CHAPTER 5
MODERN MARKETING
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I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE COST; GET ME JANE JONES!
IT’S IMPORTANT that you attract business because
• Very few people buy from “cold calls” in this business.
• You don’t have to prove yourself or present credentials.
• There is minimal cost of acquisition.
• Fees simply don’t matter.
I could go on, but that’s more than enough. You want to attract the right clients—those that are amenable and appropriate for the fee structures discussed in Chapter 4. Fortunately, I can help you do that right here.
THE MAGIC AND MYTH OF THE INTERNET
Let me annoy as many of you as I can immediately: your Web site is not a sales tool.
Oh, my, what about all those Internet marketing gurus? Well, they’re wrong about Web sites (and a lot of other stuff, but we don’t have time for that here).
Your Web site is a credibility statement. That is, buyers—true buyers—might go there to get some additional information once they hear of you, read something about you, meet with you, and so forth. Only nonbuyers “troll” the Internet looking for speakers, and they will send a generic communication, such as: “We are looking for presenters at the National Hot Air and Persiflage Association annual convention. If you’re interested, please go to www.gasbag.edu and fill out the presenter’s form.”1
What this means is that your site needs to do only two things—two things!—well and quickly: tell the buyer what’s in it for him or her, and justify it with testimonials from his or her peers.
Speaking Up: You must appeal to the buyer’s self-interest and provide a level of comfort through peer-level endorsements.
Alan’s Formula for Web Site Success
1. State your value proposition prominently (e.g., “I reduce the cost of new client acquisition while decreasing closing times”).
2. State quickly what’s in it for the buyer, e.g., your people will:
• Master the four steps of the “immediate close.”
• Rebut resistance in the four main objections dimensions.
• Create larger sales per new customer.
• Learn to close sales on the telephone.
• Generate more profit per client.
3. Have at least two prominent testimonials, preferably video testimonials and/or rotating print testimonials.
4. On succeeding pages, include your position papers, credentials, clients, case studies, speaking topics, whatever. But these are all subordinate to the value to be found immediately on the home page. Think of your home page as the opening two minutes of a speech, during which people decide whether to pay close attention thereafter.
5. It’s as simple as that.
Social media platforms, at least as of this writing, are for fun and for looking up old school chums, but not for marketing professional services. (Would you hire a speaker who solicited you on social media? Most high-level buying decisions are made on the basis of peer-to-peer referrals.)
Search engine optimization (SEO) and placing ads on Google and similar sources (or paying for positioning) are wastes of time and money, because buyers aren’t seeking you on the Internet. Besides, the more you publish, are interviewed, and speak (see the discussion of Market Gravity later in this chapter), the more you’ll be automatically elevated on the search engines. Stop worrying about this, and never pay for it.
However, there are some simple actions that can pay dividends. For example, always have a full signature file (including your address—if a stalker wants to kill you, there are other ways to find you), and include a brief promotional statement (e.g., “Cited as the best speaker on global leadership in the manufacturing arena—Chicago Tribune”) and a reference to your Web site, blog, newsletter, or other source.
If your expertise is in team building, for example, create an electronic newsletter that is provocative and will brand you: Jim Pay’s PAYDAY, the newsletter for high-performing team leadership.2
People complain to me, “There are so many newsletters; won’t mine get lost in the crowd?” Yes, if you’re dull. There are so many newsletters because people read them. (Burger King builds burger joints across the street from McDonald’s because it knows that people in the area are buying burgers!) Competition opens markets, it doesn’t confine markets.
Pull together a list, no matter how modest at first, and create an online, consistent newsletter. If your list grows, consider a listserv, which will allow automatic subscriptions, cancellations, changes, and so forth, as well as distribution with one simple paste.3
While the social media platforms are mostly for informal chats (and can be huge time dumps), blogs are something else. There are 200 million blogs in the world as I write this, and 99 percent of them are awful—self-indulgent, derivative, outright plagiarized, ungrammatical, blatant self-promotion, and so on. Many of them don’t even reveal their source, and quite a few are just excuses to sell advertisements.
However, if you are provocative; use text, audio, and video; and post regularly (e.g., at least three times per week—many blogs go months without updating), you can use this as a springboard to refer people to your business and results. Buyers do, on occasion, subscribe to blogs that focus on their areas of interest (e.g., The Strategist Next Door). You can see my very active blog at www.contrarianconsulting.com.
Use the Internet as one aspect of your promotion, but don’t assume that it’s all things to all people. Most of the greatest advocates for Internet marketing make their money by selling Internet marketing services, if you get my drift.
WORKING (OR NOT) WITH BUREAUS AND AVOID BEING A HIRED HAND
The key to riches in the speaking business is working smart, not working hard. That means that you need to examine your own basic beliefs, understandings, assumptions, and implicit approaches to the business, since there’s a distinct possibility that some of them are inaccurate and a couple may be plain wrong. That’s because there are more people giving advice (and charging for it) in the speaking business than there are good speakers.
The last time anyone looked, coaching was a leveraging position, meaning that there are a multitude of excellent players created by a superb coach. When there is mediocre coaching, there is usually a myriad of very average players. But in no circumstances is there a rational reason to have legions of good coaches and a resultant swarm of undistinguished players. There are relatively few excellent speakers in the land (otherwise, fee competition would keep prices low, and my advice in the previous chapter about charging for value would be commonplace), which leads me to believe that the hordes of coaches aren’t that hot, either.
One of the worst of the assumptions that even veteran speakers labor under is that a relationship with a speakers’ bureau is mandatory and that the parameters of such a relationship are dictated by the bureau, which can be very choosy about whom it represents. Here are some facts about the bureau relationship that apply to all of us, whether we’ve never been asked, never chosen to work with them, work with them occasionally, or get virtually all of our engagements through them (which is exceedingly rare).
Five Facts to Challenge Your Assumptions about Bureaus
1. Bureaus Cannot Live without Speakers, but the Reverse Is Not True
I worked with an insurance company whose executives warned me that the independent agents were their customers.
“What about the people buying insurance?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re our customers, too,” the executives quickly conceded.
“Well, if there were no agents, only potential customers, could you still sell insurance?” I pressed.
“Of course, and we sell directly about 30 percent of the time right now.”
“If there were no potential customers, only agents, could you still sell insurance?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, I think you’re confused about who your customers are and what your sales and distribution methods are,” said I, as I proceeded to create a long-term relationship with my customer.
I understand who pays me for value, and it’s not the bureau. We could speak if there were no such thing as bureaus, but bureaus could not exist if there were no such thing as speakers. Consequently, this has to be a collaborative relationship, wherein the bureau earns its commission from your client’s payment by providing value to you.
Speaking Up: The client is yours, not the bureau’s. You are the talent. The bureau is merely a broker, and it had better provide value-added to you.
I’ve spoken to scores of bureau principals and owners. About a quarter of them don’t bother to hide their belief that speakers are the biggest pain in their lives and that their jobs would be just dandy without them. They treat the speakers that they do represent as hired hands, and they regard speakers who seek to be represented as door-to-door con artists whose phone calls aren’t returned and whose submission of materials isn’t acknowledged.
Even if you are a neophyte struggling for business—and much more so if you are a veteran to whom buyers come directly—walk away from any bureau that does not treat you as a valuable, talented partner. You shouldn’t take rude treatment and lack of respect from a paying client. Why on earth would you accept it from someone you are paying to market you?
2. There’s No Magic in a 25 Percent Commission
The standard rate for business is 25 percent from the speaker’s fee. Although some speakers increase their fees to accommodate the commission and try to net the same amount as they would otherwise have received, this is a bad practice.4 Some bureaus try to collect 30 percent or more. For a third of your fee, they’d better be coming to your home and washing the windows.
Commissions can be negotiable. For example, if a bureau introduces your name to a prospect, works with you to develop a presentation based on the client’s unique needs, and closes the sale on your behalf, that’s worth a lot of money because the business is probably not a relationship that you otherwise would have secured. Conversely, if the bureau merely gives you a contact’s name and suggests that you call him or her and sell a deal directly, the bureau has provided a service, but one of much less value because you had to do the work, and the purpose of bureaus is that they do most of the marketing work.
Especially if you’re asked to reduce your fee for any reason (e.g., for a nonprofit organization, for a good client who is in a budget squeeze, or for a speech that requires only local travel), ask the bureau how much it will reduce its commission level.
I gave a speech at a reduced fee for a local insurance general agent who employed 20 people. It was an hour’s presentation only 10 minutes from my home, and the agent promised to forward my materials and a testimonial to his corporate office, where he served on the committee for the large regional convention. Sure enough, I was later hired at full fee on the basis of his recommendation. His company then asked its exclusive bureau in Washington to send me the paperwork. The bureau actually wanted 25 percent of my fee for having done nothing but send me the paperwork!
3. The Bureau’s Customer Is the Person Who Pays It: You
I’m sick to death of the malarkey that the bureau’s customer is the organization that is seeking the speaker. The buyer isn’t paying the bureau (although the deposit check is going in that direction); you are paying the bureau out of your fee. The commission comes from the speaker.
Consequently, a bureau’s insistence that you conduct no direct conversations with the buyer doesn’t serve the buyer well, since you have to explore the buyer’s needs and establish a relationship with the person who is responsible for the outcome of the session. That is not done efficiently through an intermediary. Your relationship with the bureaus must be collaborative, not onerous. Your material needn’t be entirely “bureau-friendly.”5 But if the bureau believes that your contact with the buyer will result in an unethical deal that excludes the bureau, then the level of trust needed to build a productive collaboration isn’t present.
Most bureaus will ask for a 25 percent deposit to hold a date, which becomes their commission. The balance is then due at the presentation and payable to you. However, some bureaus ask for a 50 percent deposit (which is a good idea), but keep the entire amount until your speech (which is a ridiculous idea). Instead of being held, the balance should be forwarded to you immediately. I know of a few bureaus that receive full payment and attempt to hold it until after the speech. While addressing a bureau group one day on the subject of professional ethics, I asked how anyone could tolerate someone else holding his or her money.
“You don’t understand,” pontificated one bureau owner. “How do we know that the speaker will actually appear? We have to hold some sort of guarantee.”
As some of his colleagues murmured approval, I asked, “How do I know that your bureau will be here in six months? What’s my guarantee?”
There was no response to that question.
4. If You Allow Them to, Bureaus Will Manage Perception
There is the reality of what buyers really want to see and evaluate, and there is the perception of what bureaus want them to see and evaluate. Remember from our prior discussions that you should try to build relationships with economic buyers and that bureaus tend to build their relationships with meeting planners.
Consequently, there is a developed mythology stating, for example, that speakers must have demo videos if they are to be considered for work. I worked with bureaus for years without such a video, as have many other successful speakers. However, videos are useful to meeting planners for deselection. It’s easy to watch barely three minutes of tape and decide whether the speaker’s “look” or “style” is acceptable to the meeting planner. As the videos become more vanilla and similar—because there are a relatively few “coaches” producing the same look for everyone—the meeting planners are in a position to compare like commodities and make their selections without considering real substance and content. (Which is why the video that I use today is imperfect and of a live two-hour keynote complete with audience reaction. I want people to see me in action, and I don’t want to be seen as another slick marketing piece.)
Bureaus also love “showcases,” in which they ask speakers to pay for the privilege of auditioning their wares in front of dozens (or even scores) of meeting planners. I find these repugnant because I’d be subsidizing the bureau’s marketing expenses, appearing before the wrong kind of buyer, and presenting in juxtaposition to a dozen or more competitors, which creates a commodity—hell, a meat-market—atmosphere.
The audience quickly glazes over. You have eight minutes on the stage, and if you’re not among the first few, people are busy texting.
If you don’t make enough to pay the bills one month, the bureaus aren’t going to send you something to tide you over. Listen to their advice about the market, but then make your own decisions about how you want to be perceived, what your unique value-added is, and how the customer relationship should be established.
5. There Are Terrific Bureaus and Terrible Bureaus
To find the best bureaus to work with (and I’ve included some on the Web site), ask speakers who work with them regularly. There are some that I direct people to, and others that I divert people from. Don’t believe that a bureau’s mere interest is synonymous with quality. Even some of the better-known bureaus are run by people who think that speakers should fall on their knees in order to do business with them. One woman said to me that I should change my business card, which has represented me through a practice that creates a hefty seven-figure income, to be more consistent with what she likes to see on a card.
“I’d never do that,” I said.
“Then you’ll never work with me,” she loftily intoned.
“So what?” I asked.
There are, unfortunately, many people calling themselves bureaus who are actually lone wolves working out of a bedroom or off a kitchen table. While there are many speakers who do the same, the difference is that the bureau wants 25 percent of your fee in return for marketing you, which means, unless I’ve missed something, that the bureau must have marketing resources in addition to a phone and a post-office box. A bureau should have staff to canvass prospects and research organizations, equipment to duplicate tapes and written materials, sophisticated communications media and computers, established business contacts, a stable of successful and happy speakers, and an identifiable and content client base.
There is nothing wrong with asking a bureau for references! Ask it for names of speakers and those speakers’ clients gained through the bureau. Don’t you provide references when someone is interested in hiring you?
In the early years, my bureau-placed business was 80 percent of my work; in recent years, it’s been as little as 5 percent of my work. Bureaus can be a strong market-leverage device or a drain on your time and income. Whatever they are, you can control the dynamic.
To provide both sides of the issue, in the following lists you’ll find what you must do to ensure a good relationship and, in all fairness, what the bureau needs to do if it’s to represent you professionally.
Alan’s Musts for a Successful Bureau Relationship: Speaker Requirements
Here are my personal guidelines for a successful bureau relationship, which can be highly rewarding for all parties concerned. However, if you don’t manage the relationship for your best interests, the “default” position will not be very desirable.
1. Establish a relationship with the owner. Others may place you and market you, but you can tell if the bureau’s values are compatible with yours only by working with the principal.
2. Request and receive references and examples of the bureau’s marketing materials. Don’t accept claims at face value. Ask if this quality represents you well.
3. Retain your identity on the materials and literature that you provide for marketing. If the bureau doesn’t trust you, then don’t get involved with it.
4. Avoid mandatory co-marketing investments. Options to take out listings, showcase, exhibit, and so on are fine and valuable, as long as you can pick and choose. But too many bureaus are trying to earn money from speakers and not for speakers.
5. Clarify that you will speak to prospects directly and early when this is needed to determine how to help close the business (and if it’s right for your skills).
6. Expect a callback on the same business day (or the next morning) when you leave a message with the bureau. You’re entitled to professional responsiveness.
7. Require that “holds” (tentative bookings) be managed carefully and removed from your calendar as soon as the bureau determines that the business will not close.
8. Ensure that all fees in excess of the bureau’s commission are paid directly to you at the time of receipt and that the client directly reimburses you for your expenses.
9. Request flexibility in commissions for spin-off business, multiple bookings, ancillary consulting work, and related situations that merit reduced commissions.
10. Avoid exclusive arrangements. Only by allowing numerous bureaus to represent you will you ensure your own flexibility and find your own best deals.
Alan’s Musts for a Successful Bureau Relationship: Bureau Requirements
The excellent bureaus have legitimate needs that speakers must adhere to, especially if a trusting relationship is to be built. A great deal of this relies on ethical and professional behavior, which, unfortunately, isn’t always in great supply.
1. Be honest about your capabilities. Don’t accept assignments unless you can serve the client well. Exceed expectations. The bureau’s reputation is its main asset.
2. Be original. Don’t use others’ materials, and don’t use shopworn generic stories. Clients who hire speakers can usually spot these instantly.
3. Arrive early and stay late. Let the local coordinator know that you’ve arrived, and don’t rush off during the applause. Avoid tight connections and last-minute arrivals.
4. Be honest about outcomes. If there were problems, whether technical, interpersonal, or logistical, tell the bureau immediately.
5. Keep your materials up to date and professional. Provide contemporary testimonials, quality brochures, and effective handouts.
6. Join in win/win co-marketing. It can make sense for you to appear in a special mailing or create a voice-mail sample of your speaking. You’re in this together.
7. Speak to prospects quickly whenever requested. Good bureaus know when a few words from the speaker can close the deal. Don’t keep the buyer waiting.
8. Recommend other fine speakers to the bureau. This is not a zero-sum game. The more the bureau succeeds, the more it can invest in your success.
9. Scrupulously forward spin-off business (business leads or closed deals gained during a bureau placement). This is a contractual and an ethical requirement.
10. Maintain consistency in your fee structure (although it may be highly diverse), and provide lengthy advance notice if scheduled fees are to be raised.
Having said all that, bureaus should be a minor part of your marketing cosmos.
TRADE ASSOCIATIONS: MAKE MONEY AND MARKET CONCURRENTLY
When you speak at a trade association, you are being explicitly or implicitly endorsed by an objective third party—the trade association. In most cases, you’re also being paid to be there, which means that you’re making money while you market and you’re seen as highly valuable.
My idea of the hierarchy of highly leveraged marketing through sponsors and third parties follows. The characteristics of the most potentially rewarding third-party sponsors are:
• Full and normal fees are paid to the speaker.
• The audience includes significant buyers for your services.
• The audience is large.
• The event is prestigious, and the sponsor is highly regarded.
• There are other “draws” on the agenda.
• You have a general session, not a concurrent session.
• You can sell products and services at the event.
As you can see, a local nonprofit group is probably looking for some sage advice and professional platform skills, but the audience usually will contain, at best, recommenders. But at a national trade association meeting, all of my conditions can be met.
The Hierarchy of Third-Party Sponsorship
National trade associations
• Health Industries Distributors Association
• International Association for Financial Planners
• American Bankers Association
Local and regional trade associations (or chapters)
• Minneapolis Personnel Association
• Houston Chapter, American Institute of Architects
• Tennessee Recreational Vehicle Association
Management extension programs
• Universities, colleges, junior colleges
• Private programs (The Learning Connection)
• Government support (Small Business Administration)
Local nonprofit business groups
• Rotary
• Chamber of Commerce
• Better Business Bureau
Local nonprofit community groups
• Service clubs
• Youth groups
• Parent-teacher leagues
My hierarchy is not a single, linear climb. I continue to speak at local nonprofits and at every other level in the hierarchy. But I’ve already been to the top, and I continue to speak there on a regular basis. What are you doing to get there?
Trade associations have a lot of money. They will often have a meeting planner who is much more powerful than his or her private-sector counterpart because the trade association’s raison d’^etre is the education of its members, so conferences and conventions are the place to demonstrate to the members that their dues and obligations are quite worthwhile. You will be dealing with either the executive director of the association or a meeting planner who is also an officer of the organization. Don’t let anyone kid you; trade associations pay as much as, if not more than, private-sector meetings.6
Here are 12 tips for successfully marketing to trade associations and successfully delivering a speech to the membership that will result in leveraged business from the attendees.
Alan’s 12 Tips to Leverage the Trade Association Marketplace
1. Talk to members first. Learn about their concerns and issues. If you are targeting the National Association of Music Merchants, visit some local members’ retail stores and talk to the owners.
2. Demonstrate a unique nonindustry perspective. These conferences are blanketed with speakers with content knowledge, and they’re usually deadly dull. Establish conversancy in the field, but introduce your fresh, nonindustry perspective. Your value is in world-class best practices. (I was a huge hit speaking about strategy at the American Feed and Grain Lot convention because everyone else was speaking about the innards of animals.)
3. Create an intelligence file. Using your regular business reading, the Internet, and reference resources, generate a “dossier” on the industry’s strengths and weaknesses, its past, present, and likely future.
4. Orient your approach toward the future. Trade association members are thirsty for help in making sense out of changing times, particularly in volatile industries (e.g., health care, telecommunications, and travel). Don’t tell them what they already know.
5. Be provocative. Don’t be afraid to be contrarian. Give people something to talk about. You want your name mentioned in the halls. (One association executive rushed up to me to tell me, “You were a hit in the ladies room!” You never know about all the private measurement devices that buyers use in this business.)
Speaking Up: Tell people what they need to know to thrive in the future, not to revive the past or to survive the present.
6. Create visual aids and handouts that mention the industry. You don’t have to create an entirely new speech, but you should insert examples, stories, anecdotes, visuals, and aspects of your handouts (if you use them) that embrace the industry. This helps the learning and greatly increases the likelihood of spin-off business.
7. Let the audience know that you’ve done your homework. I almost always include some segments in which I say, “I polled some of the members at this convention and asked them what advice they’d give someone who was new to your business. Over 80 percent said, ‘Save your money!”’
8. Create a meeting-specific handout. This could be a single sheet, a copy of your slides, or detailed support for your presentation. Make it something that participants will want to keep. Put the conference date and the title of your speech on the cover. In addition, put your name and every piece of contact information on every page (in case individual pages are photocopied and circulated back home).
9. Offer to deliver multiple sessions. Even highly paid veteran speakers will gladly do this. The association likes to provide the keynoter, for example, in the more intimate setting of a concurrent session. The association can save money—and you can earn more—by using you three times instead of using three people one time each.
10. Parlay your trade association appearances. Include trade association publicity, testimonials, appearance dates, interviews, and so forth prominently in your media kit. Trade association speaking, as you’ve seen, is a somewhat specialized skill. If you’ve mastered it, the accolades can provide ready access to more and more associations.
11. Record it. Many large meetings feature projections on screens, and such equipment can automatically record for you. If that’s not the case, ask about the facility or organization recording your presentation. Worst case, consider paying for it yourself. (Get professional advice, for example, using two cameras, avoiding time-sensitive references, wardrobe, and so forth.) You can use this for marketing, product sales, self-improvement, and other purposes.
12. Meet the board. Either interview the board members or meet them on site if they’re present, because almost every board member of a professional association is a business owner or executive and a prospective buyer of your services. Offer to build in their comments and/or debrief them, but whatever you do, try to make sure that you develop a relationship that you can nurture post-speech.
Trade associations are ideal venues for new and veteran speakers. Go after the executive director with a press kit, a demo video (if you have one), an introduction from a third party (if you can get one), and a follow-up phone call, all emphasizing what you can do to improve the membership’s condition. Offer to do interviews for the association’s publications and/or contribute articles. These are rich mines of speaking wealth.
WHERE AND HOW TO PUBLISH
If you want to make it big in the speaking profession, you have to publish. Articles in major media will do the following:
• Enhance your visibility and credibility
• Provide solid content for your media kit
• Force you to continually generate new ideas and validate old ones
• Gain entry into more and more publications through repute
• Provide access to other media (radio, TV, Internet)
• Generate leads
• Provide handouts for your sessions
• Form the basis for future books
• Form the basis for future products
• Transform intellectual capital into intellectual property
If you’ve never published, use the “staircase” technique shown in Figure 5-1. It begins with a local column for the weekly community newspaper and leads to the local daily (Podunk Pendulum), the regional daily (Hartford Courant), the state magazine (Rhode Island Monthly), the national publication (Bottom Line), and the “media of record” (New York Times, Wall Street Journal). In other words, parlay what you do, using tear sheets and columns from the first publications to progressively sell editors of larger publications.7
Figure 5-1 The staircase method for publishing.
How to Get an Article Published
I. Determine what subject you want to write about.
A. Why are you the person to comment on the topic?
B. How will this subject enhance your business, repute, or standing?
C. Why is the subject relevant at this time (and for the next several months)?
Don’t be afraid to be contrarian. The world doesn’t need another piece on “left-brain vs. right-brain thinking” or “the seven delta approach to quality.”
II. Determine where you want to publish the article.
A. Who is your audience, and what does it read?
B. Don’t be afraid to ask your audience!
C. Where is it most reasonable for you to be successful?
D. Research publications and study their style.
I was never published in the Times until I sent it an article that I realized was just what it needed!
III. Prepare a professional inquiry.
A. Send it to a specific editor’s attention.
B. Specify what, why, examples, uniqueness, length, and delivery date.
C. Request specifications.
D. Always enclose a SASE8 if your submission is in hard copy.
E. Cite credentials—yours and the article’s.
This step must be more carefully executed than the actual article!
IV. Write it like a pro.
A. Use specific examples, names, and places.
B. Write it yourself, but solicit critiques.
C. Write it to the specifications.
D. Make sure that you include autobiographical data at the end.
E. Request free reprints, reprint permission, or discounted reprints.
F. Don’t self-promote; let the substance do it for you.
G. If rejected: resubmit, resubmit, resubmit, resubmit, resubmit.
Use prior articles as credentials to write newer ones.
Some Other Comments
Don’t overwrite. Write what’s on your mind without worrying about the great American novel. When you edit, you’ll find that the piece is amazingly good. Attribute things that you borrow, but don’t try to dazzle your reader with superfluous references. Be critical and analytical. Readers respond best to provocation and the opportunity to look at things in a new way. When in doubt, start a new paragraph. Use graphics when appropriate, and try to load in the metaphors and similes.
Tell people what they need to know, not everything that you know!
Speaking Up: There’s a simple rule for publishing: first, have something to say.
The great debate is about whether or not to self-publish books. I’ve self-published as well as published commercially. My criteria are simple: self-publish books when
• You want a product to sell with maximum profit.
• You want a handout for your training sessions.
• You have a clearly defined niche market.
• You have a very powerful brand that will draw readers.
• You want to capitalize on a time-sensitive event or window.
But publish only through a known commercial publisher when
• You want maximum credibility with buyers (especially corporate).
• You want to improve your credibility as an authority.
• You want maximum distribution channels.
• You want to maximize your chances for foreign translation.
Sometimes a commercially published book will earn considerable royalties, and sometimes a self-published book will gain you credibility. But not usually. Notice that ego stroking is not on either list. There are a lot of bad books published commercially, and most self-published books are awful. If you need your ego stroked, buy a dog. If you need to tell people that you’re an author, yet you have nothing to say that will sell a publisher, use the money you would have invested in the vanity publishing to secure the services of a therapist. You’re not a driver unless you can drive a car, and you’re not an author unless someone else pays to publish your stuff.
And NEVER invest in a scheme where you have one chapter in a book with famous “names” authoring the others. That is laughably transparent and makes money only for those who organize the “opportunity.”
Harsh? Yes. Reality? Also yes.
Here’s my route for getting a book published commercially once you’ve ascended the staircase. Book publishing is slightly easier when you have a long track record of articles and columns to support it, but these are not prerequisites. The most important thing is convincing the publisher (or your agent) that your book will sell, and the way to achieve that is to do your own homework, because the editor hasn’t the time or the inclination to do it for you. It is difficult to get your first book published, but with a targeted, systematic approach, it’s much easier than most people think.9 Follow these guidelines.
How to Get a Book Published
I. Determine what it is you have to say.
A. Your particular expertise from your education, experience, training, or circumstances.
B. Your ability to “pull together” disparate things that others haven’t.
C. Your ideas, concepts, theories, and innovations.
D. Your work with clients.
If you have nothing constructive to contribute, don’t write a word.
II. Determine which publishers are most likely to agree with you.
A. Examine their current books in print.
B. Request their specifications.
C. Ask people in the business.
Do not vanity publish or self-publish—it’s a waste of time and no one’s impressed—unless you apply the previous criteria and they pertain to you.
III. Prepare a treatment for the publisher’s (or agent’s) review.
A. Why you?
B. Why this topic?
C. Why this topic handled in this manner?
D. What competitive works are extant, and why is yours needed?
E. Who is the audience?
F. When would the manuscript be ready?
G. What are its special features (e.g., endorsements, self-tests, etc.)?
H. Provide at least the introduction and one chapter, a table of contents, and summaries of the other chapters.
If you can’t sell it to the publisher, you’ll never sell it to the reader.
A. Invite clients and/or respected authorities to contribute.
B. Use sophisticated fonts and formatting.
C. Don’t use a “ghost.” If someone else writes your book, why does anyone need you?
D. Always take the reader’s viewpoint.
E. Schedule your writing sessions just as you would your other responsibilities.
F. Use trusted others to review, critique, and suggest.
G. Always attribute anything that’s not yours.
H. Keep it “future-current”—remember, it will be published a year after your submission.
What is published represents your values. Are you proud of what you’ve written?
Some Other Comments
Don’t become discouraged—keep submitting, and find out why you’ve been rejected. And remember, a successful business book sells about 7,500 copies! Don’t expect to be on Oprah the next Monday. Finally, read contracts carefully because they will specify the author’s discount, planned promotion, expenses you may incur, and so on. For example, you can often negotiate the indexing costs to be transferred from you to the publisher. Run the whole thing by your attorney.
Publishing will, at first, require a substantial investment of time. However, you can usually find that time on airplanes and in distant hotel rooms. Once you’ve broken into the field, you’ll find it easier and easier to publish, both because your skills are developing and because your credibility is growing. The staircase method is useful to ensure that you also grow as an author and avoid the success trap of publishing repeatedly for a limited audience.
THE ZEITGEIST OF MARKETING: THE MARKET GRAVITY CYCLE
I’ve found that truly brilliant marketers in this business don’t—that is, do not—take the proverbial “rifle shot” approach. I don’t believe that you should target a specific promotional opportunity and focus solely on it. My experience has been to create a broad-scale visibility that gradually rises, so that after several years you are fairly constantly in the public eye.
Don’t fall victim to the numbers approach. People ask me how many “hits” I get on my Web site. I tell them that I don’t care, and I mean it. I need only one—the one that’s going to lead to my next $25,000 speaking engagement. I don’t care how many media interviews my various listings generate because I need only the one that’s going to trigger a buyer’s call inquiring about a series of regional keynotes.
Perhaps you can’t be all things to all people, but I’ve found that I’m many things to a good many people; just as you shouldn’t specialize in your practice, don’t specialize in your marketing. Use the print media, pro bono work, the Internet, mailings, speakers’ bureaus, newsletters, publishing, trade associations, sponsors, and products, and keep all other methods alive and working for you as your time and resources permit.
Speaking Up: When buyers approach you, there is no need to provide credentials or justify your credibility, and fees are no longer an issue!
Beware of the success trap, in which your past success ensnares you in a morass of the repetitive, noncreative status quo. I’ve sold articles, speeches, books, downloads, and my private mentoring services over the Internet. I’ve created newsletters, communities, high-end workshops, and diverse experiences that generate over $2 million annually. Yet 75 percent of last year’s income has generally originated with projects that I did not offer three years ago! I’ve both commercially published and self-published to meet varying objectives.
Jump into the biggest pond you can find, and intend to become the biggest fish that the environment will accommodate. Avoid the hooks and lures that will attempt to divert you. Watch the larger fish, but don’t follow them. Seek what they seek, but in your own way, using your own strokes.
Market Gravity is my metaphor for drawing buyers to you. (See Figure 5-2) Some gravity is active, some passive. Not all may be in your comfort zone. Focus at first on the forms that are the most comfortable behaviorally, since they will be less onerous. (When I was fired and went out on my own, I focused on speaking and writing, which I loved, and eschewed networking, which I loathed.)
Figure 5-2 Creating Marketing Gravity
Here is a synopsis of Market Gravity. A new speaker should have a minimum of four routes underway. A veteran should have at least a dozen. In no particular order:
• Referrals. Referrals are the platinum standard in this business. While it’s nice to have your name in the hat when someone requests “a superb speaker on sales excellence,” it’s far better when they say, “I hear from a good friend over at Acme—get me Joan Martin!”
• Commercially published books. The gold standard is a book from a major publisher.10 Many people who have hired me have never read the book that attracted them to me. That’s okay; I don’t quiz them on Chapter 8. But they saw “strategy,” “HarperCollins,” and my name. That was enough. (Excellent source: the work of my agent, Jeff Herman, such as How to Write a Winning Book Proposal.)
• Print interviews. Every Sunday in the New York Times and many days in the Wall Street Journal, you will see participants in my Mentor Program cited in articles. They focus on approaching reporters and ensuring that reporters approach them. (Two good sources are Expertclick.com, which also allows a press release to be sent daily, and PRLeads.com, where you can tailor the press inquiries that you receive daily. Mention my name with both for personal attention.)
• Articles. Determine what publications your buyers may be reading, and try to place your own article there. Sometimes highly targeted newsletters are even better than major but more generic magazines. (Excellent source: Writer’s Market, which includes every publication with an ISBN or ISSN. You can also find The Guide to Periodic Literature in most libraries.)
• Columns. Once you have published articles successfully, pursue your contact with the goal of obtaining a regular column.
• Networking. Don’t simplistically collect business cards. Find key buyers and recommenders, establish the beginnings of a relationship, offer them something of value, and follow up. Remember Alan’s Networking Law: you have to give to get! (If you’ve found an executive recruiter who can recommend you to his clients, offer to recommend him to some people who need assistance hiring senior managers.)
• Pro bono work. If you find a cause you believe in that is nearby, offer to serve on a committee or task force (or, if it’s possible, volunteer for the board). You’ll find yourself surrounded by some significant buyers, recommenders, and influencers, who will perforce be your peers in the volunteer work. Nurture those relationships while doing good work.
• Newsletters. People complain to me that there are too many newsletters, but they don’t understand the dynamics of competition. There are so many newsletters because people are reading them! (Remember Yogi Berra’s dictum: “No one goes there any more, it’s too crowded.”) Competition opens markets. The keys to a newsletter are brevity (one computer screen), consistency (same time each month), and diversity (several short pieces instead of one “take it or leave it” piece).
• Trade association leadership. I can trace about a quarter million dollars in business that came my way when I (reluctantly) agreed to become president of the New England Speakers Association. That’s because once you’re a visible leader, you’re the one who is interviewed, requested for panels, coordinating initiatives, and so forth. Assemble a great team so that you can delegate and minimize labor intensity.
• Blogs. There are 200 million blogs in the world as of this writing, and most of them are incredibly bad, to the point of being unreadable. However, those that stand out offer provocative ideas, controversy, intellectual property, and pragmatic help for the reader. Get a technical expert to run your blog, and make sure that you use text, audio, and video to maximize the medium. (Make provision for video to go to YouTube, audio to go to iTunes, and so on. Archive everything on your blog.)
• Reach out. Contact trade association executive directors regularly, always offering value for the audience/membership. Ideally, provide a demo video. (Excellent source: National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States. It is available in hard copy and by electronic subscription. Tell them I sent you and they’ll offer a discount—at least they will at this writing!)11
• Broadcast media interviews. It’s easier than ever to be interviewed on radio and TV (particularly if there is other gravity in place, such as a new book). You can record these and create marketing compilations, run them on your Web site, and so on. (Excellent source: TV and Radio Interview Reporter, which will help you script your advertisement.)
• Community service. This is similar to pro bono, but it means serving on the planning board, school committee, parks commission, and so on. You’ll find yourself quoted often in the press, and your background talked about.
Let me conclude by telling you what doesn’t work and, worse, wastes your time, money, and repute:
• Paying to host a radio show. These are scams, appealing to the ego of the speaker, and you’re usually paying to drone on to people who could not care less, while also having to bring on advertising! These are beyond stupid. (And paying to be on an infomercial with some doddering ex-C-list celebrity should be enough for your family to arrest you and place you in a home until you come to your senses. Only the people you pay for this travesty make any money from it.)
• Hosting your own cable TV show. These generally have the fake plants, tacky backdrop, rickety desk, and production values of a fourth-grade salute to the history of gerbils. When someone I’ve never heard of tells me that he or she is a “television show host,” I usually begin to taste blood on the inside of my cheek.
• Speaker “showcases” arranged by bureaus. No one is a buyer, no one is paying attention, and no one cares except the people who charged you to be at this swamp. These give vaudeville a good name.
• Direct mail and “cold calling.” For every “expert” who claims that he or she knows how to book business doing this, I’ll show you an “expert” who isn’t a successful speaker but makes her money trying to teach people how to cold call. Would you hire a speaker in this manner? Do you buy stocks from the guys who call you with special offers at 8:30 at night? If so, you don’t need this book, but you do need to send me all the money in your bank account as soon as you can put this down.
• Social media platforms. If you want to look for a job, peddle some offer to individuals, or keep track of old buddies, fine. Otherwise, this is one of the worst time dumps imaginable for true marketing of speaking services to corporate buyers. I’ve heard advocates say that social media “amplify” your message. The trouble is that they amplify all messages, regardless of their quality or relevance, into an incoherent cacophony.
Marketing is about creating need and emphatically demonstrating that you are the best person to fill that need. And it doesn’t require staff, millions, or years.
SUMMARY
The Internet, like cable TV or fast food, can be a boon or a curse. Everything depends on how you utilize it.
Use your Web site as a credibility site, not a sales tool, because only low-level people and gatekeepers troll the Internet to find people. Senior-level buyers use references and referrals from peers, and may then go to your site to learn more about you (determine if you’re a thought leader). Stop talking about credentials and initials that no one else understands, and start talking about typical client results.
If you find that you are in a position to work with bureaus, treat them as you would a client. Deal with the bureau principal, expect the bureau to market you in return for its 25 percent commission (don’t pay more), require that funds be paid to you as received and not kept in escrow, and don’t pay silly fees for “video reviews” or “marketing catalogs.” Those are the bureau’s cost of doing business, not yours.
You’re better off focusing on trade associations, where you can get paid well to speak and speak in front of hundreds of buyers and recommenders.
To maximize your chances of success, use my Market Gravity approaches, starting with the ones that are most within your comfort zone, and then moving on to the others. That’s how you’ll become the center of attraction.