How to Use Your Book to Get Clients, Referrals & Revenue

I call today the authority shortcut and I’m going to give you 10 ways to use your book to open the right doors faster. [music]

Some of this stuff um is new and some of it is repeating because I know how repeating works. You say it over and over and eventually it gets in. Most people, not you guys, but most people think the goal is to write the book and get it published. We know different, right? That’s not the goal. The goal is not to write the book. The goal is not even to publish the book. The goal is to use the book. That’s what we want to do. A book isn’t valuable just because it’s bought by a few people on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or elsewhere. A book is valuable because it opens doors and specifically because it opens the right doors. The right doors for you. When you’re somebody with a book, when you are a best-selling author, you are credible. You are established. You are an authority. People assume you know what you’re talking about. How amazing. That’s why that the person with the book versus the person without the book, the person with the book is going to win. And we’ve got to make sure that we have the right mentality and frameworks in place so that we can use our book because it’s not just about writing it or publishing it. It’s about using it. Most authors have this idea and I I try to I try to butt up against it as much as I I can, right? And the idea is something like, you know, I I want a lot of people to buy my book and I hope a lot of people get my book. And of course, of course, that’s good, right? But it’s also the wrong mindset. First of all, hope is never a strategy. Number one. But number two, it’s not just about a lot of people getting the book. It’s about the right people getting the book. If 10,000 random people buy your book, that would be fantastic, right? We would all consider that a tremendous win, tremendous victory. But if it didn’t lead to opportunities for you, if it if it didn’t create leads and referrals and speaking engagements and partnerships and new clients for you, then really 10,000 books sold is not that big a win. And by the way, we all know that the average book only sells about 250 copies in its lifetime anyway. Well, believe it or not, 200 copies in the right hands, I’m not suggesting that that’s where we leave it, but 200 copies in the right hands like can be a gamecher. And I’ll even share an example or two um about clients who just a couple hundred copies were game changers for them. All right, so let’s move in. Let let’s let’s talk about 10 authority shortcuts. Let me give you 10 ways to use your book. And probably you’ll want to use more than one of these 10 ways, but please at least use one of these 10 ways to create an authority shortcut using your best-selling book. Number one, number one, get your book into the hands of your prospects. Number one, get your book into the hands of your prospects. Ideally, send your book before a sales conversation even happens. If you want clients pre-sold, and who doesn’t want that, then send a copy of your book before you have a serious sales conversation. Yes. before a strategy call or a sales meeting, if they have your book on their desk, on their nightstand, and even if they don’t read the entire thing, but let’s say that you point out one particular chapter that you know will be helpful to them, then many times those people are going to be pre-sold when you actually do have a conversation. They will show up knowing that you’re credible. knowing that you have a process because they saw it reflected in the book and the chapter that they read. They’ll see that you have experience because you’ve displayed it in your own life story as well as case studies. And guess what? You’re going to stand out from the rest of the pack. Get your prospects a copy of your book. Now, notice I didn’t say, “Let’s hope our prospects buy a copy of our book.” I’m saying, “Get them a copy of your book because your book will pre-sell people before they ever get on with you.” Number two, number two, mailbooks, get books to old prospects and past clients as well. Pamela Moss, Legally Ever After and Wealthy Ever After. We did, we launched her second book just a few months ago. She followed our process. One of the things that I always talk about that there’s three things that you should do as soon as your book is published. Number one of those three things is get your book into the hand of all the prospects that came to you and didn’t get started in the last six months. get them a copy as well as your past clients because that will lead to referrals and that will also lead to, oh, I didn’t know that Pamela did that. She could help me with that also. Pamela sent out copies of her book, and not that many, around a hundred copies to prospects and past clients, and it led to $60,000 in new revenue in the first 60 days alone because it reignited the past clients to do more work with her legal practice. And it reignited some of the old prospects to say, “Oh, you know what? I never solved that problem. Let’s go back to Pamela and let’s get the help we need. You already know people that could hire you, that could refer you, and that could buy from you again. You already know those people because they came to you at some point, right? At some point, they came to you and either got started on a product or program or they didn’t. You already know those people. Most people never do a very good job of following up. I understand that. But if you mailed them a copy of your book with a short note and said, “Hey, you know, book came out, became a bestseller, I I I um saw a past email from you and thought of you, wanted to get it into your hands, little sticky note right on top, little letter attached with it. By the way, you don’t need to read the whole thing, but if you look at chapter 3, based on my notes from our previous conversation, I think chapter 3 would be helpful to you. It’s powerful. If you send a brochure, guess what happens, you know? Do you sort your mail like I sort my mail over the garbage can, right? I sorted my mail like an hour ago. Several things right into the garbage can. Brochures, right? Uh sales letters, stuff like that. If someone sends you a book, are you sorting that over the garbage can? Of course not. People will keep the book, especially if it’s got a personal um you know, note, sticky note, letter, something like that attached. Pamela did it. It worked amazingly for her and it would work for you as well. That’s number two. Number three, use your book to get speaking engagements. Now, I know you may not want speaking engagements, but most authors that I know want speaking engagements, and some of you, like you’re really good speakers, and if you just get in front of the right audience, like people want to work with you. I’ve shared with you guys in the past about Kevin, just because Kevin is one of the few clients that actually did exactly what I told him to do and it worked. How exciting. Both for me and for Kevin, right? Kevin got paid speaking engagements by sending copies of his book cold cold to meeting planners and event planners and those in charge of events for corporations, etc. And not that many. Five books a week he sent out with a cover letter and a follow-up phone call. Talk about standing out from all the other competition. Do you know the average decentsiz event gets 4 to 500 speaker applications? Do you know how many books actually get sent like to the event planner? Maybe one, maybe two. If you want to stand out, a book instantly positions you differently. The event planner sees you as an author, a best-selling author, a published expert, and you took the time to send a copy of the book with a cover letter, and follow up with a telephone call. You will book speaking engagements if you follow this process. Kevin booked three paid engagements in his first 60 days, simply sending five copies out with a cover letter and following up with a phone call. 5,57500. three paid engagements in front of his ideal audience. And the real money is not the five grand he’s going to get to speak. The real money is that they’re going to hire him for coaching and workshops and all the cool things that he does for the medical corporations that he works with. You can do the same thing. You can do it. In fact, we’re doing that for me in Bestseller Publishing right now because we want to start speaking on more chiropractic stages, legal stages, medical stages, financial advisory stages, etc. And not just me, but others. Number four. Number four, turn your book into a media pitch tool. Turn your book into a media pitch tool. I’ve shared with you this before. This is my origin story. This is 17 years ago. this ugly little red book that I designed myself. This got me my very first radio interview because this is before podcast. This is before Facebook advertising. I sent this to local radio stations for my financial services business 17 years ago or so, right? Is that right? 2008, 2009. Yeah, 17 years ago. And I booked my first radio interview because of this book, because sending this book, letting people know that I am an expert. And [snorts] from that very first radio interview, the very first one, the day that it aired, I got my first client for my financial services company. And it was crazy sailing from there. A million bucks the first year, multi-millions thereafter. And this is during the financial crisis. It was so different then to do that. Plus, the book was the lead generator. When you pitch yourself as the author of you stand out immediately. Even better if you pitch with a specific framework, right? You have great hooks. All this training is in the BSP membership area on how to actually pitch yourself for media. We just did a major uh uh PR um national tour for a client that flew in from Australia. 17 TV stations booked her. We booked her on 17 stations. Six different cities plus another gosh, I think it was a total like 34 total media appearances. And it was all based on the book. It was all using the book and a great hook to get her book. She had never been on United States US TV before. We actually got her a nationwide PBS little kind of mini documentary. Cold pitch using the book. Cold pitch. No relationship. We didn’t have a relationship with the producer at at PBS nationwide placement. You can do this. Turn your book into a media pitch tool. Number five, send a book instead of a cold contact. like cold email or cold letter. Send the book. Jennifer Edgars, she sent her book. 200 books she shared with me. There’s we have a podcast interview on the bestseller publishing site. You can look up Jennifer Edgars and you could watch the podcast interview that I did with her and you can listen to it in her own words. She sent 200 copies of this book over a two-year period. It directly translated into $500,000 in revenue to her business. 200 copies, right? The average book sells 200 copies in her in in its lifetime. Her book did way better than that. But imagine 200 just 200 copies of the book into the right people’s hands. Cold changed everything. Half a million bucks for Jennifer. And we ended up doing book two for her that she’s using as well. Sending a book is a gamecher. Again, people can’t throw away books, especially if you have a thoughtful note attached. Now, are you going to send it just cold to anybody? Of course not. You’re going to send it to the right person that actually needs your expertise and capabilities, that can afford your expertise and capabilities. But if you use that kind of cold outreach like Jennifer did, it’s a game changer. It’s a gamecher. Imagine receiving a copy of a book from somebody and on the book uh a note highlighting a specific chapter for you to read because you know if someone sends a 250 page book, I might be a little overwhelmed because I didn’t ask for it and I got all these other books that I needed to read. But if someone puts a sticky note and says, “Hey, look, I know you’re busy. I thought of you. You may not know me, but I thought of you. Just read chapter 11. I think you’ll see how it might be helpful to you. I would do that. I would totally read chapter 11. And nobody does this. So the people that are willing to take the extra step, good things happen for them. Send a book cold. Send a book cold. Number six. Number six. Use your book to open up strategic relationships, JVS, and referral partnerships. If you want to get more referrals, give people your book even before they ask. If you want more business sent to you, use your book to establish that relationship. Pamela did that as well, by the way. She’s the poster child of today. She set up 12 strategic partnerships using her book. She gave her book to real estate and closing agencies because young couples will buy houses and close and then you know they start thinking about okay well we need to make sure that we have the right legal setup etc for our assets. She also did it with financial advisors. Same thing there are great referral sources for estate planning attorneys. So think about the complimentary businesses that you could strategically work with. Set up a relationship with them. Give them a copy of your book. Introduce yourself to them. Let them see your expertise, your philosophy, your process, your credibility. Start there. Build that using your book and then say, “Hey, look, I’d love to, you know, give you 20 or 30 copies.” And you know, whenever you have a client that you think would be a good fit for me to work with, just give them a copy of the book and here, throw this bookmark in there with all of my information on it. Boom. Now you have somebody that is like a new funnel for you of clients coming to you on a regular regular basis. Books create familiarity both with your referral source, but also with the person that is reading it. It’ll create opportunities for you. That’s number six. Number seven, create a value bomb. I like this one. Create a value bomb. I’m working on this right now. If you’re in the kind of business where you send proposals to people that they need to consider, don’t do that anymore without a value bomb. put together like like a package that will just blow their mind. Um, your best-selling book in the package, obviously, the foundation of the package. Maybe a maybe a newsletter with like, you know, several client case studies, maybe a one-page offer sheet that kind of explains all of your value that you bring, things that you could do, maybe even a testimonial page. Here’s what Russell Brunson said about me. Here’s what Kevin Harrington said about me. Here’s what US Ambassador Deleno Lewis said about me. Think of it like an authority packet, right? And you can use it for all different kinds of things. Obviously, if you have a great prospect, that could mean a $50,000 deal or a $100,000 deal or or some large opportunity for you. Send it to them. Yes, it might cost 10 or 20 or $30, but think about like the impression that it’s going to make on them and the value that that would be if that impression turned them into a client. So you can do it for very high stakes kind of opportunities, high ticket clients, high stake clients. You can do it for JV outreach. Maybe you want to do a big launch and so you need to create a bunch of joint venture partners. You can obviously do it for speaking opportunities. I’ve said just send your book. You could, if you had a really great opportunity, you could send a value bomb to them. Not just your book, but like a packet of stuff. You can obviously do it for media and you can do it for follow-up. If you’re following up with somebody, create something like that that even goes one step beyond the book, but the book is the foundation of that. You need that as a part of it. That’s seven. Number eight. Number eight, use specific chapters as tools. In particular, sales tools. Use specific chapters as tools if you want to close more deals. Think of and and honestly, you should be thinking about this before the book is completed, but let’s pretend that you did. So, if you want to close more deals, you’re going to highlight one specific chapter to a prospect instead of just jumping on a call with them and hoping that you’re going to kind of hook them. That’s like the whole idea behind, you know, sending a copy of your book with a little sticker on it. And with you being thoughtful about this particular individual, if I was meeting with or someone on my team was meeting with a doctor, for example, and wanted to the doctor wanted to talk about, you know, writing a book that would be, you know, a firm foundation for his business, his legacy, bring in more patients, etc. And I had a great chapter that highlights a doctor that did that exact same thing. That’s all I need to do. Say, “Hey, little, you know what? You don’t need to read the whole thing. Just look at chapter 11.” Chapter 11’s really going to help you. So, think about your prospects. Think about your ideal clients as you’re creating your book, right? Think about who it is that eventually that book is going to be in their hands and you want to make an impression of them. and make sure that you highlight your expertise with that kind of person in the various chapters, right? Um I met today with a client and I said, “Look, okay, you’re going to do x number of chapters and what you really need to do is think in terms of having two case studies per chapter and what you want to make sure that you do is that those case studies in that particular chapter are going to highlight your expertise as reflected in that chapter.” So that when somebody else comes to you and is struggling with the exact same thing, because guess what? Our prospects always struggle with the exact same five problems or six or whatever it is, then you just have to send them right back to that. If they struggle with referrals, you send them the referral chapter. If they struggle with visibility or social media, then you send them that chapter. Whatever it is, you let your book be a part of your sales process. The right chapter can do more selling than any kind of sales call. That’s for sure. That’s number eight. Number nine, for those of you that network, and I used to be a networker. I don’t do that anymore. You guys know I don’t like to leave my house or my dog or my wife. Okay, you already know that. So, I like right I like being right here with my dog behind me. But for those of you that network, you give out business cards and what happens? Business cards get thrown away, right? [laughter] Guess what isn’t going to get thrown away? Your book. You can stand out at networking events without being louder than everybody else just by bringing your book. Now, even in networking events, do I think you should just give out your book willy-nilly to anybody that wants it? Well, [snorts] obviously, if someone wants it, then yeah, give out your book. But the reality is, you’re not just going to place books on chairs for people to stumble upon your book, sit on it, and say, “Oh, here’s a book.” No. Try to be thoughtful about your book. Your book is valuable, right? Maybe you could do a book signing and those that want a copy of it, you could sign it and you could get information from them. Many times at networking events, they allow you to do those kinds of things. Or I would say try to have thoughtful conversations with people and if you feel like they’re the right kind of person that would appreciate your book and that it could lead to the next steps with you, then you give them a copy of your book. Right? It’s not like you just pass out cards on tables of networking events and hopes that it sticks. Well, you don’t do that with your book either. You make sure that you get your book into the right person’s hands. But your book does what the card business card cannot do. It makes you stand out. Business card will not. You become memorable. You create follow-up opportunities. People take you serious because they thought about writing a book. And guess what? they didn’t do it. That’s number nine. Number 10. Number 10. And lastly, use your book as the front end of a funnel. Use your book as the front end of a funnel. Now, that can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. When um I had my financial services company, my funnel was a radio show or a radio ad because that was how I got my first client. And it was simply call our office and we will send you a free copy of Life After Debt. That was it. That was the whole funnel. Call the office. Someone’s going to pick up the phone, ask a bunch of questions, and try to help and also get a copy of the book out. That was the whole funnel. use your book as the front end of a funnel. Now, could you still do that? Sure, you actually could do that even today. It’s a little more complicated today as far as how we use my books, right? Right now, today, Publish Promote Profit is selling as part of a front-end funnel. So, right now, it is being offered with all kinds of video testimonials and various other things. And all someone has to do is say, “I want it and I’m willing to pay shipping,” which is $7.95 in the US, or it’s $29.95 overseas, which many of them sell overseas, and we ship overseas. But it’s the front end of the funnel. My goal is not to sell a book. My goal is to get the book into the right person’s hands that raised their hand and actually pulled out their credit card, gave me a little bit of money, which separated them from the millions of other people that saw the ad. And then a percentage of those people are going to come back and want help. So your book isn’t the end, it’s the front end of the funnel. It’s not the end of it, it’s the front end of it. Your book should be the beginning of the process. A book can lead to a webinar. It can lead to a workshop. You guys know I do those. It can lead to a strategy call. Can lead to a course that you’re selling or um an automated webinar that sells something, a consulting offer. This is exactly how we use our books and it’s exactly how many of our clients do. Craig Weir, who also you can find his podcast interview on the BSP site, Craig Weir, Wr. We just did three books for Craig or just finished his third book. And the podcast interview was basically how surprised I was that when he his first book came out, I said, “Look, if you use this book on the front end of a funnel, I think you have a million-dollar idea.” And he called me to let me know that I was wrong. And I hate being wrong, but I was wrong in the best possible way. His book led to between five and $7 million in revenue in one year. And I say between because I don’t know how the the year ended for him. It was like October. And he said he was on track to do 7 million. So we thought it was between five and 7 million. I know those numbers sound ridiculous. And yes, he was using paid advertising and traffic and a lot of other things, but it didn’t start that way. It started with a simple book to offer and then it grew. You can do the same thing. Your book is the beginning. It’s not the end. That’s that’s the idea. It’s the beginning of the funnel, the front of the funnel. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. A book is a trophy, and it’s really cool, but it is not the trophy. It’s a tool. And tools are to be used. Trophies sit on the shelf, right? Tools are used. Your book is a tool to be used. And if you use it correctly, and I’ve just given you 10 ways, you’re going to get clients. You’re going to get speaking engagements, which also leads to clients. You’re going to get media appearance, which also will lead to authority and clients. You’re going to create partnerships. You’re going to create referrals. You can create opportunities for years to come with one book. I wrote this book seven years ago. I have several since then, but I continue to create new opportunities with it. You can also You can also You may have heard of the book um Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. That book was written by somebody type it in the chat. I don’t remember. Dr. John Oh, I can’t remember his name. Uh at any rate, it’s a Doc. Thank you, Dr. Gray. That’s right. John Gray. I believe that book was written 50 or so years ago. Do you know that he still uses that book to this day? Now, he’s written other books since then, but that book is still the foundation of his business. Look at that. Filamina has a relationship with him. How cool is that? Dr. John Gray. So, there you go. You can use a book for a long long long time as long as you are creative and you find new ways to make it the front of the process and not the back of the process. So there you go my friends, that is it for today. Those are 10 ways to use your book to establish authority. You guys have a great day and I’ll see you then. Bye-bye. [music]