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Many people are going through tough times right now and giving back and paying it forward is more important than ever – you just need to know HOW. That’s what I discuss with Jon Ferrara, the creator of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in this episode.

“You can get anything you want in the world by helping other people get what they want.”

~Zig Ziglar

What is Important in Life and Why?

We’re not on this planet to make money, we’re on this planet to make memories out of moments. Jon believes that ultimately, we’re on this planet to grow our souls. After doing some spiritual work, Jon came to the conclusion that the best way to grow your soul is by being present with other people, especially those that love you. You need to be present with other people because, if they really love you, they’ll throw your shit right back at you. That’s important because if you take a hard look at yourself and your shit that’s how you really grow. If you really listen and you learn, you’ll find ways to add value to other people’s lives and you’ll change your life for the better. When you do that at scale you can change the world for the better.

As an example: When Jon invented Customer Relationship Management (CRM), he didn’t do it because he wanted to make $100 million dollars. He did it because he loves building solutions, and in the case of CRM the solution was something that Jon needed. While working in sales before CRM Jon had leads in various places and it was hard to track the customer’s journey as it got closer to closing the sale. It turned out that a LOT of people, literally MILLIONS of them, had the same problem. By serving those people and helping them achieve their dreams, Jon achieved a dream that very few people ever achieve. And it came from serving and helping other people, not just himself.

How to Be a More Successful Person

Let’s look at sales, Jon believes that in many ways everyone is a salesperson in one way or another. Unfortunately, many salespeople are only interested in “bagging and tagging” you to make money. That can make sales a four-letter word. That’s why service is the new sales. If you enter into every engagement not with the intention of what can you get from this person but what can you give to this person you can’t help but walk away from that engagement with a positive boost, and the other person walks away with the same thing.

If you want through life without being present, without really listening and without an intention to serve you’re just focused on “getting”. The alternative to that is to live by the mantra “the more that you give, the more that you get.” That applies to not only everyone that you know but also to strangers that you interact with.

How to Stay Top of Mind with People

First, you DON’T send them a quarterly email that tells them how great your products and services are. That’s selfish and people don’t care about that. They care about themselves and what good things you do for them. What can you do instead? Follow them online, follow their digital footprint on a regular basis and add VALUE to the conversation so that when you do reach out it’s not a cold call, it’s a warm call because you’ve been staying in touch with them.

Listen In!

During the rest of our discussion we discuss topics including…

  • How to take your business relationships beyond “just business” and touch people on a personal level by using the “Five F’s of Life” and the “Five E’s of Social Business”.
  • How to build your personal brand at scale to reach more people.
  • How to balance being nice and serving others with making sales.
  • How to reach out to people that you haven’t spoken with in a long time and successfully reconnect with them.
  • …and many, many more golden nuggets of actionable advice!

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About The Guest

Jon Ferrara is a serial entrepreneur and noted speaker about social, sales and marketing. He has re-imagined CRM by building Nimble – The Simple CRM for Office 365 & G Suite. Ferrara is best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software Corp, one of the early pioneers in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs). He has been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Social CEO’s, Top 10 Social Salespeople in The World and Top 100 Marketing Influencers.