Growing your business boils down to a simple formula. You have to attract and retain clients. A book can help you do both.
My client and friend David Rosell had originally planned to hand out his first book, Failure Is Not an Option: Creating Certainty in the Uncertainty of Retirement, to his existing clients. He figured that the financial lessons melded with family anecdotes and travel stories would be a better marketing tool than a hat or T-shirt with his logo. He was right. His clients loved learning more about their favorite financial planner. So did their friends and family members.
The book even appealed to people who had never met David.
“Hi, I’m David,” he would say as people started showing up for appointments. “Let me tell you a little bit about myself.”
“Don’t bother,” the prospects replied. “We read your book.”
“Well, let me tell you about my financial philosophy.”
“Don’t bother,” came the response. “We know.”
“So, you’re here to sign up?”
Yup. That’s what they were there for.
So, David doesn’t market his business anymore. He just markets that book and the two subsequent ones he’s written. That success prompted me to create my interactive e-course Boost Your Business with a Book, which takes entrepreneurs, business professionals and owners, health practitioners, and salespeople through the process of figuring out how to write a book that will help them grow their bottom line.
David’s book hasn’t sold a lot of copies on Amazon, but it’s done its job brilliantly. Its success lies in the melding of critical financial information to help individuals avoid the pitfalls of retirement with stories about his clients and, almost more importantly, about himself. “For your customers to trust your brand, you’ll have to share information about yourself and your business,” states a 2023 article in Business News Daily.
David’s stories about living in a host of different countries, which he uses to illustrate the book’s financial survival tips, are as revealing as they are fun to read. So are his memories of the lessons about saving that he learned from his father and grandmother. Even his client stories reveal how he thinks about money and how he relates to the people who trust him with their finances. The single word that describes all his stories: authenticity.
Google “how to breed customer loyalty” and one of the top pointers you’ll find is allowing people to get to know you and your values. Brand transparency–consistent openness and honesty related to your values and how you do business–follows closely behind.
With the right approach, a book can provide this critical competitive differentiator. If people feel they know you, trust you and your expertise, and like you, they’re quite likely to want to do business with you. But you have to grab their attention in the first place by relating your content to them and their needs. In two weeks, we’ll talk about how to balance stories about you and your clients with your prospects’ wants and pain points.
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