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Win By Giving Stuff Away

Written by: Robin Elliott

Article Overview: People don’t want to get sold stuff. They want stuff for nothing. Learn how to make a profit even when having fun giving stuff away!

Win By Giving Stuff Away

When Gwen sets up her seminars of 150 people, how much would you have to pay to have her introduce you to all of them from the front of the room? How about $20? It’s easy if you give stuff away.
How can I get radio time for pennies on the dollar, with ten times more credibility than a high-priced advertisement? You can do that if you give stuff away.

How can you make money by giving away $100 to each of a thousand people?

People don’t want to get sold stuff. They want stuff for nothing. And they want to be able to choose to buy – they don’t like being manipulated by a slavering salesperson. That’s why you love the cake samples in Safeway and often end up buying something fattening. When you stand in Starbucks munching on a tiny piece of chocolate brownie, which is generously offered as a sample on a paper plate, did you know that many people end up buying brownies because of that tantalizing taste? Remember the vacuum cleaner salesman who showed up at your door with a five dollar set of steak knives and a three-dollar flashlight? He told that you his manager insisted he give away one of these precious and highly coveted gifts to some lucky homeowner who agreed to watch a riveting, sensational, thirty minute vacuum demonstration as he sucked minute bugs from a mattress, and which one of these two priceless offerings which you like? You chose the steak knives and two hours later you gratefully bought an overpriced vacuum cleaner.

You offer Gwen two of your books and a complimentary consultation worth $100 as door prizes and you get exposed to 150 people in the room. You give away your CD’s or a gift certificate to clean the carpets in a house as a radio give-away. And if you’re not into carpet cleaning, could you set it up for a carpet cleaner, have him do the work and take 20% of all the resulting business? Of course, you could. You could have Jimbo distribute 1,000 gift certificates to his indebted clients, entitling them all to a complimentary Yoga class with Yippee Yoga. The certificates are printed and paid for by Yippee herself, Jim and his clients are ecstatic and when Yippee gets business out of this joint venture transaction, you obediently collect 20% of all the resulting income. Or you could kindly introduce Bob’s money to Sally[‘s project and make $25,000 for the effort as I did very recently.

I spoke to a group of Newcomers in Toronto who were enjoying a Government-sponsored job finding program. The government spends many thousands advertising this course. The lecturer realized that he could save the civil servants tens of thousands of dollars by simply offering two movie tickets to any student who introduced a new student. It’s doubtful, though, that the government will accept his wise suggestion. (Do you know how a civil servant winks? He opens one eye!) Seriously, Joint Ventures opens our minds to many new opportunities, and the power of giving away stuff is only one of many simple yet powerful concepts.



- Robin J. Elliott

Related Articles
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  Giving Away Free Samples To Boost Brand Recognition
  Why Me?
  Social Media Principle 1 – People Not Consumers
  A Box Full of Stuff

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Related Forum Posts
Re: This Month's Leader is not working fine. - Me too, Trent. Oh well. Stuff happens. I know that from being in the software business. I didn't even know Glitches existed before I got into this business. Now I know more than I ever wanted to. LOL
Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Connecting with Influential People - Thanks Martin! In "The Little Black Book of Connections", Jeffrey Gitomer suggests the following ways to connect with influential people (page 106): -Third-party introductions (best method). -Writing and publishing content. -Giving seminars/speeches so you can be perceived as an expert in your field and leader. -Attend social and business events. -Say or ask something powerful by doing research ahead of time. -Engage them by offering something of value first. Gitomer also stresses the importance of making more friends as well.
Your Intial Mistakes Business - Hi, When I started my business I had made a lot of mistakes initially. These helped me in learning the art of the trade and today when I look back, I feel that these mistakes were quite silly. I had made my learnings then and those learnings have helped me time and again. Some of the mistakes I made were - i. Wrong Time Management ii. Wasting money on glossy Brochures and Business cards iii. Believing what they taught me at school was 100% correct iv. Giving too much when it was not required...... I would like to find out what have been your faltering moments in Business when you had started and what/how did they help you grow. Regards
Partnering for the wrong reasons - Well I guess the 2 biggest fears/mistakes are: 1.) Partnering with someone just because you trust them (i.e. a close family member or friend) and more importantly, need his/her money to implement YOUR unique idea. 2.) Giving away too much (in terms of company shares) too soon. For instance, let's say you gave away 50% of your company shares to a friend who was mainly just an investor who paid for more than 70% of the initial startup costs. You do more than 70% of the work, and the company becomes successful and you're able to repay all of your debts. Then going forward, you're stuck doing the majority of the work still, while you investor friend has been repaid in full and sits on his/her laurels because of the initial written agreement didn't require him/her to help out as much. What would you do then?


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