Episode 29

029 Andrew Forman - Turning Discounts into Donations: A Unique Way to Create Surprise & Delight

Andrew Forman is the Founder and CEO of Givz, an organization that helps businesses, including SaaS companies, drive revenue and loyalty by allowing customers to choose donations over discounts. It’s a brilliant concept that many of your clients have never seen before, especially in the sales process.

Today, Andrew joins the show to discuss his background as an investment banker, his experience with non-profit organizations and how he came up with this innovative idea.

Episode Sponsor

Small Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel’

Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/

Key Takeaways

01:18 – Jeff introduces today’s guest, Andrew Forman, who joins the show to discuss his journey from investment banker to SaaS founder, his involvement in non-profits, and the inspiration to launch Givz

07:14 – How Givz works

13:17 – The difference in consumer perception when they receive a personal discount versus one for charity

15:32 – Andrew’s entrepreneurial origin story

19:12 – The role mentors have played in Andrew’s success

20:44 – The biggest lessons Andrew learned from his time as an investment banker

25:15 – Jeff takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Small Fish, Big Pond

25:55 – How Givz can be used in a B2B market and, specifically, with SaaS companies

31:06 – Where listeners can go to learn more about Givz

31:58 – How Andrew came up with this revolutionary idea

34:06 – Jeff thanks Andrew for joining the show and sharing his story

Tweetable Quotes

“I thought about what problems I had experienced in the world. And I think that is where I started Givz, having recognized that it was such a pain for brands and charities to come and work together when it should be a really seamless process. And so we started to build that.” (05:08) (Andrew)

“Givz is building donation incentives for the future. So, what did incentives used to look like? They used to look like discounts. Now, buyers are becoming a bit more savvy. Hugely discounted brands are going out of business. It is something where you know that, ultimately, you get what you pay for. And so, if you’re going to be paying hugely discounted prices, you’re likely going to get lower quality product. Brands are starting to figure this out. They’re starting to see, with new data analytics tools that are out there, that anyone who comes in via discounts are their lowest lifetime value customers. And so, you want to really drive, as a business owner, full-price purchases as much as you can.” (07:20) (Andrew)

“And I think, from a consumer psychology standpoint, you’re unlocking something extremely important within an individual’s brain that says, ‘Yeah, this brand is not cheap. In fact, I’m paying full-price, but I’m getting money to give to any charity that I want to support while I’m getting this quality product.’” (12:58) (Andrew)

“When you surround yourself with A-plus players, you have to become A-plus pretty quickly.” (24:45) (Andrew)

“So, the way that it actually works is we have over 175,000 different charities in the database and most are covered. That said, if there’s a charity that somebody started or you started that’s not in there, you can get it added in less than forty-eight hours.” (29:04) (Andrew)

“The goal here is to make donation incentives mainstream across industries. And I think we’re well on our way.” (31:49) (Andrew)