We’ve all received the emails
that are sell, sell, sell,
with little content.
We’ve received them.
We’ve unsubscribed
or blocked them.

On the flipside,
there are the emails from
the ‘nice’ businesses.
Emails will all content
and nothing to buy.
We read, we learn,
but we don’t take any action.

The best sales emails
are a combination of
content and offers.

But what combination?

Rick Jensen
Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of
Constant Contact
recommends

“Each message should consist of
three parts of valuable content
and one part offer.
When you take this approach,
customers are more likely
to remember your tips,
pass them along,
look forward to your messages
and redeem your offers.”

Three parts content,
one part offer,
that’s the recommended mix.

Unless your product is free
(and often, even then),
you’ll receive complaints
about the price being too high.

You’ll never receive comments
about the price being too low.
You’ll rarely receive comments
about the price being exactly right.

So what do you do about these complaints?

If the prospect says
your product should be free
and doesn’t give a reason why,
ignore the complaint.
You can’t build a business
on giving away product.

If the prospect says
your competitor is offering
a similar product at a lower price,
you investigate.

If you receive a flood
of general “your price is too high” complaints,
examine what has changed.
Perhaps your marketing is targeting
the wrong prospects.
Perhaps something in your industry
has significantly changed
and your company must change
with it.

Receiving a complaint
that your price is too high
is NOT a reason to immediately lower your prices.
Think before you slash prices.

We all know authors or entrepreneurs
who are waiting for the big break.
“If I just get a break,
I’ll be on easy street.”

Yeah, no,
easy street does not follow
a big break.
Even more hard work does.

Look at Kelly Clarkson’s experience.
She was the very first
American Idol winner
and many people assumed
things were sunshine and roses for her
after that win.

As Kelly Clarkson shares

“You have to keep knocking
on every damn door.
Right after ‘Idol,’
people think it all landed in my lap.
It did not.
People hated ‘Idol.’
I don’t know if anybody remembers that
but all I did was get bashed left and right.”

“It was a lot of hard work
and playing all the state fairs
you could do.
My whole joke was
‘I started playing in town manure
and I still do.’”

Big breaks are wonderful opportunities
but only for people willing
to work
and take advantage of
that opportunity.

The Big Break is only the beginning.

John Bradberry
shares

“I need you
to give me space
to be a hermit,
an obsessive geek or
even a crazed sales guy.
I will put in very long hours
that fall beyond the confines
of a convenient schedule.
Despite the popular myth about entrepreneurs,
there is no such thing as
“being your own boss.”
Instead, I’ll have many bosses.
When I say no to your lunch
or happy-hour invitations,
I won’t be feeling superior or aloof.
If I spend more time
with prospective clients
than with you,
don’t take it personally.
I’ll be married to my business for a while.”

For a long while.

I’m in that place right now
with the writing venture
and it is challenging,
especially during the summer
when it feels like
everyone else is sitting on patios
drinking beer.

Notice John Bradberry doesn’t mention choice.
We choose to work these crazy hours
the same way
corporate folks choose to go to work
on Mondays.
The long hours are often a requirement
to make our dreams happen.

If you know an entrepreneur,
please be understanding.
If you are an entrepreneur,
I’ll be working right beside you.

In Kentin Waits’ article
7 Sure-Fire Tips for Selling on eBay,
he advises…

“The best copy is brief
but thorough,
accurate and positive.
Use marketing-speak sparingly,
keep sentences short, and
end on a positive note.
For example,
if you’re selling a pair of leather sandals,
stress how great they look
with dark-wash jeans or
how perfect they are
for summer vacations.”

Notice how brief is
the first requirement.

My editor shared
that the best copy
for selling books,
not matter the length
of the book,
is less than 140 words long.

When it comes to writing copy,
longer is NOT better.
Keep it brief.

When Laurann Dohner signed
a 75 book deal with Ellora’s Cave,
many in the literary world thought
both Laurann Dohner and Ellora’s Cave were crazy.
What if she wrote crap books?
What if her career took off
and she could earn more money elsewhere?
What if?

But by signing the 75 book deal,
readers were given a clear signal
that Laurann Dohner was a writer to watch.
Ellora’s Cave,
because they had so much invested
in her career,
took an active role in
managing and supporting it.
Laurann Dohner is now a regular name
on both the New York Times
and the USA Today best sellers lists.

When Rihanna, then an unknown singer,
signed a 6 record deal with
Jay-Z’s Def Jam Recordings,
many people in the music world
thought both sides were crazy.
Many artists don’t last in the business.
If Rihanna did last,
she might be able to make more money
somewhere else.

But the 6 record deal
sent a signal to the world.
Rihanna was talented,
Jay-Z believed in her,
and she’d be in the music business for a while.

Jay-Z often states
“I don’t sign songs, I sign artists.”
THAT is what a long term commitment is,
it is a tangible vote of confidence
in that person, that company, that relationship.

Yes, flexibility can be great
but long term commitments have benefits also.
Think about your partnerships
and the signals they send.

The erotic romance
50 Shades of Grey is very hot right now.
The media is covering it constantly.
Many of the reader communities are talking about it.

My writing isn’t anything like
50 Shades of Grey.
However, friends and family
and especially my dear wonderful mom
have been telling others
that I’m writing the next 50 Shades of Grey.

I respond with “I might be.”
Why?
Because it is wonderful and rare
to have this sort of support
for my writing.
I am certainly not about
to do anything to dampen
that support.

If you’re an entrepreneur,
odds are…
friends and family and maybe complete strangers
have been asking you
if you’re building the next Facebook.

They’re looking for a reason
to believe in you,
to support you,
to boast to others about you.

Let them have that reason.
Bask in their support.
Use their faith to push you toward success.

At a recent author panel,
panel members were asked
how they achieved their breakout hit.

No one knew.

Yes, they wrote a great book
but they thought previous books
were as well written.
Yes, they sent it to the right publisher
but these publishers published previous books.

They couldn’t point to any one thing
and say THAT was why the book broke out.

Marketers often say the same thing
about marketing going viral.
Previous campaigns had the same ingredients
but not the same results.

This unpredictability is good and bad.
It is good
because the next book, the next ad
might breakout.
There is hope.

It is bad
because we can’t control
this breakout.
And it might never happen.

Plan for a slow build.
Hope for the breakout.

A loved one is interviewing
for his dream job
- a sales position
at a certain technology company.

When he tells people
this is his dream job,
many people laugh and say
“don’t you mean CEO of the company?”

No, he means front line sales.

One of my buddies
has the dream of writing
for Harlequin.

When she says this,
other writers chime in with
“But I bet you wouldn’t turn down
a New York single title deal!”

Actually, she would.
That’s not her dream.

It takes balls
to admit to having a less glamorous dream job
yet I’ve noticed that these people
are often happier
because they are working toward THEIR dreams
and not what other people think
their dreams should be.

Your dream job is YOUR dream job.
Figure out what YOU want.

If you’re a new business developer,
I can pretty much guarantee
that you have some crazy, creative ideas,
ideas that your core employer
would have a hissy fit
if they heard.

You and I know
you shouldn’t mention them.
They aren’t appropriate for that client
and we do want to
keep our paying clients happy.

However, I find if I don’t find a way
to express these freaky deaky ideas,
they fly out of my mouth
at inappropriate times
OR
I somehow wedge them
into a current project.

With my writing,
the solution is easy.
I send my ‘normal’ stories
to the bigger publishers
and my freaky stuff
to a smaller niche publisher
who specializes in freaky stuff.
Expressing my freaky side
every once in a while
allows me to more happily write
the normal stories.

In other industries,
it can be more challenging.

When I worked in new product development
for a big beverage manufacturer,
our team would always send
a couple of absolutely whack job ideas
to the idea screener process.
We knew the ideas would be turned down
but talking about them
eased some of our creative stress,
allowing us to focus
on more marketable ideas.

Don’t suppress your inner freak.
It is part of you.
Simply learn how to manage it.