There’s a trend where coaches and consultants are being told to give first, to lead with generosity.
In itself that’s not a bad idea, especially when that generosity is meant to deliver value to a potential buyer.
But what’s not always explained, is the difference between generosity and charity.
Which is how quite a few people keep giving away free sessions, and never actually land the clients they give to.
Point is, if you run a business, you’re not a charity. Dollars matter, and if you don’t distinguish between generosity and charity, you’ll end up in trouble.
So if your lead generation is based on generosity, and if you tend to give people strategy sessions as part of your sales process, there’s two important things to remember:
1: Never give to takers, but only to matchers or givers (see: Adam Grant’s Give and Take for an explanation on the difference between the three).
2: Get a picture of who you’ll be giving too, before you do. Qualify your prospects first, because the worst thing you can do for your business is giving your scarcest resource (your time) to people who aren’t ready, or able, to hire you.
Generosity is good, but only if it’s not charity, and only if you go about it strategically.
Cheers,
Martin
