GN is typically measured with distance (so you sometimes have it in metres or feet). Basically when you "zoom" out with the flash, the light will not be as concentrated on one spot as it is on the 105mm setting, hence the light will travel much further in comparison to your light being spread out for a 28mm setting.
Most specifications are something like 58m @ 105mm (ISO 100). This means that you can get a correct exposure if your subject is 58 metres away from your camera with (ideally) no ambient light (ok maybe it's not that realistic if you can focus so far away in a dark room, but these are just measurements here), provided that you are on a 105mm setting on your flash and also that you are using ISO 100.
Why you don't see this in practice is that the measurement is based on an F-stop of 1. So if you were using an f-stop of 4, and you are flashing directly, then place yourself no more than 14.5m away. Also, the GN will increase linearly as you increase your ISO.
Hope this helps 