Business owners and entrepreneurs often tap into the law of reciprocity without knowing it. 

They’re inherently pre-programmed to participate in the worldwide truth of give and receive.  While there are those out there in this world who take take take, the vast majority of us swing to the other side of the scale and give give give. 

Ever heard the quote – it’s better to give than receive?

Sure you have!  Not sure if it’s true because invariably when you give you do receive – it’s the law of reciprocity. 

Whether you give time, knowledge, money or even tangible things – you get it back tenfold. 

Let’s take a look at this law in action!

Influence and Reciprocity

If you’ve been in business for any length of time or even if you’ve just begun to research business models and strategies you’ve likely come across Dr Robert Cialdini and his laws of persuasion and influence.

They are, in no particular order,

- Commitment and Consistency – If people commit, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment.  This is used often in sales.  A sales person gets the potential customer to agree to a few ideas and thus sets the tone for the sale.

- Social Proof – People will do things that they see other people are doing.  The bandwagon mentality.  If other people are doing it then there must be some value or benefit to it.

- Authority – People will tend to obey authority figures.  Establish credibility and authority and people will be more likely to buy from you.

- Likeability – People are easily persuaded by other people that they like. 

- Scarcity – Perceived scarcity will generate demand.  Buy now only 10 left – enough said!

- Reciprocity – People tend to return a favor.  This is often used in internet marketing by giving people lots of good content.  We’re talking books, reports, even products or at least trial versions of products. 

The law of reciprocity at its most basic level tells us that if we give our prospects and customers something, whether it is a free product or service, excellent customer service, or even something as basic as tons of valuable information on a website or blog, then they will return the favor and make a purchase.  It’s a law that many business owners and entrepreneurs tap into without realizing it.  They do it unconsciously.

Networking and Reciprocity

That being said, the law of reciprocity doesn’t stop there.  It extends to your community – both your personal community and your professional community.

When you participate in your local community, whether it is through your church, through your child’s school, your local community education program, local team sports, your home owner’s association, the homeless shelter, your community’s cultural events and so on, you’re volunteering your time. You’re sharing your knowledge and experience with those who can most benefit from it. 

For example if you own a business teaching copywriting strategies you can give back to the community by teaching free marketing writing courses through your local community education program or free university.  You can assist at the junior high or high school and help during writing labs or workshops. 

So how does the law of reciprocity work if you’re volunteering your time in your community? 

It just does.  Not very scientific, right?  Well the truth of the matter is that when you’re out and about meeting people and sharing your knowledge and experience you meet people who need your knowledge and experience and are willing to pay for it.  You meet people who are interested in your products and services and you meet people who present valuable business building opportunities. 

It’s basic networking without the focus being about your or your business.  In fact, in my experience if you go out to help others with the idea that you’re going to get something back monetarily – it doesn’t work.  Instead, go out and help others, give back to your community and enjoy the feel good rewards you receive.  The wealth will follow naturally.

The same holds true if when you are networking professionally.  However instead of shaking hands and kissing babies with the hope that these same folks will come knocking at your metaphorical door (unless you own a brick and mortar business then it’s not so metaphorical?) connect with fellow business owners and entrepreneurs in an effort to education and to learn.  Networking by and large is about sharing knowledge and helping each other become better. 

When you network professionally the more charitable your approach the more you will receive.  In today’s competitive marketplace the ones who survive long term are transparent and authentic. 

The Universal Law of Reciprocity

The universal law of reciprocity pulls us out of our day to day actions, our day to day giving and receiving and puts it in the hands of whatever you believe is out there affecting your life – God, The Universe, an energetic force – it doesn’t really matter because the law is the same.  When you give, you receive. 

It isn’t a matter of faith.  You don’t even have to believe in this law for it to be true.  In fact if you go into the world giving and expecting something back then it’s just not going to be as effective.  If you look at each good deed you do as a money in the bank – we’ll you’re taking all the fun out of it.  Instead, rest assured with the knowledge that every time you give you will receive.

Seriously.  This isn’t some new fangled spiritual, hippy, approach to wealth.  People have embraced and prospered with this knowledge for centuries. 

So how can you use the law of reciprocity to prosper?

Become conscious of it.  Know that it is an influential factor in sales.  When you give away value, people are inclined to reciprocate.  That means integrate it into your sales and marketing strategy and tactics.  Use the law of reciprocity to influence your customers and prospects.

Network.  Get out and get involved both in your personal life and in your professional life.  The people that you meet are wide open doors of opportunity.  Greet them as such and be an opportunity for them. The wealth you will receive both personal and tangible – we’re talking about  both the joy of giving as well as the joy of the monetary benefits you will receive, will astound you.

Finally, simply accept that the law of reciprocity works. Don’t force it.  Enjoy it.  Sit back from time to time and ask yourself – Am I giving enough?  Take stock in the opportunities that have come your way simply by giving.  And then make a plan to give more. 

The law of reciprocity is always in motion.  Don’t let it slip between your fingers – use it to generate the great wealth you deserve.

To Your Success!
Jeremy Gislason
SureFireWealth INC
SureFireWealth.com

What do you think about the Law of Reciprocity? Have you had any real life experiences? Do you believe this works or not? Leave your comments below…

You are free to link back to this article from your websites, blogs and social bookmark sites as well as tell others via email or word of mouth.

Jeremy here with an announcement on Web Based Wealth by Simon Hodgkinson

Simon has been hard at work this year prepaing what is perhaps his largest course to date.

I’ve known Simon for several years now and we’re partners together on alot of projects including MemberSpeed.com

In fact, we founded 2 companies together MemberSpeed Inc & Power House Technology LLC. He’s like a brother to me, we work hard together, drink together and have lots of fun doing it all.

Not to mention he has tons of projects going on all the time with his own company as do I.

So when Simon tells me he has a new product or idea in the works I’m usually like – “great, sounds good – show me when it’s done man.” He’s a great copywriting and marketer and just loaded with crazy ideas. (some of those crazy ideas have turned into lots of crazy profits though)

So when he finally showed me what he had been up to I was pretty floored at how much great material he is putting into this massive course for people.

I’m really impressed with it and I know it will help you out tremendously no matter what stage you are at in your business right now.

You can get an idea of the sheer size/comprehensiveness of the course here:

http://www.surefirewealth.com/recommends/QA

This is easily what most gurus would charge $2k – $3k for these days …so you will be surprised when you see the value you will get for your money on Tuesday – not to mention my bonus will at least triple the value as well.

Just so you know…

It will be a physical product next year but he is releasing the digital format this coming week for 7 days only.

The digital format will be priced at the lowest you will ever see it priced this coming week.

It’s being released this coming Tuesday Nov 11th, 2008 – so mark your calendar

It will then close on Nov 17th so you will have a one week window to grab this new course that will show you how to make real wealth online.

There will also be some fast action bonuses available for a few quick action takers on Tuesday as well.

Plus be sure to watch for that triple the value bonus from me on top of that:)

In the meantime, you can grab a lot of great free content here:

http://www.surefirewealth.com/recommends/WBW

A) Make sure you get your name on that list as you can grab some really great content

B) Then watch for an email on Tuesday with our triple the offer bonus

Until then, have a great weekend!

Here’s the deal, Matt Callen – one of the internet’s most well-known SEO and marketing experts, has decided to reveal an incredibly powerful strategy for bringing in a consistent flow of visitors to his sites. It’s one of those ‘sit-it-and-forget-it’ types of strategies that anyone can implement no matter what type of website or niche market they’ve got.

He’s only letting a core group of members join, so head over there now and check it out.

You can see here:
==> http://www.surefirewealth.com/recommends/plrarticles

I fully reviewed the services offered in his member area and overall I was impressed. The part I liked best was that you can simply add all your blogs and then schedule content to be automatically added to your blogs.

What does that mean? Well…you could just set it up, schedule all your blog content to go daily or every 2-3 days for the next month for example. Then simply forget about it and let the search engines and visitors to your blogs do the rest.

The key is to monitize your blogs as much as you can so the traffic you get is not wasted.

Now the articles themselves are very niche related, they are not ‘how to make money online’ articles. They are articles from everything from cars, homes, and roofing to plants and weight loss to start with. You can then use their rewriting software to change up the articles. So if you are not into niche marketing or prefer to just write your own content then this may not be for you.

But the cool thing is you can also upload your own articles and scedule those on your blogs as well.

We’ve been doing a lot of article marketing ourselves over the past couple of years and it is one of the slowest yet solid plans to get a steady stream of traffic to your sites. By slowest I mean it can take a while to start getting indexed and grabbing top search engine rankings on keywords.

By solid I mean that once you have done the work (getting your articles submitted and linked back to your sites) you will have a never ending steady stream of traffic to your sites. Not only that but if you do things right you will start to see higher page rank as well which can only help you getting higher search engine results.

We have articles we wrote and submitted 4-5 years ago still showing up in google and getting traffic on certain keywords.

Side note you should check out Rob’s Blogging to the Bank for additional help learning how to use blogs along with article marketing.

But before you run off and buy a membership if you are not sure what to do you’d better read this article marketing report first.

Article Marketing Report

CLICK HERE to Download and Read the Article Marketing Report before you buy a membership to Simply PLR

When you are ready then CLICK HERE to Get a Membership to Simply PLR before they close the doors on this

Take advantage of this asap because they’ve already said that the doors will close in the near future.

Warm Regards,
Jeremy Gislason
SureFireWealth Inc