Givz’s Enterprise Sales Playbook: How They Landed H&M by Solving an Acute Pain Point

Givz’s Enterprise Sales Playbook: How They Landed H&M by Solving an Acute Pain Point

Landing enterprise deals often comes down to identifying and solving acute pain points. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Andrew Forman revealed how Givz secured H&M as a client by addressing a specific challenge in their charitable giving program.

Finding the Enterprise Pain Point H&M’s Pride Month initiative had backfired. “They had done a Pride Month initiative where they donated $3 million, a million dollars to three different charities,” Andrew explains. “And they got a ton of pushback from the LGBTQ community saying, why did you choose these three charities? Why don’t you choose our charity?”

This problem – brands wanting to support causes but struggling with execution – revealed a larger opportunity in enterprise retail. Traditional cause marketing locked brands into supporting specific charities, risking alienating the very communities they hoped to engage.

Building the Solution Instead of pre-selecting charities, Givz built a platform that lets customers direct donations themselves. This approach solved H&M’s immediate challenge while opening doors to broader applications.

But landing H&M required more than just the right solution. As Andrew notes, “You need that internal champion to really push it through. But I think H&M had an acute pain, right?” The combination of a pressing problem and an internal advocate created the momentum needed to close the deal.

Proving the Model Givz made validation simple through A/B testing. “Use a coupon code for 20% off. Use a different coupon code for 15% off plus 15% to give to charity. See which one wins,” Andrew explains. This data-driven approach helped overcome initial skepticism about “charity stuff” by demonstrating clear business impact.

The results were compelling. When H&M implemented Givz’s donation incentives, they saw strong engagement “to the tune of H&M donating $150,000” in just six days. More importantly, “that email converted as if it had a discount code in it, even though it didn’t.”

Expanding the Relationship Success with Pride Month led to additional campaigns. “They did it for Earth Day, then they did it for LGBTQ, for Pride Month,” Andrew shares. By proving value in one context, Givz created opportunities to solve similar challenges across the organization.

Scaling to Other Enterprises This playbook – identifying acute pain points, providing easy validation paths, and expanding from initial success – has helped Givz grow beyond retail. Whether it’s Betterment incentivizing deposits or jewelry stores driving high-value purchases, the core approach remains consistent.

For B2B founders targeting enterprise clients, Givz’s experience offers valuable lessons. Focus on solving specific, pressing problems rather than selling generic solutions. Make validation low-risk and data-driven. And use initial wins to demonstrate value for broader applications across the organization.

By following this playbook, Givz has moved beyond being just another charitable giving platform to become essential infrastructure for purpose-driven marketing. As Andrew puts it, they’re building “the fabric that basically powers the future of this giving economy.”