Over twenty-five years ago, I became a financial advisor to help people reach the goals that were important to them. Money was the tool that could provide for their families and help them enjoy the life they’d always wanted. I was determined to help them achieve their goals by managing their money wisely.
As I got to know my clients, I came to realize something else. While there were many financial advisors my clients could work with, unbeknownst to me, I was differentiating myself from the rest of them. Like any business, my customers could just as easily buy the product or service I was selling from another investment advisor. My firm was the only firm in town that was making giving an important part of its investment strategy—using some of our profits to support education and causes that benefited our local community. I lost count of the number of times during my career when a client or potential client said to me, “We’re working with you because we saw a picture of you in the newspaper giving an award to a student at a local school,” or, “We saw you on television being interviewed about investment advice, and we’ve heard of your contributions to the community.” The more I gave back, the more people wanted to work with me. I became the giving investment advisor.
The perception people have of you is important in any business—and positive perception leads to profitability. When people perceive you as a giver, they think of you as someone who cares about their community, and they’re more likely to trust you. It makes for causal relationships because now they’re not just working with you; they’re working with both you and the causes you’re a part of, and that becomes what’s important to them too. They are part of something bigger.
One of the most repeated pieces of advice I’ve given to my kids is, “You want people to know you, like you, and trust you.” This is practical life advice, but it’s also good business advice. Connecting your business to your Generosity Purpose allows both potential and current customers to get to know you on a deeper level.
Let me give you an example. You’re out shopping and right next to each other, there are two cookware stores. At the first store, an associate walks up to you, asks how you’re doing, and tells you how nice and high quality the cookware is. “Enjoy your shopping and let me know if you need anything!” he says.
At the adjacent cooking store, an associate walks up to you, asks how you’re doing, and proceeds to tell you why this store is special. “Particularly in Third World countries, many people don’t have access to healthy food,” he says. “As a result, children and their families are malnourished and sickly. As a company, we’re passionate about doing what we can to solve this problem. That’s why when you purchase anything in our store, part of the proceeds goes directly to help families struggling to find healthy food.”
Which cooking store will you buy from? The second one. Why? Because you need some nice cookware and can impact the world at the same time. So you buy a pot, a pan, and a couple sets of silverware and walk out of the store pleased because you’ve spent money that benefited a cause you believe in. Now every time you open your silverware drawer and pull out a fork or spoon, you smile. Your purchase met a need and made a difference.
“It’s good business. Giving back is, in fact, a way to get more,” agrees Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine. “You obviously have to create a sustainable business in order to operate and to do good. But what I have found over and over again in the companies that I talk to is that when they figure out ways to really connect with communities, and to really support those communities, they engage and excite their own team members, they create a better, stronger culture of people who are excited to show up to work every day and to be a part of this mission, and they also attract new customers.”
Feifer cites numerous research studies that demonstrate the willingness of consumers to spend more and make purchasing decisions because they feel aligned with a company’s mission. “If you’re gonna survive as a business in times like these, then you have to go beyond just offering a product or service. You have to be really meaningful to people in their lives. And so I think that, in a way, this is going to be a filtering moment. And the companies that are really crystal clear about their mission are the ones that are going to thrive, and the other ones may not have a place in this new world.” Ultimately, as Feifer himself has said, it’s not about what you do, it’s about why you do it.
