"The Value of Adding Free Value"

Bill Belichick is considered to be one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. His team, the New England Patriots, has won three of the last four Super Bowls. They won 10 straight playoff games. Belichick began his career in the NFL by VOLUNTEERING to work for the Baltimore Colts in 1975. That's right. He broke down film of the opposing teams and organized the information so well that shortly after he was hired for free they bumped his pay to $25 a week. By mid-season he was up to $50 a week. Today he earns $4 Million a year.

Approximately ten years ago Gilette mailed to me a free razor called the Mach 3 with five free razor blades. I love that razor. For the first time I actually felt like I got a good shave. I still use that free razor. However, I have spent a year's worth of my children's college tuition on razor blades.

When Krispy Kreme Doughnuts opens a store in a new area, they give away free doughnuts to the local media. Once you get hooked on them they're hard not to talk about.

Southwest Airlines created the Rapid Rewards program to give away free flights for people who flew regularly with them.

What can you give away for free that would add value to other people? Can you give your time to advise a new person in your department? I'm not talking about being a member of a formal mentoring program. I'm just talking about giving free value away. Just work to help another person. If you want to sharpen your leadership skills, could you volunteer to serve on a local board? Could you volunteer to organize a major event such as the "Susan B. Komen Race For The Cure" in your community? You would learn more about how to build teamwork and provide leadership and deal with a variety of people situations.

Bill Belichick is considered to be one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. His team, the New England Patriots, has won three of the last four Super Bowls. They won 10 straight playoff games. Belichick began his career in the NFL by VOLUNTEERING to work for the Baltimore Colts in 1975. That's right. He broke down film of the opposing teams and organized the information so well that shortly after he was hired for free they bumped his pay to $25 a week. By mid-season he was up to $50 a week. Today he earns $4 Million a year.

Approximately ten years ago Gilette mailed to me a free razor called the Mach 3 with five free razor blades. I love that razor. For the first time I actually felt like I got a good shave. I still use that free razor. However, I have spent a year's worth of my children's college tuition on razor blades.

When Krispy Kreme Doughnuts opens a store in a new area, they give away free doughnuts to the local media. Once you get hooked on them they're hard not to talk about.

Southwest Airlines created the Rapid Rewards program to give away free flights for people who flew regularly with them.

What can you give away for free that would add value to other people? Can you give your time to advise a new person in your department? I'm not talking about being a member of a formal mentoring program. I'm just talking about giving free value away. Just work to help another person. If you want to sharpen your leadership skills, could you volunteer to serve on a local board? Could you volunteer to organize a major event such as the "Susan B. Komen Race For The Cure" in your community? You would learn more about how to build teamwork and provide leadership and deal with a variety of people situations.

Why give value away for free?

Value is anything that increases the chances that other people will achieve what they want to achieve. I'll come up with ten reasons for giving away value, and then I challenge you to come up with ten more.

1. The person you are giving the value to may achieve better results. There's an intrinsic reward in helping another person succeed.
2. You will learn more about what really is considered value by other people and what is not considered value.
3. You will hone your craft and get better at what you do.
4. You may step into a new area of development that you have interest in but no experience in doing.
5. You will find out if this new area is something you would like to do more of in the future, or something you don't ever want to do again.
6. You may end up making money doing it in the future.
7. You can try something and if it fails no one can accuse of stealing their money because you gave it to them for free.
8. You can have a lot of fun doing it.
9. You can meet new people and develop new relationships and this expanded network could lead to new opportunities.
10. You can learn ideas that can be added to your day-to-day responsibilities.

Now take out a sheet of paper and come up with ten more reasons why you should give away value to other people.

Ten years ago, on January 15, 1996, I was a high school math teacher who wanted to be a professional speaker. I felt I had something to say, but no idea where to start. So I did the most logical thing I could think of. I took out a blank sheet of paper because I didn't have letterhead, business cards, a website, or an e-mail address, and I wrote a letter to 50 high school principals in the St. Louis offering to speak for free at any function they had whether it was an Honor Society Induction, a sports team banquet, a Student Council Function, an all school meeting, or any other type of gathering. The word "free" is a powerful marketing tool. That year I spoke to 38 groups. 30 of those speeches were for free. Six were for under $100. And two were for a corporation for $500 each. And that was the most powerful year I've ever had as a speaker. Why? Because I learned and learned and learned. Mostly I learned what doesn't work. High school students are phenomenal audiences because they are so honest. When I was boring, they went to sleep. When I was too theoretical, they would start talking to each other. When I was just plain bad, they would let me know it. And when I occasionally hit the mark, they told me that as well. Through trial and error and constantly searching for what really added value to an audience regardless of their age, I began to grow as a speaker. During those first two years I spoke to every imaginable group from singles groups to senior citizens and everyone in between until one day businesses started to call and ask me to speak on business topics. Everything I do today in terms of speaking, executive coaching, facilitating, consulting, and writing began with that letter on blank paper offering to speak for free to high schools ten years ago.

Don't focus on the money. Focus on the opportunity to add value to other people. In the process of adding value so many things will emerge for you and so many wonderful relationships will develop that you will realize that you truly are being rewarded even though you're not being paid cash at the moment.

How organizations can use Value-Added Marketing

The same philosophy holds true for organizations. Give away value for free and see what happens. The first time I ever learned this was when I watched the film, "Miracle on 34th Street" when I was a kid. People would come to Macy's to see Santa Claus, and Santa would tell the moms where they could find certain toys at other stores. As a result, more and more moms would come to Macy's to see this Santa Claus. Today I call that "Value-Added Marketing." How can your organization give value to customers and prospects and build long-term, profitable relationships with them? I'll give you suggestions for seven industries, and then you come up with seven ideas for your organization.

Hotels - If a hotel has those fabulous beds with the cushy pillows and the unbelievable bed covers, then they could give out to their guests for free the name of the mattress manufacturer and the pillow manufacturer and the sheet manufacturer and the distributor who sells those items. They could just put a note on the pillow that says, "If you would like to sleep like this at home, here are some places to call:…" That's free value.

Restaurants - The idea of eating healthy has impacted restaurants of all types and sizes. How about put together a free laminated card on "How To Eat Healthy At Home and On The Road" that is packed with practical tips and offer it to every customer who orders a salad? The restaurant could put its logo over in the corner. Basically, the goal is to associate your organization with value in the mind of the consumer.

Medical Tools Company - Stents that can reduce heart attacks have been in the news a lot lately. What could the companies that produce those stents do to add value to the doctors who order the stents and the consumers who pay for the stents? Why not create a laminated card on "What to do if your loved one has a heart attack"? It could be packed with step-by-step advice on who to call, what to do, what not to do, and what to be aware of. Doctors could give this to patients and their family members to reduce the stress of not knowing what to do in the midst of an emergency.

Car Manufacturers - When consumers come in looking at minivans, salespeople could give out information about where to find baby car seats, where to find car carriers, and where to sign up for satellite radio. They would just give away this information whether the customer bought from them or not.

Realtors - Realtors could create a "Community At Your Fingertips" with every imaginable piece of information for the surrounding area for a given house or group of houses. They could have the names of schools, religious organizations, grocery stores, restaurants, youth organizations, adult groups, hot spots, famous places, not-so-famous places, and on and on. They would give this information to every person they drove around with. They would include their contact information on the last page of the brochure. Give away as much value as you can so people will always remember you.

Video Stores - Competition is very tough for video stores. People can get content in so many different ways right now. So how they can make themselves unique? One of the hardest things to do in a video store is to make a decision in a reasonable amount of time. Why not create a free kiosk in their stores with in-depth information on films from a variety of angles? Consumers could type in "Favorite movies made in the 1960s for people under 30." Then a list would pop up of movies ranked by customers under 30 that were made in the 1960s. Each movie would have comments associated with it about why people liked the movie.

Retail Stores - Use the Santa Claus approach. Have a list of other stores and phone numbers to give out to customers for free on where they can get the items they are looking for. These retail stores could even include competitors who are selling the same things that the customer is looking for. They know customers shop around so why not add more value to their experience in the store by just letting them know where else to go to look for the item?

Ok, now come up with ideas for your organization on what value you could give away for free that would strengthen your relationship with customers and prospects.

I also encourage you to set a life-long career goal of being a "Value-Adder." More than any other title or numerical goal, this is the one that I believe will help you accelerate your career. As you continually add value and charge fairly when it's appropriate, you will be rewarded in an extraordinary fashion.

Questions for Business Acceleration Teams

(Author's Note: Business Acceleration Teams are made up of people inside an organization who meet once a month to discuss how they can accelerate the achievement of their highest priority business outcomes. These individuals don't even have to be in the same city. They can do their work via conference calls and e-mails. The questions below can be used to generate meaningful discussion relevant to the ideas in this month's newsletter.)

1. What could we do that would increase the chances that our customers will achieve what they want or need?

2. How can we give away some of that value for free?

3. What would be the benefits to our organization for giving away that free value?

Resource Recommendation

The Ice Cream Maker by Subir Chowdbury

This book is a very quick read with a ton of practical advice. I encourage you to give it a try. It has application for a lot of industries.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Book Recommendation: It's Your Biz: The Complete Guide to Becoming Your Own Boss by Susan Solovic with Ellen Kadin

Recently I read a magnificent book for people who want to start their own business. The thing I like the most about, It’s Your Biz, is the absolute honesty with which it was written. It removes the glossiness and sexiness of owning your own business and breaks in down into reality. Click here to read Dan's review of the book.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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