Book Review: Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham

Jay Abraham is the Founder and CEO of Abraham Group, Inc, a marketing consulting firm that provides strategies to businesses. He has helped many businesses including IBM, Microsoft, and Citibank and is a well-respected voice in the marketing field. Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got details the strategies one can use to grow its business and provides advice on how to reach your personal goal.

Fall in love with your customers

A common theme that reoccurs is to value your customers. There are numerous marketing resources that talk about the value of being customer-oriented. However, Jay Abraham takes it to another level.

One of the biggest mistakes, probably the biggest mistake, people make in any business is they fall in love with the wrong thing. They fall in love with their product, service or company. You should believe passionately in your product, service, or company. But you should fall in love with your clients. By client, I mean several groups. Not only the people and businesses who pay you for your goods or services. But also your employees, bosses, team members, and vendors. … Fall in love with your clients means taking responsibility for their well being.

Being customer-oriented is not enough. You have to fall in love with your customers and treat them as your valued friend. Having this change in mindset is crucial and will change the way you market and interact with your customers.

A successful business starts with the desire to provide a solution to another’s problem. Put your clients’ need ahead of your own. And rather than asking “What do I have to say to get people to buy?”, ask “What do I have to give?”. See your product as a way to improve your customers’ lives. Once you treat your customers as your valued friend, you will think about ways to improve their lives, which as a result will give you ideas on how to increase your business’ value to your customers.

Growth Strategies

Identify the businesses that are selling to your target market that aren’t competing with you. These businesses tend to be selling something that will complement your product or service. Contact these companies and discuss ways where you can leverage each others’ customer base.

Breakthroughs are unconventionally fresh, superior, more exciting ways of doing something.

Keep an eye on the possible breakthroughs that can be applied to your business. Breakthrough ideas can often be taken from other industries so keep continual access to successful, creative breakthrough developments and achievements. This can come from online resources such as Inc. and Forbes or from networking and brainstorming sessions with success-driven people outside your industry.

USP: The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition.

• Financial: what is the potential financial loss if the transaction doesn’t work out?
• Emotional: how bad would the customer feel or look if his/her purchase fails to perform?
• Measurability: can the impact your product or service has on the customer’s life, business, or career be measured and evaluated?

The examples above are only meant to get you thinking. The point is to have a holistic view of the different aspects that can prevent a prospect from dealing with your business. Once you have identified these obstacles you can make risk reversal become an important part of your USP (ex. providing guarantees).

You don’t have the right to determine what the market wants, but you have the duty to find out.

There are always ways you can improve your marketing strategy, so make sure you are constantly A/B testing every marketing component, including price.

Jay Abraham said that the single most important strategy you can use to maximize the value of all your strategies is to communicate on a regular basis with everyone who contributes or ever will contribute, in any way to your business success. This goes hand in hand with his belief that you should treat your customers as your valued friend. You should keep in touch and look after your friends and you should do the same for your customers as well. Don’t be bashful, ask for referrals and provide your customers info on how to locate the referrals for you. Customers from referrals usually end up being your best and most loyal customers.

Besides focusing on your active customers also look into your inactive customers and identify the reasons they stop doing business with you. Often times inactive customers just forgot about your business and can be brought back when reached out.

Summary

Jay Abraham talked about goal setting and how a clear destination and precise road map for getting where you want to be is needed to maximize your potential income or success. However, as mentioned, this book is not a personal development book and the emphasis is on the growth strategies one can adopt to improve one’s business. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a business. It can provide you value no matter how successful your business is and will be a book I’ll revisit when I start my own company.

I’m currently reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss and I look forward to sharing with you the insights I learned from this book as well. For more frequent updates on my learnings, you can follow me on Twitter.