James SpillaneStop and consider how many business cards have been put in your hands during your business life. Now how many of these have you trashed? I suspect the vast majority of them. That’s the problem with business cards, all too frequently they end up in the garbage. Dare I say, even your business cards end up in the waste basket. And the travesty is you know that prospects who could legitimately benefit from your products or services never call you and throw away your cards.
There is a solution. Dump ALL your business cards. That is, give up using them. Replace them with a short book written by you on a topic related to your business.
Today with print on demand technology you can produce short books for about the same price as high-end business cards (around $2.30 per copy depending on the number of pages). Now imagine you are meeting a new prospect and instead of giving them a business card you hand them a copy of your latest book. Excited and amazed at your expertise, many times your prospect will ask you to autograph it.
See how it changes the dynamic to be an author?
Here’s the deal: books are value added documents and are almost always saved. They also help to establish your expertise and credibility. That is, the mere fact that you are an author helps establish you as a solver of client problems.
Further, a book can be “seeded” with other ways you solve customer problems. For example, in one of my books I describe my coaching program. In another, I detail how clients can hire me to speak at an event. I get lots of calls and sales too. And here’s the sweet thing: prospects come to me. I don’t have to seek them out. Many times they buy my book on Amazon, they read it and decide they want to work with me. So when they call the sale is all but made.
But if you are going to write a short book, make sure it is useful and filled with quality content. You really want to provide solutions in the book. Of course, written solutions only go so far. Given the choice most prospects would prefer the personal helping hand of the author expert. Let them know in your book that you are available.
One other consideration, books are the perfect way to brand you and your business and distinguish you in the marketplace. Think about it this way. Let’s say you are a dentist and you have a book out but none of your competitors do. All other things being equal, who is more likely to get the business? Again a book can give you the “slight edge” over your competitors.
So you may be saying to yourself, “becoming an author would be great but it’s easier said than done.” Perhaps you worry about the time and expense it would take to crank out a book – understandable. But the fact of the matter is it’s far easier and faster than you might think. In fact, I have a free video that describes my #1 secret for self publishing high-quality, highly profitable books real fast just check out http://realfastbook.com/ for details.
Author: Daniel Hall
This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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Pretty brilliant idea. There are a lot of things you can do with a business card to help it stand out more, but few of them (none of them?) are as attention grabbing or memorable as a book — especially a book on a topic that’s of interest to the prospect receiving it.
Smart.