Ah, the close, that magical moment when the prospect agrees to buy! All of the shrewd marketing you’ve been doing has led to this moment.How do you give your prospects that last little push to get them to actually close? One way is to use your book as a purchase incentive.
Dr. Charlie Pellerin, NASA’s Director for Astrophysics does just that with his book How NASA Builds Teams: Mission Critical Soft-Skills for Scientists, Engineers, Project Teams, and Their Leaders (Wiley, 2009). Dr. Pellerin is the NASA scientist who led the Hubble Space Telescope team. In 1990, after the telescope was already launched into space, he and his team discovered that Hubble was useless because of a flawed mirror. They staged a daring space mission to fix the telescope, which succeeded. The experience launched Dr. Pellerin on a quest to understand the leadership and teamwork failures that led to NASA launching Hubble with such a serious flaw. He undertook a 15-year study of leadership and teamwork, culminating in his book, and the creation of 4-D Systems, his consulting firm that teaches businesses how to build and lead successful teams. In order to close prospects on signing up for one of his paid coaching events, “How Did NASA’s $1.7 Billion Screw Up Deliver their Most Effective Team Building Results,” each attendee was offered a free copy of Dr. Pellerin’s book as a bonus for signing up. This purchase incentive both added value to each sign up, and placed a lasting reminder of Dr. Pelerin’s expertise on each attendee’s bookshelf—a very compelling marketing tactic!
You’ve made the close. Can you celebrate now? Unfortunately, no. Any experienced salesperson will tell you that a sale is most vulnerable to being undone right after the close. Immediately after a purchase new customers want (sometimes need) to be reassured that they made the right decision. One of the most effective ways to give them this reassurance is to surprise them with a free copy of your book, given as a purchase reward. This does two things: it lets your customers know that they have your immediate attention and appreciation, and confirms that you are the expert that they should be working with.
A case in point: Attorney Don Loose uses his books Estate Planning in Arizona (Wheatmark, 2008) and Arizona Laws 101 (Wheatmark, 2005) as purchase rewards. After each initial consult with a new client, Mr. Loose gives the client a free copy of one of his books. He observes:
“The clients are always pleasantly surprised to receive something that they didn’t expect to get. Also, it gives the client something tangible that they can take away. In the legal profession, where clients usually only get non-tangibles [results and advice], it is very reassuring to them to receive something tangible. Having the books has done a lot for my business.”
Of course, you probably shouldn’t give the same book as both a purchase incentive and as a purchase reward to the same prospect … which is a good reason to write and publish more than one book!