Would you write 20 blog posts if it would change your life?
If you could author 20 blog posts, that same effort could be a book. When you are the author of a book, you walk into a whole new world of prospecting results and impact.
90 days.
Do you sell to a local or national market? Maybe you are a consultant, professional services provider, coach or store owner. You might sell B2B or P2P, work solo, or manage a team. 90 days from now you could be the author of a book available in hard copy and kindle versions for so little money it would make your head spin.
Prospects Don’t Meet With You Because You Don’t Give Them Enough Reason to meet
Authorship opens doors to desired business accounts, otherwise beyond your reach. It elevates you to the short list from the pack banging on the door. It enables others to see the value you provide.
Without a book, you are just another smart, hard working stiff. With a book you are the cream of the crop, the expert, the pro.
Big difference. Big difference between who hires you. What you get paid.
A better class of prospects
In sales prospecting, you have heard me say that value breaks down doors. Being an author screams value. You not only give more prospects a better reason to meet with you, you are giving a better class of prospects a reason to meet with you.
This “better class of prospects” might currently be your once in a while or exception to the rule type client. But when you are an author, they can become the type of client or account you deal with all the time.
You Are Not Selling Books
You are Building Your Business.
You are Generating Leads.
You are creating an ability to close more and more higher value accounts.
Intrigued about Being an Author to Sell More? Some stories…
Good sales prospecting and lead generation are just part of an overall effective marketing and sales plan. Getting in the door is about positioning, value and differentiation.
The first story
Before I was a so-called appointment setting guru, I had a small marketing consultancy specializing in professional services marketing. My focus was helping those that offer high-value intangibles to be paid premium prices. That means helping lawyers, CPA’s, doctors, consultants and others to attract more clients, resell and generate referrals. We used many marketing tactics depending on the practice. I won some national awards for TV ads, newsletter and Yellow Pages projects I did.
At one point, I went around the country presenting seminars on “Marketing Professional Services.” Thought “I should write a book.” I did, and it was terrible. I hated it. Hated everything about it. As I didn’t know what I was doing, I spent way too much time on it and just couldn’t justify shelving it. So I published it.
My “publishing” method was to photocopy it and have it bound at Staples. Totally stupid.
Then I did what I teach others to do now. I cold called large professional service firms in New England proudly trumpeting being the author of the book “Marketing Professional Services.” Got a lot of appointments and sold a ton of consulting and training. All because of that stupid (and embarrassing to me,) Staples photocopied book.
Now understand that these clients were out of my league. But I had a book. I would ask them, “Why did you hire me?” They would say, “You wrote the book.” I would ask, “What was in the book that was significant to you?” Typical response. “Um, ah, well… didn’t really read it. Just flipped through it. But you really seem to know what you are talking about and you wrote a book, so we hired you.” I heard that over and over again.
Fast forward about six years to 2004. I had fallen into a niche (not planned, just happened) of helping companies set high-level sales appointments. I did projects. Made the calls. Set up the programs. Actually did the work. Smiled and dialed my way to setting 2,000+ sales appointments. That grind got kind of tiring. Particularly when I would see people fly in, spend the day speaking/training, fly out, and make a lot more money than I was.
I decided I wanted to be that person, rather than just the smart, hard-working guy grinding it out. So I wrote the book “Setting Sales Appointments” and it changed my life.
Same hard working smart guy who had been grinding it out regionally became a national speaker and trainer hired by four Fortune 20 companies for training/consulting and a slew of others large and small.
I went from grinding it out and doing more and more for less in the name of “providing more value,” to being paid $6,500 for a half-day presentation. 2004 was life-changing year.
Because I authored a book.
Because I leveraged that authorship in my marketing to connect with paying clients.
Ultimately, sales prospecting and appointment setting is about getting more clients/accounts. Over the years, as people have contacted me for guidance, sometimes the option of writing a book was discussed. Over the years, I have helped more than a handful of coaching clients to write books and then leverage them in a myriad of ways to build their businesses.
They have been mostly consultants of some type, personal coaches, professional service providers, or specialty store owners. Some market locally or regionally, some nationally, but having a book, properly marketed and leveraged, catapulted their businesses forward.
A revolution has occurred in publishing, book marketing and distribution over the last few years. What was once complicated and expensive is now ridiculously cost-effective and fairly straightforward. If you know what you are doing.
My One Regret
If I have any regret in business, it is that I did not write another book sooner. My first book, Setting Sales Appointments, was published in 2004. The next book, 7 Steps to Sales Scripts, came out in 2013. Big mistake.
I had all the excuses and rationalizations. Business is good. Time. Figuring things out. But you know what? I believed in my own BS and it cost me. I could have written another. I should have written another. Not writing my second book sooner so cost me a lot of marketing and business generating opportunities.
What about you?
Within 90 – 150 days you could be an author marketing and selling to a better class of prospects.
Would you write 20 blog posts if it would change your life? This blog article is 1,200 words. I wrote it in two hours sitting on my couch.
Would you do that 20 times if it would change your life?
