome to the show, Bob.
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Hey, thank you Jeff, great to be with you.
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Yeah, thanks so much for making time.
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So your book is called The Go Giveer.
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And you know, quick summary of it is it's a story of an ambitious young man named Joe
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who yearns for success.
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Though sometimes he feels as it's, you know, the harder and faster he works, the further
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away that his goals seem.
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So I wonder if you could just take a moment to tell us about, you know, the premise of
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the book.
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I noticed that you didn't title the book The Go Getter.
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And so maybe you also talk about why not, which one's more important?
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Sure.
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Well, the basic premise is simply that shifting our focus, and this is really the key, shifting
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our focus from getting to giving.
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And when we say giving in this context, we simply mean constantly and consistently providing
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value to others.
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And that doing so is not only a nice way, a pleasant way to conduct business, but a
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very financially profitable way as well.
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And you know, there's nothing soft about that.
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There's nothing la la or magical about that in a free market based economy where no one
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is forced to do business with you, whether directly as a consumer or a realtor who's
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going to bring the person to you, they're only going to do so because they believe you
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have their best interest at heart, and you only communicate that by being genuinely
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and authentically interested in them.
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So that's really what we mean by being a go-giver, it doesn't mean you give your business
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away, it doesn't mean you don't make a profit, no, you make a great profit.
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But it's the result of being focused on the other person.
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Thank you for that.
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So, you know, the concept in and of itself, right, being a go-giver, right, kind of the
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laws of reciprocity, if you will, give first, and I know you've got five laws, and we'll
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talk about that.
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I'm curious to maybe to back it up, you know, back to as you're beginning to get the idea
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for writing this book and the concepts behind it.
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Was there kind of an inspiration or a series of events that led up to you wanting to write
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about this concept of being a go-giver?
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Well, I had to book out years ago called Endless Referrals, which was a how-to book, and
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it was basically about how to develop the relationships, what I call the no-like and
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trust relationships, that continually create the environment for putting high quality
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prospects and referrals in front of you.
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And it was based on always being focused on giving value to others.
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So, as the year in this came out in the late 90s, I had always read and enjoyed the
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many business parables that came out.
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I love reading business parables, because within a short story, a quick read, you can
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usually get a really nice message that's really gripping, and I thought, wouldn't it be
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a great idea to take that basic premise and put it into a business parable?
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So, I spoke with John David Mann, who was the editor-in-chief of a magazine I used to
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write for, who even within a small niche market had the reputation as a great writer and
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storyteller.
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So, I asked John to work with me on it, and we collaborated on that.
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So, that was really how that got started.
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And it's interesting, because you brought up a great point earlier with Go Giveer and
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Go Getter, because we've all been tight.
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Go out there, be a Go Getter, right?
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So, the question is, are you and John saying now that being a Go Getter is a bad thing?
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And, of course, not.
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Absolutely.
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We love Go Getters.
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Why?
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Well, Go Getters get things done.
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They take action.
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And, you know, Greg, you and I, and everyone listening to this, we're all business people.
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And we understand that you can have the greatest ideas, the best thoughts, the most fantastic
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intent, but unless actions put into the mix, nothing's going to happen.
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So, we want people to be Go Getters.
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Now, the neat thing is that there's no natural division between a Go Getter and a Go
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Giveer.
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Many Go Getters, people of action, are also Go Giveers, people who are focused on bringing
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value to others.
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So, and we would say that every Go Giveer is also a Go Getter.
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The opposite of a Go Giveer, then, is a Go Takeer.
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And that's that person who feels almost entitled, if you will, to take, take, take without
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having added value to the person, to the process, to the, to the situation.
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Yeah.
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That's very interesting.
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You say that.
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And a Go Takeer, and I know you've talked in some of your presentations about social
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media and it's not about the tool, it's about the relationship, but do you see that people
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tend to, you know, approach how they engage online and social media as, as more of a takeer
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than a giver?
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Do you think that's kind of a problem you're seeing out there?
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Oh, with some people it is, but I think those are the same people, those are the people
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who do the same thing in, in the, what do you call it, IRL, in real life.
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I think the kids call it and, you know, so I mean, people are, you know, people pretty
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much are the same, whether they're online or, or, or in person, however, I think what
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happens is people who tend to be Go Takeers offline, when they get online, they almost feel
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as though they can actually pull it off because it's online.
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And so they start, you know, spamming people or even within their, their, on Facebook
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or, or Twitter, if you look into their timeline, it's all about them and their business and
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their great rates and, and everything else.
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And they're not building the relationship.
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And, you know, when I say that all things being equal, people will do business with and
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refer business to those people they know like and trust.
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What I don't say is that they'll do business with, with and refer business to those computers.
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They know like and trust because it's not about the technology, it's about the people.
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Yeah, and, and I've seen, unfortunately, right, you know, people get caught up in the
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bright, shiny objects syndrome and, you know, think that with, with technology, they're
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going to automate everything and automate their relationships and referrals.
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And, and just doesn't happen like that.
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And I'm sure you've seen where people perhaps are relying a little bit too heavily on high
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tech versus high touch.
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Right.
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And, and the fact that, you know, the, and high tech is fine because it gives us the opportunity
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to meet people that we wouldn't have been able to meet as easily and to develop that
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relationship, but it's still all about the relationship.
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So you still have to ask that person before you tweet or put something on Facebook or
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LinkedIn or an email is to ask yourself is what I'm about to do, not only going to be
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a value to this other person, but will they see it as being a value?
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Because remember, we can, we can define value as the relative worth or desirability of
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a thing of something to the end user or beholder, okay?
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You know, what is it about this product service concept idea, whatever that brings so much
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worth that I'll exchange my money in order to attain that value, right?
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Okay.
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So that's fine, but then you have to also know that value is always in the eyes of the
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beholder.
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It's not what we believe to be a value or what we think they should think is a value.
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Right.
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It's what they believe is a value and the chances are that, you know, even if you are working
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with some great rates, your competitor is as well.
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Right.
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You know, there's just no, the intrinsic value that a, that's, that a mortgage professional
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provides is fantastic.
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You're allowing people to do something that they wouldn't be able to do without you if
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it's a consumer and you're, and you're, you're helping a realtor to help that person
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to do that.
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And that's fine.
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So the intrinsic values there, but remember, when there were a whole lot of people who
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do what you do, you've got to be able to communicate additional value than just that intrinsic
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value of the, of the loan, otherwise it's going to come down to who has the best rate
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that day.
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Right.
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And so when you think about it, value can be communicated in probably hundreds of ways,
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but they, they tend to come down to what John David Mann and I call five elements of value.
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And they are excellence, consistency, attention, empathy and appreciation.
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And to the degree that you can communicate one or more, hopefully all five of those elements
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of value in every touch point with your prospects, with your customers, your clients, your referral
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source and so forth.
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From the time you meet them in the first conversation to the, the cultivating of the relationship
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to the actual transaction to afterwards, to the degree that you can do that, you take
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price out of the equation as much as it can be, or if, you know, many people are have
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the same rate, you're going to be the go to person, you're going to be that center of
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influence.
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Yeah, great advice there.
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So any practical applications of, you know, those laws, if you will, those principles.
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Well, when you first meet someone and it could be someone who might be a, a consumer,
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or you never know if that potential consumer knows someone else, who might be a consumer,
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right?
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It's to when you speak with them, invest the conversation in them, focus on them, you
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know, you meet Joe Smith or, or Joe Ann Jones, who happens to be a, who, who sells copying
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machines and, you know, instead of asking them if they're, you know, looking to buy a house
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or if they know someone who is, because right now if you do that, it's a turn off to them.
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You're, you're like every other person who does the same thing.
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But instead, what if you focus on them?
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What if you ask them what I call feel good questions?
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These are simply questions that are not prospecting or sales in nature.
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They're not intrusive.
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They're not invasive.
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But they do make this person feel good about themselves and feel good about you and begin
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to develop that no like and trust.
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Question such as, how did you get your start in the office products profession or how did
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you get started selling copying machines?
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And we think, well, that's not a, you know, that, that doesn't bring us closer to the
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sale.
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Actually, yes, it does because it brings us closer to their feeling good about us and
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wanting to know more about us and having that trust in us.
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And they've never been asked that question before, most likely.
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And so they're going to answer it and they're going to feel good that someone actually cared
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enough to, to, you know, share, to ask them to share their story, asking a person a question,
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I call the one key question that will, that will change your business.
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And that's, now you wouldn't ask this to a realtor, but you would ask this to a consumer
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or a potential consumer or a referral source.
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And that is, how can I know if someone I'm speaking with would be a good prospect for
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you?
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Or they're not in sales, but they're in, you know, in something where that wouldn't
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be a value.
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You can always say, how can I know if someone I'm speaking with would be a good connection
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for you?
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And by the way, a good way to prep a set is to say, I always enjoy connecting good people
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with other good people.
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How can I know if someone I'm speaking with is someone, you know, you'd like to meet
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or a good connection or a good referral?
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Yeah.
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No, that's a great question to ask.
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And I think it has applicability to almost anybody that a loan officer would engage with,
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including a real estate agent.
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Sure.
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What you're talking about there is, you know, the question about the copier sales person,
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you know, how did you get into the business?
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You're really talking about taking a real sincere interest in that individual long before
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you ever get to the conversation of business.
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Right.
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Exactly.
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And, you know, they, and they can tell when you're sincere about it or if you're doing
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it as a manipulative, manipulative technique, right?
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In order to, you know, to gain reciprocity or something like that.
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So you've got to be authentic.
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You've got to really care people, people know.
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Yeah.
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So that's interesting.
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You know, point you bring up a technique versus being authentic.
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So knowing that there's a specific process, one would have to follow to make someone feel,
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you know, special and for you to have that perception of being that go to person, that
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center of influence.
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Do you believe in following scripts and talk, talk tracks or just, you know, all from the
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hip?
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No, never, to me, never from the hip.
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But to me, a script or a technique does not necessarily mean you're less than authentic.
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Well, and let me, let me explain it this way.
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I'll often ask my audiences, how many of you have ever been to a play, whether it's a broadway
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player, your local player, whatever, and pretty much everyone will raise their hands.
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And I'll say, how many of you believe that those actors doing such a magnificent job
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on stage, night after night, how many of you think they're up there winning it?
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And no one raises their hand.
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We all see it's like, you know, if you ever watch a rock concert, do you think they don't
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rehearse?
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No.
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So no, tech and techniques are fine.
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It's a technique is something that you learn, but it's going to be for the right reason.
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And as long as that, you know, I always talk about people skills and people skills being
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such an important aspect of success.
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I mean, you know, success in life is probably based 10% on technical skills or talent.
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And 90% on people skills.
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Now someone said, well, that's not fair.
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That's not well.
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It's just the way it is.
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And so, you know, people who are successful deal with what is, but that's okay.
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But here's what I also believe.
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The single greatest people skill is a highly developed and authentic interest in the other
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person.
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And that's the key.
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So it's not whether we're rehearsing or using the screen.
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Of course, if you're going to use a script, you make sure you learn it so that it doesn't
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sound rehearsed, but you actually know it.
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It's part of your head and it's part of your heart because, and just like the questions
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that I suggest people ask, and I've got, you know, 10 of those, quite those feel good,
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quite now you'll never have time to ask all 10 during any one conversation, probably
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just two or three.
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But the 10 that I have, I always say, you know, practice them and learn them so that you
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know them so well that when you're asking them, you can be 100% focused on that other
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person.
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Because if you don't really know them well and you're asking that question, the entire
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time they're answering, rather than being focused on them, what are you thinking?
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Uh oh, what am I supposed to say next or what, you know, and then you're not really focused
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on that person.
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So when you really know your stuff and you really have practiced, you're actually allowing
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yourself to be more genuine and more authentic because you can really focus on them.
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Yeah, that's a great point.
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So it sounds like what you're talking about there, you know, you're making someone
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feel special essentially, right, because you're taking a personal interest in them.
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Sure.
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And so you have something you talk about in the book called the five laws, five laws
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