I tell my direct marketing clients to create Expert Proof Materials (usually books, but sometimes DVDs or CDs) and have them on hand to use as business cards. Didn’t follow my own advice today. Met a young lady today in a coffee shop to talk about teaching her clients – other entrepreneurs. Took a book – all cool, right? Nope. Turns out the coffee shop owner was one of her clients, and also wanted a book. I blew over an hour getting a book ready to ship, finding an open post office, and spending at least $5 on postage and gas. Keep a stack of EPM in your car, kids!
gimme
Use High Quality Gimmees
I'm against the use of gimmees (freebies, give-aways, junk, etc) in trade show booths. If you don't start doing it, you'll never have to stop. Just like smoking cigarettes. Both can be bad for your health.
I've had a dozen conversations like this one, but it serves as a good example. I'd had a booth at several B2B trade shows where I was near the same printing company. During this one, they were giving away pads that looked like melon slices. At the top was printed "Honeydew List." They had stacks of other pads out on display, but this was the most popular by far. People were coming by and literally taking away half a dozen at a time, without asking or even being talked to by the booth staff. Word was getting around, apparently, as I heard people coming up the aisle saying, "Those honeydew lists are around here someplace." By the middle of the afternoon, those pads were all gone.
Your Book As A Business Card
We have a number of clients who have published books, or put out instructional DVDs. Some of them have had a hard time grasping the fact that these products are not, in and of themselves, a profit generator. Rather, they are like keys that unlock doors to bigger and more lucrative sales. They should be given away like business cards.
Yes, I understand that one book – or DVD or CD or any similar product – costs a lot more than a business card. Even if you get the books or disks at wholesale. Just as you shouldn’t walk down the street passing out business cards to all and sundry, you need to be selective in giving out your Proof of Expertise.
Forget about selling this item. You need to selectively hand them out to individuals who can help you book speaking or training gigs. This is where the money is going to come from. Any incidental sales of this item are a bonus.
The product that is your Proof of Expertise is exactly that – proof that you have something to say, can present it in a socially viable medium, and are capable of carrying out a difficult procedure (the conception, completion, production and distribution of the Proof) from beginning to end.
Even in today’s market of self-published ebooks, where there’s little to no cost for creation, production or distribution, very few authors can make even a poor living off the sales of their products. Selling 25,000 copies in a year and earning a profit of $2 per copy only nets you $50k, and that’s before taxes and expenses. By selling a training session to a room full of attendees, you could earn that much in a weekend.
Once you have your Proof product, put your effort into using it as a key to unlock sales via personal presentations.