Dollarmakers.com BLOG

Thursday, April 27, 2006

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
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