Category: Sales

When I first started out
building my readership
(my customer base),
I touched every reader (customer)
I added.
I emailed them
or chatted with them
or interacted with them
in some way.

I told myself
that this grueling
one by one build
would ease over time.
I wouldn’t have to touch
each customer.

I was wrong.

I continue to touch each reader (customer).
The difference is
my ‘touching’ is more efficient.
I might copy and paste
common answers to reader questions.
I might answer 50 emails in a row,
rather than 1 email.
I might post something to FB
and 500 people,
rather than 5 people
see it.

But I’m still ‘touching’
each reader (customer).

You will ALWAYS build
your customer base
one customer at a time.
It is merely that this ‘time’
is shorter.

There are a group of readers
who expect
every book to be free.
They complain if a book isn’t free.

When they complain to me,
I simply think,
“You’re not my reader.”
These freebie hunters will never pay
for my books.
Why should I care what they think?

I don’t consider them
when I’m writing my books.
I don’t take them into account
when I’m pricing my books.
I ignore their feedback completely.

There are customers
who aren’t your customers also.
Maybe it’s the lady
who buys the latest dress
from your store,
wears it once,
and returns it.
Or maybe it is the customer
who complains so loudly
about everything
that he makes you
and your employees miserable.

You can’t refuse to sell to them
(that would probably prompt a lawsuit)
but you certainly don’t have
to take their input or preferences
into account
when you make business decisions.

It is okay to simply say
to yourself,
“He/She is NOT my customer.”

Expressing sympathy
is one of the ways
we can bond with our customers and prospects.

Sympathy is listening.
It is not necessarily
expressing that we’re going through
the same thing.
In fact, this tactic is likely to
backfire on you.

Why?

Because it feels like a competition.
One of my loved ones,
whenever I share that
something bad has happened to me,
will tell me how she has it worse.

Instead of feeling better,
I feel like she’s not listening to me.
I no longer talk to her
when I’m feeling poorly.

I express sympathy
with a simple
(hugs) on social media.
I listen.
I tell the person
that I feel for her/him.
I’m thinking about her/him.
I don’t talk about my own issues.
This is all about them,
about supporting them.

Express sympathy
in a sympathetic way.

One of your resellers
hasn’t paid you in months.
You don’t like supporting
one of your products.
You know an update in a product
is coming soon
or a price drop
or a price increase.

You’re tempted to tell customers
‘Don’t buy from her’
or
‘Don’t buy this product of mine’
or
‘Wait to buy this product.’

Resist that temptation.

Why?

Because prospects won’t hear
the restriction
around this don’t buy message.
They won’t buy from ANY reseller
or
they won’t buy ANY of your products
or
they will wait FOREVER to buy.

Yes, this might mean
you take a sales hit.
(I haven’t been paid by
one of my publishers in a year.)
But you’ll keep those customers
and selling to existing customers
is much easier
than tracking those prospects down again.

Never send don’t buy messages.

There are some super cheap readers
in Romanceland.
Many pride themselves
on not paying more than 99 cents
for any story.

I never talk about the price
of my stories.
I talk about
how my stories are crafted
to be reread.
They aren’t read them
and forget them stories.

Cheap readers often put my stories
into a different category,
the price per read category.
The stories might be $2.99
but they will be read 3 times
and that, magically, makes them 99 cent reads.

Geoff Williams
shares

“Some people are thrifty
by choice,
while others shop for bargains
by necessity.
But if you brag about
how cheap your product or service is,
you could cheapen your business
in the eyes of the very people
you’re trying to attract.”

Cheap customers often look for value,
not necessarily the lowest price.
Show value
and they might try your product/service.

If readers are friends with a writer
on Facebook,
their reviews will be rejected
by Amazon.

Reviews help sell books.

Some writers have reacted
to this review change
by asking readers to unfriend them.

Which is hurtful to readers
and bullsh*t thinking.

In the romance community,
one of the best selling genres,
readers form friendships
with their favorite writers.
They don’t read 1 book from a writer.
They read 20, 30, 100 books.
It is a lifelong relationship,
one that spans decades.

These readers form a sales base,
an almost guaranteed flow of income
for writers.

These relationships are more important
than a review.
Guaranteed sales are more important
than a promo strategy.

Don’t discard sales
to make your marketing strategy work.

One of my loved ones,
a talented salesperson,
is looking for a new position.

Salespeople are mostly compensated
on commission
so part of his evaluation of offers
is
how easy is it to sell
for that company.

Is the product unique?
Is the product needed?
Does the company
have brand name recognition
that will help him land appointments
with top people?
Does the company
have powerful partnerships?
Does the company
have testimonials
from brand name companies?
Does the company
have existing customers
with relationships
with other companies?
Does the company
have buzz?
Are people talking about it?

If great answers to these questions
would make his sales easier,
they’d also make your sales easier.
Can you work on any
or all of these items?

In my romance novels,
I can have the hero
almost die for the heroine,
put her above all else,
give her the world.

If he doesn’t say the words
“I love you”,
MANY readers won’t believe
that he actually loves the heroine.

These are highly educated people,
people who read for a living,
and they don’t appreciate being subtle.
They want to hear the words.

Your prospects need
to hear the words also.
If you want them to buy,
tell them ‘Buy XXX now.’
If you want them to click
on a link,
tell them ‘Click on this link for XXX.’

Don’t be subtle.
Tell them what you want them to do.

When I first started writing romances,
I used general examples
like
‘He worked hard’
or ‘She cared for the children on her ward’
in hopes that these examples would appeal
to more people.

Instead, they appealed to no one.
Readers couldn’t visualize
what ‘working hard’ or ‘caring’ was.

Changing this to
‘He worked every day, Monday to Sunday,
from seven in the morning
to nine at night’
or
‘Every night, it didn’t matter how tired she was,
Nancy read a story from the big book of fairy tales
to Susie, a six year old patient in remission’
allowed readers to ‘see’ , to believe, to care.

This is true in marketing and sales also.

Charles Rubin shares

“If you’re selling a service,
explain it in terms of real benefits
people get from using it.
Instead of
“We offer health insurance services
for small businesses,”
say,
“We can slash
your company’s health insurance costs
by 30 percent or more.”

Prospects know what
saving 30 percent on health insurances is.
They don’t know what
‘offering health insurance services’ is.

Be as precise as you can.
Allow your prospects to visualize
the benefits of your product/company.

I watched Big Eyes,
a movie about a real life
husband and wife team.
The wife created art.
The husband took credit for it,
selling it as his own work.

Yes, taking credit
for another person’s work is wrong
but I doubt she would have become famous
on her own.
Not merely because she was a woman
but because she couldn’t sell.
She didn’t have strong selling skills
and she didn’t seem interested
in acquiring them.

Because she couldn’t sell,
she would have always
been at the mercy
of someone who could sell.

You can have the greatest product
in the world.
If you can’t sell that product
to other people,
that product won’t become known.

Learn how to sell.
Practice every day at it.