Becky Robinson's Blog, page 86

Best Book Launch Tips: Create Bulk Buy Incentives

If you want to sell thousands of books in a week to reach best-seller status on a big list, the best way to do so is through bulk sales.

Do the math. You can sell books singly, and add up the numbers,1 +1 +1, or you can sell in bulk and see sales multiply, 1000 X 10, or 10+10+100+1000+1500.

Gary Vaynerchuk skillfully demonstrates this concept on the landing page for his new book, Jab Jab Right Hook. He ramped up his offer of bulk buy incentives during a live spreecast, An Epic Day of Book Talk, which has received nearly forty thousand views. And though his pub date isn’t until November 26, the book is already ranked in two categories on Amazon and is six thousand overall.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Thank You Economy and I’m excited to read Gary’s new book, so I ordered 7 copies, to share with my team and clients.

If you market each of your books effectively, you will gather readers who are excited to buy your next book, as Gary has. When people are confident that your work adds value, they may be compelled to buy in bulk, especially if your work offers value to their team or organization.

Here are a few ideas about how to leverage bulk buy incentives to increase sales of your book:

Identify incentives that will compel your audience. Whatever offer you make must be congruent with your book’s content and value. Look for offers you can make that fit your audience’s needs and interests.

Be creative! Look for ways to offer unique incentives that compel people to buy more books.

Make sure your offers will scale. If you are offering your time in exchange for bulk sales, make sure the numbers add up. You have a limited number of hours available and don’t want to over-promise your time. Look for incentives that do not require your time, when possible.

Use bulk sales as a negotiation tool. While most authors can’t afford to trade keynotes for book sales, you can use the purchase of a bulk order of your books as a negotiating tool in closing a keynote sale by offering your keynote for a price and allowing part of the price to be applied toward a bulk book purchase.

Ask for bulk purchases. Many authors sell thousands of books to clients of their consulting practices. Your book brings your best thinking and learning to your clients in a convenient package, which can be read, re-read, and shared. If clients already pay top dollar for your knowledge and expertise, they will likely be willing to invest in buying multiple copies of your book. Consider the price of a day of training with you vs. the cost of bulk purchases of your book.

Create a landing page that makes your offer clear and promote it widely. Don’t assume that people who want to purchase in bulk will know about your incentive offers. Proactively share your offers. Make sure people can easily find them. Be open to possibilities beyond the offer. Gary Vaynerchuk’s offer includes the opportunity to barter.

Time these bulk buys proactively. By sending bulk sales to a site like 800 CEO Read, which reports to the Wall Street list and feeds to the NY Times, you can increase your chances of landing one of the big lists. If possible, time your bulk sales through CEO Read to land within a certain week or month.

When you incentivize and promote the bulk sales of your book, you will multiply your success and see your sales grow exponentially.

Tell me something! What other ideas do you have about how to leverage bulk sales? What has worked for you?

Permission to Move On

A friend called me on Monday afternoon. He knew I’d hit a few rough and bumpy patches lately.

He listened to me moan and whine and then he said some pretty powerful words. “You have 24 hours to feel bad about this — eat a lot of ice cream, whatever it is that you do when you’re feeling bad. When the 24 hours are over, you have to move on.”

24 hours. My friend gave me permission to wallow for 24 hours.

(What I didn’t tell him is that I’ve been moping for two weeks!)

I needed permission.

I needed permission to stay in bed past five am, permission to sit at my desk eating trail mix by the handful.

More than that, I needed permission — direction — to put a stop to my self-centered self-pity.

I needed permission to move on.

I needed permission to look to what’s ahead. To leave the mistakes in the past.

I needed permission to make better decisions moving forward. I needed permission to envision a new future.

I needed permission to move on.

My friend gave me permission.

What I’m finding is that in order for me to move on, I have to let go.

In order to move on, I must give others permission to move on to what’s next in their lives —  not making it about me, but about them: their freedom, happiness, right to choose.

They don’t need my permission, of course.

It’s a paradox like forgiveness, which is a gift to the one forgiving perhaps more than the one forgiven.

In the mental discipline of my granting permission to you, I am giving myself permission.

In giving permission to you to move on, I am giving myself the same permission.

What frees you, frees me.

You have permission to move on. I’m on my way.

photo credit Alex Pearson

The Global Leadership Summit – My Favorite Speaker

A little over a week ago I had the extreme privilege of co-representing the Weaving Influence team at the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. (If you’re not familiar with the Summit, read this great post by Molly Page from last week.)

The experience was truly amazing. Since the Summit, several friends have asked me who my favorite speaker was. While I could list off points each speaker made that hit me hard, there was one speaker who had me hanging on his every word.

Bob Goff, the author of the book Love Does, is unlike most men you will probably ever meet. It’s not because of the way he looks or the authority with which he speaks. It is because he is so remarkably himself. Sounds strange doesn’t it?

But trust me, Bob is the kind of guy who is simply himself, and today, that is incredible. He is a man of many unique interests and he hasn’t allowed anyone to deter him from following where those interests lead. What may be even more astounding about his ability to be totally himself is his ability to be bold.

In his book, Bob describes incredible adventures. These adventures include everything from law school to international encounters with some of the world’s most powerful people. Every story started the same way, with a bold and audacious request. Bob has accomplished many dreams, all because he was unafraid of asking for opportunity.

So what does this have to do with you and me? As everyday leaders, the everyday grind can get to be tough. Working hard to get your name out and build a good reputation can be exhausting. We look at established moguls and think “how did they come to have such influence and success?” Have you ever thought that they may have asked someone for an opportunity?

Maybe they, like Bob, had to sit outside the Dean’s office everyday for 2 weeks asking for an opportunity before the acceptance letter came. You may be thinking, “normal people do not make outrageous requests such as, will you let me into law school even though the date has passed and my grades are tanked?” However, maybe more of us would be a step closer to our dreams if making bold requests was the normal thing to do.

So who are you and what are your dreams? Is there someone who you think is too important to talk with you, but could provide an opportunity for you if asked? Don’t be afraid. Even if you are sweaty palmed and trembling, boldly make your request. It could be the conversation that changes everything

Innovative Service Lessons at Church

We pulled into the parking lot and my daughter read the sign out loud “Newcomers, turn on your flashers.” Parking lot attendants directed newcomers’ cars to the parking spots closest to the doors of the church.

And as I held my girls’ hands to walk them into church, parents of younger children loaded them into wagons — provided and pulled by ushers of the church.

Our entire visit to Newspring Church reminded me of the lessons from Chip Bell’s new book, 9 1/2 Principles of Innovative Service.

From sign-in to the kids’ program, where an attendant wrote down all my girls’ pertinent information then entered them into a computer system that returned printed labels, for me and them, to ensure their safety during church to the ladies’ room, where each sink had its own bottle of fragrant lotion, volunteers at Newspring treated my family and me like royalty.

My girls left church with gift bags containing information about the kids’ programs, a colorful lollipop, and a plastic Newspring cup that turned color when the temperature of the contents changed.

My parents and I visited the Green Room, a meet and greet room for visitors with special snacks — cucumber water and berry lemonade along with packaged energy bars, fruit, and cheesecake square — not your mama’s church refreshment table! At each table in the green room, volunteers greeted newcomers with gift bags and gathered contact information.

At a well-stocked information booth, volunteers offered earplugs for visitors to the church unaccustomed to the loud music.

Chip Bell says: “Boldly summon customers on a journey to collective joy much like a child welcoming a close friend to a tree house filled with secrets.”

As a visitor at Newspring Church, the attention to detail astounded me. Even after the service, the attention to detail continued as my daughters and I each received personalized notes in the mail. My note even referenced a comment I made about our visit to the church! Sherry, who wrote to me, remembered we were visiting from out of town and expressed her desire that we return to the church the next time we visited the area.

The innovative service we received at Newspring Church made me feel valued and special, from the moment we pulled into the parking lot.

I encourage you to buy and read Chip Bell’s new book, 9 1/2 Principles of Innovative Service, for insight and inspiration about the principles organizations can use to create experiences that will cause customers to swoon, smile, and sing your praises.

Featured on Friday: Team Member Megan Constantino

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This week, I’m excited to share Featured on Friday – with a twist! It’s an honor to introduce you to one of the talented members of the Weaving Influence team. As I mentioned last week, we’re scattered across the country, covering three time zones and multiple states. Most of us have never met in person, relying solely on Go To Meeting, Google Hangouts, Basecamp, email, and secret Facebook groups to get to know one another.

Earlier this week, I interviewed one of our newest contractors to find out a little more about her. I know some of her answers surprised me, and quite a few of them made me laugh. You just never know what you’re going to discover once you dig a little deeper. With that, I invite you to get to know Megan Constantino…

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Megan…

I am a native and current resident of Beckley, WV. I am passionate about marketing, communications, and serving clients. My professional background spans from retail jewelry sales, retail management, to ultimately my love: public relations and marketing. My husband Frank and I love to travel, learn together, pamper our fur children, and work up a sweat at the gym or on a good running trail.

How long have you been working with Weaving Influence?

I have been with Weaving Influence (WI) now for a little over a month full time. I have always been looking for a company like WI. I pinch myself daily to make sure this isn’t a dream.

What’s your favorite aspect of working with Weaving Influence?

My favorite part of working for WI is ultimately the support factor. I feel the support from Becky, the team, and the clients. What an amazing group of people. We are so blessed to work with one another and serve such awesome clients. The clients truly are rock stars.

What’s your official Weaving Influence job title?

Public Relations Director

What’s your favorite pastime?

Traveling to new places. I have set foot on the soil of 25 countries to date. Looking forward to more. China may just be next.

What’s the best social media tip you can offer?

My tip comes from a personal angle: Stop and think before sharing personal information online as you would anywhere else. We (as a society) tend to be a bit relaxed on the content we share. While I am all for being yourself (see my Facebook page), I am a firm believer that you should always have parameters set up for yourself in regards to your sharing practices. You want to provide a positive reflection of yourself, family, friends, and those that are in your circles. It is no different online.

Tell us something unusual about yourself!

I love to dance. I have always loved it, but last year a fire sparked within me as I participated in our local United Way’s “Dancing with the Stars” fundraising event. My partner, Richard Jarrell, and I danced to Danger Zone with a Top Gun (movie) theme. Though we didn’t win, we had a ball! Monte Durham- host of “Say Yes to the Dress” was one of the judges.

Connect with Megan on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Share Your Thoughts! How many countries have you visited – can you top her number?

Best Book Launch Tips: Prepare for the Sequel

My daughter bounced in her seat while waiting for the start of the movie, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

Sea of Monsters is the second movie in a series. While we watched Sea of Monsters, my youngest daughter watched Smurfs 2 with my mother.

Preceding the movie: trailers for more kids’ movies: Rio 2, Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs 2.

Sequels sell.

While I often feel discouraged by the difficulties first-time authors face in marketing and selling their books, I am encouraged that all the work done to make a first book launch successful will increase the chances that the author’s 2nd (3rd, 4th, etc) book will be even more successful.

The investment a first time author makes in marketing is significant. Building an engaged community takes considerable time and effort. If an author builds that community with the idea of creating repeat readers, as preparation and practice for the sequel, the sting of the time and financial investment will be lessened.

The more effective you are in building a community of readers for your first book, the more likely you will be to have a community ready to engage with your next one.

Let every investment you make as a first-time author fulfill a dual purpose: marketing for that book and building a foundation for the follow-up book.

Sequels sell. Your next book will sell more copies if you invest in marketing the first one.

If I Could Work My Business Like a Puzzle

My mom opened up the box and dumped 1000 pieces out onto the table. We spread out the pieces, and sorted by color and shape. Soon, we had several piles: frame pieces, blue, fence pieces, face pieces, sidewalk, grass.

All three of my daughters circled the table. Soon, our ten hands got tangled on the table, reaching across the table to grab the pieces we needed.

At the start, Maggie, 6, seemed to be able to find and fit pieces together easily. While I sat sifting, she saw parts of the puzzle come together.

We’re not a puzzle family; this is the first time I remember working on a big puzzle with my mother. (My girls have done puzzles growing up, but none this complex or difficult.)

Over the ten days of my visit to my mom’s lake house, we returned to the  puzzle in fits and starts. The girls lost interest and had to be bribed back to the table.

One night, fueled by momentum of seeing parts of the whole come together, my mom and I, who are early birds and early to bed, stayed up until 11:30, finishing the frame and finally believing that we could eventually see the whole puzzle come together.

We created a system of trial and error and focused on one section of the puzzle at a time. We persisted. We finished!

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would celebrate early wins. I would celebrate every win. Because our puzzle was so difficult, my mom and I did that: we called out every time we saw another piece fit into place.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would keep looking at the big picture. The box cover served as an important guide, holding clues to help us see how all the smaller bits fit into the whole. After staring at a pile of blue pieces, I could see variations. Whenever I felt stuck, I would take another peek at the picture to look for anything that would help differentiate the sections of the puzzle.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would use a deadline for motivation. I’m headed home tomorrow. Determined to finish the puzzle, I sat down at the table last night right after dinner, tackling the most difficult (and only remaining) section: the blue water of the pool. With my home-going as a hard stop, I rallied my family to join me in working together to finish.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would take breaks and step away. I would cultivate patience.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would remind myself that momentum motivates and look for opportunities to use momentum to motivate myself and others.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would not quit when I face a setback. When we were about two-thirds done with the puzzle, we finished a large section or red and yellow, discovering one piece missing. We searched the house, dug through a vacuum cleaner bag, and came up empty. While we could have quit, we did not allow that one missing piece to derail the rest of our effort.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would persist. I would keep trying, one piece at a time, looking at issues this way and that until landing on the perfect fit.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would involve others at the finish. When we had about 10 pieces remaining in the puzzle, I called my daughters back to the table. Cami jumped in to help. At first, I felt irritated — her arms blocked my view. And then I realized: my hard work set her up for success. If I would get out of the way and step back, she could shine. Far better to let someone else place that last piece of the puzzle. Far better to let someone else triumph.

If I could work my business like a puzzle, I would concentrate on the 999 pieces that came together, not the one we never found.

The Global Leadership Summit From a Social Point of View

I was fortunate enough to attend the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit as a representative of Weaving Influence last week. Seventy-five thousand people in the United States, and roughly 100,000 people around the world, experienced the conference through its innovative satellite campus structure. It is globally recognized for excellence. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a giant like the #wcagls was wildly successful from a social media standpoint.

So many steps were taken to ensure that social sharing was seamless and simple for attendees. It was clear that much thought, planning, and strategy were put into making tools available to those of us who wanted to use them.

As a social junkie, I was particularly excited. I had done my preparation work prior to arriving. I gathered all of the speaker’s twitter handles in a “note” on my phone to easily copy & paste into tweets. I followed the summit on Facebook & Instagram so I wouldn’t have to waste battery searching. And, just in case, I even brought the back up battery and charger! I was prepared for an all out social media blitz. Little did I know the Global Leadership Summit’s digital team was prepared too.

Here are 4 ways they made social simple:

1. Thinking Ahead: The digital team didn’t wait for the conference to make themselves known. Long before the doors were open or the first speaker stepped up to the microphone, the summit was building its social media presence. The website prominently featured all of the conference’s social accounts. Plus their various channels had some content being shared prior to the event to build excitement. This enabled the digital team to capitalize on the community they had already built when the event arrived.

2. No Guessing: Each attendee was provided with a summit notebook as they entered the auditorium on Thursday morning. Along with the normal, expected and vitally necessary programming notes, there was some other vital information included. Each speaker’s twitter handle was displayed directly under his or her picture along with a few biography bullet points that are perfect for blog posts/articles. There was not one, but two hashtags for the conference – #wcagls and #wcaglsQ. The second allowed attendees to ask questions. As social sharers, we weren’t expected to guess. Information was conveniently provided for us.

3. More Ways Than One: If paper and pen aren’t your speed, even better. The Summit App put all the vital information right in the palm of your hand. It was a brilliant tool. In the “schedule” section under each speaker, attendees had a chance to take notes that could be shared via SMS or twitter. The speaker’s most recent tweets were also streamed there for easy access. Resources (books, DVDs, etc.) could be purchased with tap of a finger and one could even register for next year’s conference. (Apparently several people did because the main floor is already sold out for 2014!) In the “experience” section, attendees could access notes on each speaker’s session, take polls, follow #wcagls’ Twitter or Instagram feed, and even connect with other attendees at their host site. I’ll say it again, what a great tool!

4. Content Suggestions: The digital team also helped by creating and presenting content that made sharing on social media easy. As attendees walked around campus, video screens scrolled quotes from the speakers. On their Facebook page and Instagram feed, pictures of various speakers with memorable quotes were produced in real time to encourage distribution. The team really made social seamless and simple.

If I could propose one area for improvement next year, I might suggest making WIFI available. Using 4G did deplete my battery pretty quickly and had I wanted to use my laptop instead of my phone I would have been out of luck. But, there were ample spots to recharge during breaks. So in the end it wasn’t an enormous hindrance, but perhaps it’s a way to spoil us next year!

From a social media junkie standpoint, the Global Leadership Summit was a dream. The digital team put together world-class resources and made my experience a delight.

Have you been to an event that got social right? What impressed you the most?

Featured on Friday: Lisa McLeod

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It can be tricky, getting to know one another. Since our client base, as well as our team, are scattered from coast to coast and across multiple time zones, it can take a while to build up momentum for a book launch or social media presence, simply because we’re getting to know one another through emails and phone conferences. But there are times, sometimes almost from the instant we begin to work with a client, when we can get a sense of the success that we will be privileged to be a part of as the Weaving Influence team.

Meet Lisa McLeod

Lisa is a sales leadership expert, keynote speaker, and best-selling author whose books include Selling With Noble Purpose, The Triangle of Truth, and Forget Perfect. Lisa has contributed at Forbes.com and has appeared on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Good Morning America. A fun tidbit about Lisa is that she was voted “Most Talkative” in her high school class, a trait that has served her well throughout her career. Not only has she put her ability to talk to good use, but when she talks, what she has to say is definitely worth listening to!

Where to Find Lisa This Week:

33 Voices – Interview with Lisa

McLeod & More, Inc. Blog – What the Worst Companies to Work For in America Have in Common

McLeod & More, Inc. – How Traditional Sales Management Training Sabotages Purpose

Video – Why Noble Purpose Matters

Connect with Lisa:

Visit Lisa’s website, learn more about engaging her as a Keynote Speaker, follow her on Twitter and YouTube, and connect on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Upcoming Event:

Lisa wants to change the conversation surrounding sales. More than making money, it’s about making a difference, and it’s time to take a look at the purpose behind the bottom line. During the week of October 21 – 25, 2013, Lisa and the team at Weaving Influence are taking part in a Buzz Week for her book, Selling With Noble Purpose. If you’d like to get involved, we’ll include more information and links in a future Featured on Friday post, so check back soon!

Share Your Thoughts: Have you ever heard Lisa speak? If you could ask her any question, what would it be?

Best Book Launch Tips: Look Beyond the Numbers

Many authors focus on the numbers, looking to judge the success of their book promotion efforts quantitatively, with book sales as the all-encompassing measure of success. The big prize: making the New York Times Best Seller List.

Authors ask: How many books will I sell in the first week? month? year?

In my experience, other numbers influence the sales numbers.

My hypothesis is that sales in the first week are directly related to the number of actively engaged subscribers on the author’s email list.  Also important: the directness of the ask. You won’t sell as many books if you don’t ask people to buy your book. And you need to ask more than once.

When we launch books, we put a lot of emphasis on engaging bloggers to write about and review a book — and I believe that sales are also positively correlated to buzz. Buzz leads to sales.

As my company has grown and our process have become a system, we’ve developed some fancy spreadsheets to capture and record dozens of metrics related to our book promotion efforts.

We evaluate the numbers and adjust our tactics to move toward the results we want to achieve.

I also think it is critical to look beyond the numbers and measure success qualitatively — to look beyond the numbers to the story behind the numbers.

Seth Godin calls this seeing the colors instead of the numbers and warns “ Organizations that do nothing but measure the numbers rarely create breakthroughs. Merely better numbers.”

If you are an author, I encourage you to consider the importance of both kinds of metrics, quantitative and qualitative, colors and numbers. Beyond the numbers, how will you know you’ve been successful? What are the stories you hope to create as you share your book and its message? What difference do you want to make in the world? How will you know when you’ve achieved the results you’re seeking?

Tell me something! Where do you look — beyond the numbers — to measure your success?