Publishers limit their book sales when they see bookstores—bricks and/or clicks—as the only place through which to sell their books. If you want to sell 10,000 books through any retailer, you must get 10,200 people (with a 20% return rate) to go to Amazon.com or your website and buy one. But if you want to sell 10,000 books in non-retail markets, you can find one person to buy 10,000 of them—nonreturnable and they pay the shipping charges. Which do you think is a more profitable way to sell your books?
How to do that? A logical first step is to find the names of people to whom you will sell. This is called prospecting—the process of searching for people who can buy your books. A prospect is the person who can make the decision to buy from you. They could be in corporations, schools, associations, the military, etc.
The place to start is to describe the people most likely to benefit from your content. Who are those who could get the most from your information? Where do they shop? Attend school? Are they likely to join an association or the armed services? What companies could use your content to help them sell more of their products or help their employees? The answers to these questions define your prospects and your opportunities.
How to Find Prospects
Once you organize your target buyers in those segments, the next step is to search for the names of people to contact in each. Here are some of the most productive ways to get the names of potential buyers.
- Get prospects to come to you (called “expert pull”) when you increase your visibility and reputation as an expert in your field. Make personal presentations, publish articles, and get niche reviews. Perhaps the most ubiquitous form of expert pull is through social media. This includes blogging, podcasts, forums, discussion groups, and social networking.
- Advertise in—or send articles to—local newspapers. This is also an example of an expert pull.
- Meet with people personally. One-on-one networking is an organized way to make links from the people you know to the people they know, expanding your base of prospects.
- Attend trade shows. You do not have to exhibit, but you should attend them to learn about the industry and network with the exhibitors and attendees who may be prospects. Find a list of conventions for your target segments at 10times.com.
- Advertise to generate leads economically. For example, associations need content for their monthly newsletters. Allow them to excerpt from your book in exchange for free advertising in their newsletters.
- Associations offer other sales opportunities. Explore en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_industry_trade_groups_in_the_United_States for those related to your topic and work each website for the name of the bookstore manager, newsletter editor, local chapter president, and meeting planner (who may hire you to speak to their meetings or become its spokesperson). Contact the membership chair to use your book as a fundraiser or a premium to increase membership.
- There are many sources of leads for business prospects. Get a free supplier profile in the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers at thomasregister.com. Search for companies and individuals at hoovers.com.
- Search the internet for potential buyers. If you want the name of the vice president of marketing at a certain company, then perform a Google search for them. Go to a company’s or an association’s website to find a list of their staff and board members.
- Join LinkedIn to find and connect with businesspeople with whom you can form a relationship before making personal contact.
- Reach large numbers of people via postcards, letters, and email. List brokers such as dataaxleusa.com sell lists of consumer businesspeople.
- Get referrals from your customers. Ask them for the names of people in other divisions of their company, or their suppliers and customers who could use your book as a promotional tool.
- Read trade magazines in your target industries and submit articles to them. Look at the ads for companies that could be prospects. Find links to major magazines at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_magazines.
- Conduct teleseminars, webinars, and seminars. Use these to reach prospects and capture names for your list.
- Build a prospecting element into your website. Place benefit-laden descriptions of your titles there and make your literature or catalog easy to download. Gather names by offering something for free.
Searching for Prospective Buyers of Fiction
Authors of fiction have even more prospecting opportunities. People read novels while traveling, vacationing, in hospitals, and while serving in the Navy onboard ships. Search for buyers at cruise ships, travel sites, parks, museums, bus tours, airlines, limousine services, bed and breakfasts, and others as appropriate to your title. Suggest your book as a premium or gift to be given to people for doing business with them.
Prospecting for new business is similar to exercising. It will produce positive results if you do it routinely. It takes time, but if your sales pipeline is always filled with potential customers, then you are in for a future of positive revenue flow.