The 4-Step Process to Turn Your Book Into a Referral Machine

Welcome to the best seller secrets podcast where business owners come to learn how to use a best selling book to grow their income and their impact. I’m Rob Kosberg. I’m your host. And I’m really excited to talk to you today about how to turn your book into a referral machine. In fact, I’m gonna give you four steps today on how to turn your book into a referral machine for your business.The first thing to understand is that your book, your best selling book is the absolute best way for you to get people to know like and trust you. I know that that is an old saying and an old adage. But truth be told, people buy from people they like, and they can’t like you and trust you until they get to know you. And your book is your very best way for people to get a taste of who you are, and what your skills and your services are, and how they might need them in their life. So understand that and then take these four steps to begin building this referral machine.So step number one, you need to begin by compiling a list of all of your past clients and current clients, going back as far as you like. And I would even add to that anyone in your sphere of influence who has referred you any business, or potentially could refer you business in my company, best seller publishing,we have over 1500 past clients,and we took that list of 1500.And then because of moves and address changes, and we’ve been in business for over 10 years now just losing track with people, we have a list honed down to about half that number or about 700 people, I don’t know how large your list is. But start with all of your past clients, as well as your current clients and that sphere of influence. Someone who has referred you business or could refer you business, what you’re going to do is you’re going to compile that list, make sure that that list is accurate with their mailing address. And then you are going to mail them two to three copies of your best selling book with a cover letter. Now understand, if you have published the book yourself, or if you’ve used a hybrid publisher, like best seller publishing, then it’s only going to cost you two to $3to get a book printed in bookstore quality printing,okay, you’re not having to buy these books at full retail retail for $20 or whatever,you’re going to print them for two or three bucks. So if you send out two or three copies,that’s going to cost you maybe six to $9, and another two or $3to send. So yes, that initial package is going to cost you about $10 to send. And yes, if you’re sending it to 500 people,that is $5,000. However,understand this, it is a powerful way to reignite that relationship with a past client that likes you. And that for whatever reason, has lost touch and lost track with you. Now you’re not just going to send that book to them blindly,you’re going to include a cover letter. Now what does that cover letter need to say? Well, the cover letter really is a thank you letter, it is a letter to reengage your relationship with them. And thank them, for them being a supporter of you, a supporter of your company. And what you want to do is you want to say thank you, you want to let them know perhaps that you’re apologetic for not having been in better touch with them,but that you’re going to change all of that right here. And right now and that as a thank you. You wanted to give them a copy of your newest best selling book. Now, extra credit. If you do something special with your book, what do I mean by that?Well, my book published low profit there on the shelf behind me if you’re watching this is a book that became a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and I can certainly print those copies and send them to my clients. But what I did is I actually did like an inner circle simply changed out the cover I made it like the black version of it.And I told people that I had a special client only edition of my book it cost me really no more to do that just to swap out the cover the design costs for that and then to get it printed cost the exact same as it would have otherwise. But that made my clients and those that I sent it to feel even more special because it’s not something that people can buy off the shelf or on Amazon. It is a special client only edition now. You You don’t have to do that. But extra credit if you do, because it will make people feel more special. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. So you’re sending them two or three copies to do two things. Number one,you want to reignite that relationship with them, which means they might want to buy something more from you. Maybe they’ve been thinking about your services, maybe they’ve been thinking about what their need is in their life that you solved years ago and have now lost touch. And so this may be a great opportunity for you to serve them directly in the business, and you didn’t ask for it, all you did was you lead with the giving hand. So that’s the number one thing it does,the number two thing it does is it’s going to get you referrals.If you send them two or three copies, and then let them know this is a gift, this is my way to say thank you, I wanted you to have this special edition, or I wanted you to have this copy of my best selling book. And I’ve included two or three other copies, if you would like to give them to any friends or family or anyone you know, that might be interested in this topic as well. Right. And now they’re going to look like a hero because not only do they know the author, but the author has sent them free books for them to pass on. This will work it works every day for our clients. So that’s step one. And step two, you’re going to compile that list, and then you’re going to send a copy.Number three, you are also going to send a copy to every prospect that came to your company but did not buy in the past year.And I don’t know what your prospect list looks like, I hope you have information on your prospects for one reason or another. And certainly with bestseller publishing, we generate 400 Plus full applications every single month of people that want to work with us. So what happens? Well, you know, 20 or so of those people get started. And then next month, we have 400 More, that are filling out applications to work with. So the 380 that didn’t get started last month and the 380. Before that, and before that, and before that,they just kind of lose track, we lose track of each other, right.And we want to make sure because those people, at least at one point or another, were very interested, they were interested in you. And so you’ve probably lost touch, you’ve lost track,this is a way for you to regenerate that relationship and the interest that they may have.Now, if it’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people every single month like it is with us, then perhaps you’re going to send them a PDF version, but I would take the most valuable prospects, and I would send them a copy of your book to re engage reignite that relationship. Okay, that’s the first three steps. And that all has to do with your past clients, your current clients,your sphere of influence, and the prospects that have come to you. Now here’s a really, really cool thing that you can add to that step number four, you want to use your best selling book to engage in strategic partnerships. Now, what is a strategic partnership? Well, a strategic partnership is a partnership with a complementary business, right? Not a competitive one, but one that complements you. So if you’re an estate planning attorney, a complementary business people that are working with the same kind of client, and in fact, at the same time as they might need you is someone like a financial advisor, right? young couple that just set up their financial plan with their financial advisor, now probably should speak to an estate planning attorney to make sure that their estate is in order that their young children are protected and taken care of or older children or whatever, right. So this is a great complementary relationship. So how do you work? Well, what you want to do is you want to offer something of value to that strategic partner, so that that strategic partner sees you as somebody that is offering a service and can pass upon your information your book, as like an act of service to their client without feeling like they’re simply passing a referral on to you. So if you gave that strategic partner 10 or 20 copies of their book and said, Look, anybody that you begin a new financial advisory relationship with, feel free to give them a free copy of of my book as an estate planning attorney, so they can see what their needs might be, as it has to do with estate planning. And if they’re interested in taking next steps, then we would love to help them etc.This will work for you. This works for my clients, my client,Pamela did this exact strategy and in the very first 30 days generated over $60,000 in New Client revenue from both referrals and the strategic partner chips. And here’s the cool thing. This is something that you shouldn’t just do one time, if you set up these strategic partnerships, this is going to pay dividends to you over and over and over again,with new people coming to you,because your book gets that know like and trust relationship began to be built. And your strategic partner is a hero as well, because they’re passing on the best selling authors book to this client completely for free,because they know they need these exact services as well. So those are your four steps to use your best selling book to set up a Referral Engine that gets you referrals every single month,like clockwork, if you’re interested in learning more,feel free to go and get a free copy of my book at publish promote profit.com All you need to do is cover shipping and I will send it to you gladly.