John Ruhlin (@ruhlin), founder of The Ruhlin Group, a professional gift giving service that’s worked with the likes of:

• Financial Institutions: Morgan Stanley & Wells Fargo
• Professional Sports Franchises: San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bears, & Miami Dolphins
• Casinos & Resorts: Caesars Palace, Atlantis, & MGM
• Thought leaders: Darren Hardy, John Maxwell, & Jeffrey Gitomer

When organizations like these need to WOW their clients or prospects with an incredible gift or experience, they turn to John and his company.

In fact the gift giving methodology that John drops during this interview is so ground breaking, his recently released book Giftology skyrocketed to #1 on Amazon in the customer service category.

After relistening to the audio to grab some highlights for you guys, I’m convinced this show may make the biggest impact on your business to date of any we’ve ever done. I know that’s a bold statement, but here are just a few of the highlights from John and I’s conversation:

• We begin with John’s journey and how it started with some incredible advice from a mentor that led him to become CutCo Knives #1 selling distributor EVER… and oh yeah, this was by the time he was a senior in college
• John reveals how 99% of all financial advisor gifts break the #1 most important rule of gift giving… and how to fix it!
• A few of the other concepts John covers to become a black belt in gift giving include…
  • One thing that every great gift should include
  • Best and worst times of year to give gifts
  • Most forgotten person when gifting happens in business
  • Biggest gift giving mistake people make when thanking others for a referral
  • Secret spot in the home to an incredibly meaningful gift (the secret to referrals!)
  • Word John uses to replace “gift” that will change the way you choose your gifts and how you give them

One last thing… John made an incredibly generous offer to share a free tool from his new book Giftology, “10 Gifts to Avoid Giving Key Clients”. Also an added bonus, because gifting can get especially tricky with gift limitations in the financial services space, our team over at Advisors Excel put in some extra work and created our “Guide to Gifting”.

Thanks for listening, you’re going to love the conversation with John!

Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review here, and tell me which guests I should have on!

• Listen to it on iTunes.

This episode is brought to you by BombBomb.com. Yeah, you heard me right, that’s the name of a really cool service I’m guessing you’ve never heard of… Let me ask you this, how many unread emails do you have sitting in your inbox right now? Well, it’s the same for your prospects that get bombarded with emails every day… Enter BombBomb.com, imagine combining YouTube with your favorite email delivery system like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, or InfusionSoft, well you’ve pretty much got BombBomb.

I tap the app on my iPhone or log into their website (I’m actually recording this right now on their service) and after shooting a quick video, selecting the list of clients or prospects I’d like to send it to, and pushing send – my video is in their inbox with a couple of minutes with my video to click right at the top.

YES, it’s that easy to actually get your message out there and communicated, nobody wants to read your emails! And by the way, it gives you all the analytics on the back end, who’s opened it, who’s watched the video and everything else you’d want to know.

Conor over at BombBomb has setup a special offer for all the Elite Advisor Blueprint listeners if you’d like to check it out, just go to bombbomb.com/brad to take advantage of a free 2 week trial to check it out for yourself. They also stand behind their product with a 30 day money back guarantee, so really nothing to lose. To get started, check it out at bombbomb.com/brad.

Scroll below for links and show notes… Enjoy!

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Giftology – John Ruhlin
• The Ruhlin Group
• Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth – Brad Blanton
• The Rhythm of Life – Matthew Kelly
• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success – Adam Grant
• Disney
• Brooks Brothers
• Connect with John: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

SHOW NOTES

• How did you come up with the concept of strategic gifting? [6:05]
• John shares general insight on what does and does not make a good gift [13:45]
• Why putting your logo on your gift ruins it [17:45]
• Crucial details on good gift giving: kitchen, time, family, etc. [19:00]
• Gift giving and technology [20:20] Do you have a process for giving a great gift? [26:40]
• John’s description and understanding of the word “artifact” in gift giving [30:00]
• Can you share some of the cool things you’ve done? [33:30]
• The importance of the spouse and personal thank you notes [41:00]
• The timing can make or break the gift [45:05]
• How do you keep this gift giving going at home? [48:00]
• What is the coolest, least expensive gift you’ve given? [49:00]
• The naming of Giftology [55:05]
• Creating and maintaining your connections [1:00:10]
• Any cool gifts or stories along the sports front? [1:06:00]
• Rapid fire questions [1:10:00]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Joey Coleman
• John Maxwell
• Darren Hardy
• Jeffrey Gitomer
• Cameron Herold
• Georgia Pellegrini
• Michael Hyatt

Federal law, state law and/or insurance carrier requirements may prohibit or place limitations on marketing activities. All producers and investment advisors should be aware of any gifting limitations imposed by federal regulation, state regulation, insurance carriers, broker-dealers and Registered Investment Advisors, as applicable. Investment advisors are strongly encouraged to obtain pre-approval from the broker-dealer and/or Registered Investment Advisor with which they may be affiliated.

The information and opinions contained herein are provided by third parties and have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Advisors Excel. Don Yeager is not affiliated with or sponsored by Advisors Excel.

Compliance Approval: AE06164356

The post John Ruhlin on Giftology and How Giving More than is Reasonable Always Comes Back 10X appeared first on Brad Johnson.