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John Locke Shares His Strategies for Selling a Million Books on Amazon
Jan 31st
In 2011 I wrote a few business book reviews based on a couple of Kindle purchases. In addition to the business books, I picked up one of those $.99 Kindle Singles written by John Locke about a savvy CIA assassin named Donovan Creed. I got hooked on his engaging and entertaining stories and before I knew it, I had read through all nine of them and there were no more! (sniff). When I check bed a few months later, at the end of the list of nine was How I Sold a Million Books on Amazon in Five Months.” I picked it up without even thinking about it.
Now that it’s a nominated best business book for 2012, I asked John Locke to share some of his secrets for writing, promoting and selling ebooks.
Ivana Taylor: What was the tipping point that took your novels to the 1 million mark?
John Locke: This is a very difficult question to answer and had you asked it six months ago I would have given you a different response. Back then I would have said it was a combination of the blog posts I’d written, emails I’d answered, Twitter contacts I’d made, and the Amazon sales engine that links similar books and identifies the categories readers search, such as Movers and Shakers, Top 100, and so forth.
But today I have a different answer because, while my last two books were best sellers, neither did as well as my flagship books, Saving Rachel and Wish List. Those books drove my sales into the stratosphere. These days my blog is still effective, I have ten times as many subscribers as I did when Saving Rachel came out, four times as many contacts, and twice as many Twitter followers. And the Amazon sales engine is as effective as ever.
My recent book, Call Me! got no higher than #20 overall. I look around and see other authors setting all sorts of sales records with a first book, and realize there are many roads to the top. But the tipping point to that top level of sales seems to be the book itself. Saving Rachel and Wish List caught the public’s imagination, and the sales were breathtaking.
For an entire month I sold more than 12,000 units a day. At one point Saving Rachel and Wish List were #1 and #2 overall. On my best day I sold 30,000 ebooks. All the marketing methods helped, and the Amazon sales engine was a huge factor. But these days I’m convinced the major factor, or tipping point, is the book itself. Writing that type of book is like catching lightning in a bottle. And when you write one of those, you know it. But everything you write is not going to have that type of effect on the public.
Ivana Taylor: You said, “Don’t let the things you don’t have prevent you from using what you do have.” Do you have an example of this principle in action around marketing your books?
John Locke: Here’s one: I had no formal training as a writer. I never took a writing course, never attended a seminar or workshop. In other words, I had no experience. But I didn’t let that prevent me from using what I did have: imagination, drive, determination. As for marketing, I did have money to spend on ads and so forth, but the money I spent didn’t help. Cost-free marketing is the only type that generated sales for me. So if you don’t have money to invest, don’t let that stop you from using what you do have: enthusiasm, empathy, people skills.
What I’m saying, there’s always a way to compensate for what you don’t have. If I’m not as smart as you, I’ll have to work harder. If another woman is prettier than you, you might have to be more charming. There’s always a way to compensate.
Ivana Taylor: What do you mean when you say you don’t set sales goals, you set project goals. How does that work? What’s a project goal that a small business author might set and how would they track it?
John Locke: I always tell people that goals should be low enough to hit and high enough to matter. A wonderful project goal for a starting author would be to get five, 5-star reviews for his or her book. That’s a significant goal when you’re starting out. Without a specific goal like this, you won’t do the necessary things it takes to achieve it. In other words, if you set a goal to get five 5-star reviews, you’ll be able to create a plan for hitting it. You’ll ask friends to review your book. You’ll read reviews others have gotten and it will dawn on you to contact the reviewers and see if they’ll review your book.
These are simple things, but without the goal, you’ll never draw up the plan. Without the plan, you’ll never take the action.
Ivana Taylor: You say that you should have a quotable quote for each encounter and interview. Why? How does this help your marketing?
John Locke: Quotes are sound bites. People remember sound bites. If you listen to the evening news, it’s all sound bites. When someone tells you about a movie or TV show or comedy act they enjoyed, they’ll quote dialog or jokes, which are nothing more than sound bites. Monday I did an interview and got this quote in: “Wish List is half rocket ship, half roller coaster.” I spoke to the interviewer a full hour, but that’s the comment she remembered. Yesterday I got this quote in:
“It’s amazing how everything comes together when you put the reader first.”
I could have pontificated on the subject for an hour, but people appreciate the economy of words a sound bite offers. I believe authors should set a plan for each interview. In the past three days I’ve done five interviews, and had a specific plan for each. I went to each site and became familiar with the type of interviews they’ve done in the past. I tried to figure out the best way to approach the upcoming interview. I’ve heard authors say they’ve done so many interviews they could do one in their sleep.
Don’t worry, they say, they’re good on their feet, they’ll just wing it. “Just winging it” is another way of saying you didn’t bother to prepare (that’s my sound bite for you!)
Ivana Taylor: This quote was a whack on the side of the head for me, “My work isn’t 10x worse and theirs isn’t 10x better for the price.” How did you set the pricing for your book? What advice would you give other business authors about pricing their book?
John Locke: You should always have a reason for your actions. I set my prices low because I wanted to make buying my books an afterthought. Also, I was writing day and night at the time, so I figured to make volume sales. So those were my reasons for the 99-cent price point. But circumstances change.
On February 1st, Wish List will be available in mass-market paperback in every bookstore and retail outlet in America. I set the price extremely low for a paperback book: $4.99, because I’m trying to get noticed in a new market. But I don’t want to self-compete against my ebooks, so for the first time, I’m raising the prices of my Donovan Creed series.
Am I abandoning my core readers? No. All future Creed books will still debut at 99 cents for a period of time that allows my loyal readers to download them at my “friendship” price of 99 cents. After that, I’ll raise the price so as not to hurt sales of the paperback versions. My Emmett Love and Dani Ripper series will continue to be sold for 99 cents unless the circumstances for those books change. So my advice is to have a reason for your pricing. It can be based on experimenting with different price points, or some other factor that makes sense to you.
John Locke Shares His Strategies for Selling a Million Books on Amazon
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Selling In A Skirt Elevates Training for Saleswomen and Salesmen
Jan 29th
The highlight of my mailbox a few weeks ago was a review copy of Selling In A Skirt: The Secrets Women Don’t Know They Know Bout Sales (And What Men Should Know, Too) by Judy Hoberman. When I opened the first pages, the highlight to bring me further into the text was a paragraph regarding a significant challenge that saleswomen face.
It’s a issue that is sometimes debated when discussing diversity and professional development – being provided outdated tools while setting objectives to be successful.
“The traditional sales approach focuses on overcoming objections to achieve a quick close, but modern cultural trends point to a new paradigm…. use “softer” collaborative and relational selling techniques. Although many women have tried to incorporate this strategy into their own customer communications, they are often told by trainers and managers to avoid “experimentation” and to stick with time-honored tactics, however ineffectual….”
More women are entering the sales ranks. But some of the glass ceiling issues that occur in corporate America exists for professional sales as well. Hoberman, a sales strategy consultant based near Houston, Texas, crafted a short book meant to challenge those notions through accessible suggestions. It speaks to managers looking to expand their communication style to saleswomen, as well as to saleswomen looking to leverage their skillset.
Selling In A Skirt has the same size and scope as Dive In, a concise human resources book for specific issues with disabled people. Its concise approach means inserting skirt tips – notes in each chapter meant to crystalize the point – and chapters grouped into three segments on culture, understanding the differences, and professional development beyond sales into management. The reminders are light but serious notes regarding how to train women to their strengths. One example notes how competition is approached, leading to better ways to train salespeople.
Skirt Tip: Research shows that men tend to be competitive, whereas women are collaborative. Sales leaders should develop training and motivational strategies that speak to both genders for the best results.
As you read Hoberman words, you’ll gain more insight as to how her tips lead to bottom line impact. Her goal for your organization is to create processes that enhance strengths for all.
“To compete in the modern economy, companies need a training program tailored to women’s strengths. That does not mean each company needs a separate training program for women, nor does it mean changing the entire program to focus on woman as sales professionals and as buyers. Companies must do it to ensure that the training program explains and embraces both styles of communication…this will empower sales professionals to work within their strengths rather than employ a cookie-cutter approach with every client.”
It’s the author’s approach that closes the deal for this book’s capacity to aid your sales team. She wants you to understand why “Male-centric sales techniques usually fall flat with female customers, who want the process to be more personal.” When suggesting open-ended questions, Hoberman notes a few examples: “What are your biggest concerns?” “What features are on your must-have list?” Then she reviews the nuances of listening needed to make open-ended questions an opportunity to connect with leads.
“To a woman, good listening includes making eye contact and reacting visually to whoever is speaking. To a man, listening can take place with a minimum of eye contact and almost no non-verbal feedback….restating what a prospect just said demonstrates that you are actively listening and summarizes your understanding of their situation, which in turn, will highlight the prospect’s motive for considering your products.”
Who Will Benefit From Selling In A Skirt?
- Managers who need to consider gender nuances in professionalism and how they differ versus anecdotal suggestions.
- Starter road warriors – new inducted sales people who need a reminder as they travel from client to client.
- Women looking to rise into sales-related managerial roles, particularly when confronted with a male-dominated culture.
Those who love deep research won’t find a ton of stats and footnotes, although a few chapters like “New Era” offer sources for notes regarding women’s financial clout in the marketplace. The stats do help to raise the points Hoberman notes on communication style as well as what is at stake economically for businesses to survive. The stats mentioned are used wisely, with no sense of overselling or blatant bias just to make a point. Hoberman’s insight and professional wisdom comes through on the pages, yet deftly avoids overdone claims of self-success that plaque overhyped guru books.
This book focuses on sales, but let’s face it. If you call yourself an entrepreneur, “sales” is the invisible syllable in that word. You will find Selling In a Skirt a terrific guide that makes sales feel more real to entrepreneurs as much as it does for experienced sales teams. It is not a deep psychology study on gender communication differences, nor was it meant to be. It is a serious, no-nonsense guide that reminds you of important hindrances for women in sales activity. It will compliment books like Selling to the C-Suite with ease. Keep this guide at your ready access, and with each read you will see how your sales will become meaningful activity.
Selling In A Skirt Elevates Training for Saleswomen and Salesmen
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Selling For A Profit
Jan 20th
Learn How A 9 Year Old Started Selling Items On eBay® To Generate 400% Returns.
Selling For A Profit
Wedding Mc Guide “you Can Be A Wedding Mc” Worlds #1 Selling
Jan 18th
Earn Us$23.50 Per Sale! Affiliates Top Choice A No-brainer. This Best-selling Ebook Features A Great Sales Page With Modern Graphics + Videos – Written By An Ebook Specialist Who Also Runs A Professional Wedding Master Of Ceremonies Agency. Recommended
Wedding Mc Guide “you Can Be A Wedding Mc” Worlds #1 Selling
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Jan 15th
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Up Your Sales in a Down Market Is a Crash Course in Selling
Jan 1st
If you’re looking for a crash course on sales, or a sales refresher course, and don’t want to read a lot or learn a rigid sales system that some author says you absolutely positively must follow precisely — then Up Your Sales in a Down Market is a book for you.
Up Your Sales in a Down Market: 20 Strategies from Top Performing Salespeople to Win Over Cautious Customers is by Ron Volper, a business development consultant to the Fortune 500.
Whoa! Wait a minute! You’re thinking, “Did she say Fortune 500? What could a Fortune 500 consultant say that would be relevant to my business with 12 employees?”
A lot, surprisingly. I received a review copy of this book in the mail, and I almost set it aside when I saw the cover blurb about the author’s experience with large corporations. After all, we focus here on books for small business owners and entrepreneurs. We tend to avoid books that target a large corporate audience — that world is so different from the way small businesses operate.
Luckily, I took a few minutes to thumb through the book.
The first section I saw was a 2-page question and answer session between a patient and a doctor diagnosing the patient’s ailment. The author used this analogy to illustrate how salespeople must ask a lot of questions before presenting a solution to meet the customer’s needs and trying to close a sale. Now… that same point about asking questions has been made in countless sales books before. But somehow, seeing the point presented as a doctor making a diagnosis drove it home. Instantly the point clicked. Next time you are in a sales situation, think of yourself as a doctor trying to make a diagnosis. It’s not precisely like that – for instance, in sales you have to ask more open-ended questions. But still, the point about asking questions is memorable and it sticks, all because of the way the author presented the information.
What I Liked Best
This book is filled with practical bits. For instance, you’ll find a concise 10-page chapter on how to give a sales presentation. It covers everything from the best font size for PowerPoint slides, to the need to practice your presentation in advance, to using body language effectively. Another gem of a chapter discusses the sales proposal. It tells you when (and when not) to write and deliver a sales proposal. But the best part of this chapter is the detailed outline of what should be in your sales proposal, along with the most common mistakes to avoid for each section. Example: did you know that one of the most common mistakes on a proposal cover page is misspelling the customer’s name?
One of the things I especially liked about this book is the way each chapter begins with a hard-hitting sales statistic. The opening statistic makes a point about what you should remember from each chapter. Here are some examples:
- “Top performing salespeople ask four times as many questions as their less-successful colleagues.”
- “If you call prospects cold there is only a 2 percent chance you will speak to them, if you have a referral your odds jump to 20 percent, but if you have an introduction they jump up to 60 percent.”
- “Top salespeople write out and practice their sales presentations three times more often than less successful salespeople.”
- “Seventy percent of salespeople said they failed to close business because of price, whereas only 45 percent of their customers said price was their main objection.”
Who This Book is For
About 70% of this book is relevant to small businesses with small sales teams, and even to sole proprietors. For instance, if you are a business owner who doubles as your company’s primary sales person, you can learn a lot from this book, particularly if you personally do not have a sales background. The information is practical, not theoretical. It doesn’t use corporate-speak, but instead uses everyday language.
That said, the primary audience for this book is sales managers and salespeople in large corporations who want to be top performers. Small businesses, you will get benefit — just don’t be surprised if you find certain chapters less useful than others: the chapter on sales contests and motivations; and the chapter on realigning sales territories, to name just two that are more relevant to large corporations.
Up Your Sales is not about retail or eCommerce sales. Also, if you sell small-ticket items or services, the selling techniques here will be less relevant, mainly because the economics won’t let you devote the time and effort to each sale the way this book describes. Mostly this book will be best for those whose minimum sale is north of $1,000.
What I Would Have Liked to See
I feel this book has value for small businesses. However, it isn’t up to date on the ways that small businesses today must sell if they want to survive. For instance, most small businesses must make heavy use of email, phone meetings, online meetings and other long-distance selling techniques. Many small businesses don’t have the time or money to send salespeople long distances to make in-person sales calls. The techniques in this book are definitely geared toward the in-person sales call or meeting.
Also, the book is very light on using networking, word of mouth, and social media as part of your sales prospecting. The section on social media consists of merely a half page that mentions using LinkedIn and Facebook to recruit salespeople to hire. But savvy small businesses and entrepreneurs today are using social media to fill their sales funnels or as key marketing stages. Word of mouth referrals and networking are huge in the world of small business. Yet those are not really covered in this book in the ways that small businesses use these techniques.
But as long as you understand these limitations, Up Your Sales has value, particularly if your company sells products or services to large corporations. This book does an excellent job telling you how to be more effective at selling to large companies.
Up Your Sales in a Down Market Is a Crash Course in Selling
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Social Commerce: Buying and Selling Inside Facebook
Dec 8th
We’re used to being online, and we’re used to using social commerce sites like Amazon.com. But what about Facebook shopping? Talking to friends, spending money. Laughing with friends, spending a little more money. Sounds good, right?
The revenue generated through social commerce in general is expected to grow sixfold within the next four years. But now, people are also shopping on Facebook. Since one out of 13 people are on this social networking site, how can you take advantage of this trend?
For the quick version, you may want to look at Stephania Andrade’s infographic over on TabJuice, Social Commerce for Brands and Fans. She gives you an easy-to-digest overview of how you can use a store on Facebook.
Before you dive in, consider this…
While the facts about the number of people on Facebook are impressive, Amy Kean of Havas Media offers a few points worth thinking about. Writing on Our Social Times about 13 Essential Facebook Social Commerce Tips & Statistics, she says:
“Don’t sell expensive things on Facebook. On average, people say they will spend up to $85.”
She also makes the point that:
“89 percent of social network members have never bought anything on Facebook.”
Not yet, anyway. You know that there is no magic bullet. Whatever you do will take effort. But once you decide that you’re ready to dive in, here’s a shortlist of some free or inexpensive options for setting up a Facebook store.
3 tools for building a Facebook ecommerce store
TabJuice.com: Lets you create a free store inside Facebook.
Wix.com: Wix offers free Facebook templates for your fan page including some ecommerce options.
Vendio.com: You create a free store inside Vendio. But as you upgrade you are able to load your products in one place and sell them in multiple spots including Amazon, Facebook and eBay.
For a more robust collection of ecommerce options, check out Small Business Trends contributor TJ McCue’s list of 68 Ecommerce and Shopping Carts for the Small Business.
More stats and facts behind the graphic:
50 Fascinating Facebook Facts and Figures by Jeff Bullas. He rattles them off quickly, so it’s an easy read.
10 Facts About Consumer Behavior on Facebook from the 2011 Chadwick Martin Bailey Consumer Pulse.
Social Commerce: Buying and Selling Inside Facebook
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
The Secrets To Making $4,000 Net Per Month Selling On Half.com
Dec 4th
Learn The Secrets That Marijo Jilek Discovered That Enabled Her To Earn A Living Selling Books, Cds, Dvds, And Audio Cassettes On Half.com From The Comfort Of Her Own Home.
The Secrets To Making $4,000 Net Per Month Selling On Half.com
Mark Joyner Best Selling Ebook(r)s.
Nov 23rd
Learn The Online Strategies Of The Internet Marketing Promotion Advertising Expert To Get More Website Traffic & Increase Sales.
Mark Joyner Best Selling Ebook(r)s.
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