Recently, on the Facebook Go-Givers Sell More “Like” page, I posted the following paraphrase from the book:

Perhaps the greatest secret of ultra-successful selling is understanding: “It’s not about you — it’s about them.”

One of the reader responses was from Michael Fisher, who wrote:

You got that right.

I learned this a long time ago from an incredibly successful salesman in Manhattan. I used to watch him walk the halls of all these companies and stop people and ask them “How’s your wife Karen doing? Did she enjoy her trip back home?”

It was incredible – not only for the number of people he knew, but also the details he knew about them – and asked about them. They loved him because he showed a sincere interest in them.

He also happened to make a bunch of money in the process. We went into these companies competing against some of the largest companies in our industry and he won the contract in a huge majority of the cases. If only we could bottle that… Wait, you just did – Thank you Bob Burg and John David Mann!”

I love what Michael wrote. And, the thing is, this is not rare. These stories abound. Please keep in mind that the key regarding the mega-success of the salesman Michael referred to was his sincerity. He wasn’t trying to manipulate these people; he truly cared about them … and they knew it!

As Sam told Joe in the first book, “All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.” And there’s no better, quicker or more effective way to elicit those feelings toward you in others than by genuinely focusing on them.

Thank you, Michael, for sharing that terrific example.

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In Go-Givers Sell More, we talk about something we call left field, that mysterious and omnipotently benign place from which unanticipated rewards so often flow. Here’s how we put it in the book:

When we’re living a life of generosity, all sorts of value showers down upon us from that unnoticed, unseen place. We find a critical lead or make a crucial connection; a golden opportunity drops unexpectedly into our lap; we have some incalculably valuable thing come to us, not from the people or the places we were perhaps expecting or hoping for it to come from, but from out of left field.

We didn’t call it this in the book, but you could call this the Law of Left Field.

The other day our friend Gill Wagner posted a comment on a post on Bob’s blog that so beautifully brings this law to life, we just had to repost it here.

Standing in the crowded elevator about to head up. Doors closing. I hear squeaky wheels rolling quickly toward us so I stick my hand out to stop the doors from closing. It’s someone on the janitorial staff with a mop bucket full of water. He’s clearly relieved that he caught the elevator and I get a quiet “thanks” as the doors close and three people behind me let out their “give me a break” sighs.

Ten floors later it’s just me and the janitor. He pulls the stop button, thanks me for my kindness and says, “I don’t recognize you. Where are you heading?”

I tell him I have a sales appointment with Joe Jones on 12. He nods thoughtfully, then says:

“Joe is tough, but he’s fair. At some point early on he’ll challenge you to see whether you’re willing to stand up for what you believe. I can’t promise you’ll close a sale, but if you don’t back down, you’ll earn a friend.”

Joe Jones challenged me. I stood my ground. I left with a great sale in my pocket and a line of referrals that lasts me to this very day.

Never saw the janitor again.

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In Part 1 we looked at my favorite local restaurant, Sala Thai, and saw how its amazing staff fulfilled the concept of excellence in a very extraordinary way. It wasn’t only the extremely tasty cuisine; it was also the teamwork and sense of unity that helped to create the wonderful dining experience.

Helped to create it, but that was certainly not all of it. As you’ll recall, in Go-Givers Sell More, John and I cite four other aspects of value beside excellence: consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation.

How does Sala Thai fulfill those? Let’s take a look.

Consistency: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve eaten there since they opened nearly ten years ago. I can tell you I’ve never had a meal that was one bit less than their usual very high standard. Other diners agree. And in a world filled with inconsistency, the assurance of predictable excellence accounts for an enormous perception of value.

Attention: There are three ways in which they display exquisite attention to detail.

1. The waitstaff seem to know exactly when you need them to appear and they are there, practically immediately. Yet they also allow you the privacy you want.

2. Um, the owner, manages to visit every table where she remembers every person individually and makes every group feel as though they are her favorite (of course…we really are)

3. The meal includes exactly what you ask for. Their attention to this detail is astounding when considering how many meals they serve in any one day or evening.

Empathy: At 87, my once extremely athletic Dad (while still in terrific general health, thank G-d) doesn’t move around like he used to. At times he walks very slowly and with difficulty. Whenever Um notices this, she lovingly and caringly walks with us to the door and has even helped me walk Dad to the car. It’s not necessary, because he can do it himself and, with Mom’s and my help, it’s a sure thing. But she does it anyway. I think it’s her way of telling us she loves us. It comes from her heart. Empathy in its truest form.

Appreciation: Yes, they always include an additional appetizer. And they usually bring a dessert, both simply as a way of saying thank you for being their customer and friend. But it’s more than that. From the way they greet their guests upon entering the restaurant to the way they say goodbye and thank you, they radiate appreciation.

Indeed, Ernesto Iafrate, our über-successful hotdog stand owner-turned-restaurateur-turned real estate magnate, would be proud of Um and the team at Sala Thai.

John’s and my question to you is this: “How can you (or how do you already) apply those five areas of value to your business?” We’d love you to include your thoughts in the comment section, or better yet, submit your personal success stories to our Go-Giver Scrapbook.

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In The Go-Giver, Ernesto Iafrate’s Italian-American Cafe was the example of an extremely successful restaurant, where the delicious cuisine was exceeded only by the ultimate dining experience.

In Go-Givers Sell More, within our discussion on the five aspects of Value — excellence, consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation — John related the example of a restaurant where he and his lovely wife, Ana, used to go that had pretty good food … sometimes. And, sometimes it did not. The lack of consistency was unsettling enough that they instead now travel twice as far down the road to eat at a similar restaurant that is in fact consistently good.

Earlier today I was reading a new book by my friend, Les McKeon entitled Predictable Success. He made the following point about companies that are in the mode of business suggested by the book’s title:

“Watching the interaction of the different functional groups of [these sorts of organizations] is rather like watching a highly trained relay team hand the baton from one runner to the next: They can do it seamlessly, over and over again, at high speed, and without looking back.”

And, this reminded me — literally, as you’ll see in a moment — of my favorite restaurant where I live in Jupiter, Florida: Sala Thai.

Sala Thai is owned by a sweet and hard-working immigrant family from Thailand who personify the type of value Ernesto talked about in the story. Let’s look at it by way of the five areas or aspects of value mentioned earlier (excellence, consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation), starting with excellence.

There is just no substitute for  excellence, is there? Sala Thai has truly excellent food, and an amazing staff that simply does it right. They serve superbly well, not only as individuals but also as part of a cohesive unit.

Reading Les’s statement brought back a memory from about a month ago, when I was at Sala Thai and they were slammed with customers. They were moving swiftly, but also smoothly — their energy was both fluid and calm.

At one point, Um’s cellphone (the main phone customers were calling for pickups and deliveries) went off while she was in the midst of serving. At the sound of the ring, one of the waiters suddenly and gracefully switched direction, as though part of a ritual rehearsed endlessly to perfection, putting another guest’s plate down and taking the cell-phone handoff as he headed to the main register to take the order. And Um was amazing: she discreetly slipped the phone out of her back pocket and gently handed it to him in a way that would have made an Olympic relay team or even the Flying Wallendas proud.

This is exactly what Les is talking about when he describes an excellent team as being like a relay team handing off the baton — only in this case it wasn’t a metaphor: they really were handing off the baton!

In Part 2, we’ll look at the other four aspects of value embodied by this very successful restaurant.

Until then, I’m off to enjoy an order of “Bob Sizzlin’” (yes, they know what I like and they’ve even named the plate for me when I visit) and some Chicken Padthai.

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In the very first chapter of Go-Givers Sell More, John and I discuss empathy as being one of five ways value can be added to another person’s life. Empathy simply means being able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes: to feel what they’re feeling, as best you can.

A client of mine, the Americas Service business of GE Healthcare, beautifully expresses this idea in one of their written Guiding Principles: “We Make It Personal.” And I have to say, in all my years in business I’ve seen fewer examples of this concept as powerful as the following story, from Shawn Bailey, a field engineer there. This is from a letter submitted by AnnaMarie Blaire, RT (R) MR, from Harrisburg Hospital/Pinnacle Healthsystem:

“I just wanted to bring to your attention an outstanding job by Shawn Bailey.

“We were having intermittent machine issues where the scanner would go down during a case. These intermittent issues are the frustrating ones, for both technologists and engineers. Shawn had corrected some issues and was pretty sure the problem was fixed, but he wanted to keep an eye on the problem.

“We were asked to scan a 4-year-old under sedation ASAP, and we were very concerned the problem would occur again. We could not afford to have the scanner go down with a sedated child on the table. Shawn assured us he would stay on site and be ready if we had any problems.

“The child arrived and it was clear that she was very scared, as were her parents, especially, awaiting the outcome of the scan.

“Shawn left the department and soon returned — with a teddy bear he had purchased at the gift shop. He brought a smile to the child’s face, as well as the faces of the parents and technologists. She clung to the bear as she was put to sleep.

“The scan went off without a problem. We were all touched by Shawn’s care and concern for the family and his reassurance to us that he would be there if we had any machine problems. The gesture will always be remembered by the staff and showed us that GE CARES.”

I’ve read this letter from stage several times now, and each time there have been tears from several audience members (and perhaps a few from the presenter).

Can you imagine the fear that little girl must have had, and the fright of her parents? Not to mention their distress at the fear their daughter was going through?

I think we all can, to a certain degree. I also think that Shawn Bailey not only felt it, he did something about it—and that was what made all the difference. By having empathy, and by communicating that empathy through action, he made it personal.

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800-CEO-Read (also called 8CR), the nation’s premier distributor of business books, has formed a partnership with Inc. magazine to launch a cobranded list of bestselling business books, The Business Book Bestseller List. Compiled from 8CR’s raw sales data, the list appears both on Inc. magazine’s web site and on the 8CR home page, and will be updated monthly.

“We’re excited to partner with Jack Covert and 800-CEO-READ, the web’s top destination for business books, to create this list, and to better cover the ins and outs of the business book press,” says Mike Hofman, Deputy Editor of Inc.com.

Jack Covert, 800-CEO-READ’s president, says he was keen to find a media partner to extend the reach of a list he’s been compiling for 23 years. “This will help business owners sort through the vast array of books on offer, identifying those that have information crucial to succeeding in today’s business environment.”

So … ready for the punch line? The first edition of the list went online today, May 3, and debuting in the #3 position was (drum roll, please) The Go-Giver.

Also on the list, in position #20: Go-Givers Sell More.

Thanks, guys!

P.S. If you or anyone you know ever needs to place a bulk order for either book, the folks at 8CR are the people to call! You can contact our rep, Aaron Schleicher: aaron@800ceoread.com, or at 800-236-7323, ext. 204.

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As we mentioned a few days ago, Bob and I recently had the honor of getting to honor a true Pindar, the very first recipient of our Go-Giver Lifetime Achievement Award.

(What we did not mention was in the course of giving the award, our own Mister Burg did a highly credible Mister Ziglar impression that brought down the house, and got a big smile from The Man himself.)

Here is the auspicious event itself, as captured on YouTube.

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Many years ago, a brilliant young visionary stirred audiences by telling them, “You can have everything in life you want — if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Through the decades, these twenty words have been repeated so often, and by so many people, that they have become elevated to iconic status. They are the battle cry for all those drawn to add great value to their world while living a life of abundance.

They were first spoken, of course, by the legendary Zig Ziglar.

It’s difficult to for me to imagine a single sentence that could serve as a greater example and finer embodiment of the Go-Giver philosophy.

It is equally difficult to imagine a bigger thrill for John and me than having the opportunity to present Mr. Ziglar with the First Annual Go-Giver Lifetime Achievement Award.

We had the extreme honor of doing exactly that last Friday, April 23, at Thom Scott’s and my Fourth Annual Extreme Business Makeovers event in Orlando, Forida.

Halfway through Zig’s appearance, as he sat between his lovely wife, Jean (“The Redhead”) and his son, Tom (CEO of Ziglar), John came up on stage and together we presented the 83-year-old legend with an engraved crystal bowl … along with our extreme thanks.

Zig Ziglar: a great man, a true Go-Giver!

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There are few things that thrill John and me more than to know that people are not only prospering by utilizing The Five Laws from The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More, but also being recognized for it.

That’s why we created The Go-Giver Award, and we often hear stories about people who have given an Award to someone else, or received one themselves.

Very rarely, however, do we read about it being presented publicly and then followed by an article — but that is exactly what happened last week.

My friend Kevin Tacher presented another friend, Margie Casey (you may remember reading about them last year over at my Burg.com blog), with the Award while I was in attendence speaking that night.

What a thrill … I’m pretty sure even more for me than for Margie!

If you’d like, you can read the full story here.

Margie and Kevin both truly embody the spirit of a Go-Giver. Congratulations, Margie. You ROCK!

P.S. Whenever a similar event takes place involving you and someone to whom you present the award, please let us know — we’d love to share the news.

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In Go-Givers Sell More, we tell the story of Heather Battaglia and ExecNet (now Exec Link) as an example of the Law of Value, and of the ability Go-Givers have to create their own economy of abundance during difficult times.

Heather’s story was the flagship example in Chapter 6, titled “Your Economy,” the concluding chapter of Part 1, which starts off with a quote from Pindar:

“In fact, Joe, you’d be surprised at how much you have to do with what happens to you.”

Heather recently sent us an update — and her story is getting only better with the passage of time! Here it is, complete with her update:

In the fall of 2008, Heather Battaglia was a director and vice president at CitiMortgage, in charge of a very successful and profitable division that she saw as recession-proof. Just before the end of the year, as the economy tanked, she was laid off.

“I thought I would have no trouble finding a new job. I had strong academic credentials and an impressive résumé of corporate experience. But as I began going through my connections, cold calling and doing whatever else I could think of to find my new position, no job materialized. A month went by, then two, then three.

“I had never been unemployed before; recruiters were always finding me. Now nothing was working.

“Eventually I got together with seven other laid-off executives who all belonged to a networking group and created an event for executives who were looking for work.

“A couple of people in the group had your book, and they said, ‘Whatever we do for our event, we need to make sure we are helping others and giving first.” Here we were, all out of work — and our conversation revolved around how we could help others find jobs!’

“The newly formed ExecNet of St. Louis adopted a mission statement and a vetting process for new members that included the question, Are you committed to helping other executives first?

“By the spring of 2009, we had over 150 members in our group — and we were all focused on helping each other first. Many of our group had landed new jobs, others were in final stages of interviews, and others were just getting started. Our group was only three months old and already moving mountains!”

Heather and her colleagues were in dire straights — but instead of giving in to recessionary anxiety, they took control of their own state of mind. In focusing their efforts on providing value to others, they created their own booming economy — and it paid off handsomely.

A few weeks after the book appeared Heather gave us this update:

“We are changing our name to ExecLink, and now have standing-room-only monthly meetings with 500 members, and a regular 130+ executives attend the meeting. Can you believe it has only been a year?!

“And here’s the best news: all the original seven founders have landed new jobs and continue to participate in the events.”

The whole story appears as our latest entry in The Go-Giver Scrapbook.

Which reminds us: when are you going to send us your story?

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