Susan Friedmann

00:35

Welcome to book marketing mentors, The Weekly Podcasts, where Unum proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, can introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is David Newman. David is the author of Do It Selling, 77 instant action ideas to land better clients bigger deals, and higher fees. He's the founder of the Do It MBA mentoring program and the host of the selling show.

Susan Friedmann

00:59

A top-rated business podcast with over 300 episodes. David helps his clients grow their expertise-based business with smarter sales strategies, tactics, and tools. And National Speakers Association friend and colleague David, it's an absolute thrill to welcome you back to the show and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

David Newman

01:06

Hey, Susan. It's great to be here. Thank you so much. I think we can wrap up the show after that brilliant intro. It's like, okay, folks.

David Newman

01:14

Thanks for listening. That's all we have for you. What did you say? My voice sounded mellifluous. Mellifluous rich and authoritative.

 Susan Friedmann

 01:22

I love it. I've gotta quote you, I think, on every single podcast, This is what David Newman says about me. Yes. There

 

David Newman

 

01:22

you go.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

01:58

Good. But it's not about me. It's about you, David, because I know that you love to help people sell better and not only sell better but bigger and to get higher fees. I love it. As you know, I work with primarily non fiction authors and I think 1 of the biggest fears that they have is the word sales selling promoting anything in that realm, marketing, it scares the EPGBs out of them.

 

David Newman

 

02:04

I would agree with you, and I think the 2 words that come to my mind, Susan, are fear and loathing.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

02:08

Yes. So why do you think that is David?

 

David Newman

 

02:34

Well, I think it's partly because we've experienced so many bad salespeople. And, you know, I can totally identify with our authors and our experts who are listening, you're probably thinking, wow, I'd rather have a root canal than spend another minute selling, pitching, and peddling my stuff. Oh, cold calling. Can't wait to do cold calling and coming across like a desperate spammer. No thank you.

 

David Newman

 

03:00

Or old school high pressure sales tactics, they just don't work for me. They don't work on me and they don't work for me. And then the last 1 is sales just seems so random. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, and there has to be a better way. So from all of the authors and all of the experts who hate selling and who feel that way, I have good news and I have other news.

 

David Newman

 

04:00

The good news is that it's very easy to get discouraged in sales, but the good news is that sales success is slightly harder than it looks, maybe a little bit harder, but it's a heck of a lot easier than you've been making it. And the moment that we start to embrace a sales mentality and a sales philosophy and a sales action plan that fits your personality and your preferences and your clients and readers and audience, floodgates will literally open for you and you will sell way more books. You will sell way more of the services that you offer in tandem with your books and sales will become something that you actually enjoy. I know that those are big promises right there, but literally if you learn to sell in a way that organic and natural and comfortable, all of the yucky factor disappears.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

04:29

Okay. So let's talk about how we can get rid of those yucky factors and do it the right way or the way that's going to work for us because I think There's something about it that's personal as well. So let's address that. What are some actual action steps, action ideas because your book is all about action ideas. So let's talk about those and what you feel would be right.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

04:31

For our authors.

 

David Newman

 

04:57

Absolutely. So let's talk about reframing the s word. You and I, we talked about the s word as like a 4 letter word in my first book, do it marketing. There's actually an entire section called the s word because I knew that my audience, your audience, our audience, they just really hate sales. I would invite you to reframe sales to the following concept.

 

David Newman

 

05:22

Think of selling as an invitation process and specifically, it's an invitation to a conversation. So let's break that down into its component parts. Who is afraid of an invitation? Typically, nobody, invitations are usually good. What happens when you get an invitation, you go to a party, we'll either take or bourbon or barbecue or puppies or something.

 

David Newman

 

05:33

So invitations are fantastic. Who's afraid of a conversation? Usually, we look forward to conversations. They're engaging. You learn things.

 

David Newman

 

06:01

You get to meet cool people. You exchange ideas with them. Some of those people may even become your new best friends. It starts Susan with mindset. If you reframe your sales thinking as an invitation to a conversation about how you or your book or your ideas or your services can help that person that is a totally different dynamic than, oh, I gotta pitch.

 

David Newman

 

06:06

I gotta sell. I gotta strive. I gotta convince. I gotta persuade. I gotta chase.

 

David Newman

 

06:37

I gotta lie. I gotta deceive. I gotta manipulate final thought on this is that we really choose our clients We choose our clients, we choose our audience, we choose our readers. Think of a sales conversation as you're conducting a job interview. And you're evaluating them even more than they're evaluating you to make sure that they're a great fit and that they're the exact kind of client with whom you can do your best work.

 

David Newman

 

06:53

So literally, I think step 1 here is to take all the negative bad sales programming throw that out the window and take a deep breath and realize that sales is nothing more than a series of invitations to conversations.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

07:11

Invitations to conversations. First of all, that rhymes, so that's a good way to remember it. And as you rightly said, getting an invitation to something. Yeah. It's exciting to know that you've been invited to something And it's a conversation.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

07:16

It's like we all have conversations all the time every single day.

 

David Newman

 

07:17

Yes.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

07:34

However, there is a purpose to this conversation. There's a purpose to this invitation. Let's dig even deeper and look at Well, how would we even start this invitation to a conversation? So

 

David Newman

 

08:02

I think there's a prospect selection process, and I would ask the following questions. Because obviously, you wanna have conversations based on research and relevance and relationship. And we talk about that in the do it selling book, but I'll give you the essence of it right now. When you're thinking about Who are my best readers? Who's my best audience?

 

David Newman

 

08:16

Who are my best prospects and clients? 5 questions to think about. Number 1, Who do you and your book and your methodology and your content? Who do you get the best results for? That's question number 1.

 

David Newman

 

08:25

Question number 2. Who do you really enjoy working with? Who are your people? Who are the people resonate with you. You resonate with them.

 

David Newman

 

08:43

I call this the desert island test, Susan. So literally, who would you be willing to be on a desert island with? And spend the rest of your natural days with that type of person, that's probably your ideal reader or your ideal client. Question number 3. Who would be fun to work with?

 

David Newman

 

08:53

What kind of work lights you up and makes work an actual joy? What kind of work are you doing? So death, duration, detail. Right? What kind of engagement?

 

David Newman

 

09:07

Some people say, you know what? I'm a 1 trick wonder. I come in, I do an amazing keynote speech based on my book and I go home. I don't do coaching, I don't do consulting, I don't do training, I don't do advisory work, I don't do done for you. I don't do it done with you.

 

David Newman

 

09:55

Other people say, well, I'm an okay speaker and I I wrote a book but I really wrote a book for my consulting And I love being with a company for 6 months, 9 months, 18 months, multiple years. So figure out in what format does your expertise really shine? And then finally, think about from a credibility standpoint, if you're breaking into a new get or a new niche? Who are some of the big dogs in your industry who would give you instant credibility with that marquee name recognition In a sales conversation, I call that having the right names to drop and the right stories to tell. So if you answer those 5 questions, then you'll be positioned to have the right kind of initial sales conversation, that initial door opening conversation.

 

David Newman

 

10:06

Now Susan, I'm guessing your next question is David, What does that door opening conversation sound like? Shall we go there? You took the words right out of my mouth. How did you know

 

Susan Friedmann

 

10:08

that we would be going there, David.

 

David Newman

 

10:15

Well, there you go. There you go. Interesting. Absolutely. I think there's an intelligent approach.

 

David Newman

 

10:46

And I wanna make this really clear that an intelligent approach is based on doing research before you reach out. What does research look like? Go to their website, go to their media page, check out their press releases, see what the executives are saying if it's a big company. If it's a small company or a solo entrepreneur, check out their social media, see what they're posting on LinkedIn, see what they're doing on Facebook. Go to their websites, see you know, what services, what programs, what products are they featuring?

 

David Newman

 

11:32

So I think if you don't do that The risk is this initial conversation is gonna be generic. And 1 of the sound bites from the do it selling book is there is no 1 ever buys a generic solution to a specific problem and every 1 of your clients always has specific problems. So that first contact you have to show that you've done your homework. And in that first call when you reach out and you invite someone, to a conversation based on the research that you found, based on the reason that they might have to work with you You have to answer these 3 questions in this initial piece of outreach. Why this?

 

David Newman

 

11:54

Why me? And why now? Every prospect and remember we're also not only are we authors and experts, And we're sellers, but we're also buyers. So when you get some initial outreach, the good kind, not the standing kind that we get all day every day in our email. Inbox and our LinkedIn inbox, but when you get a piece of outreach, these are 3 questions that immediately flash through your brain.

 

David Newman

 

12:03

Why me? Was it why did this person think that I need this? Why this? Why do we think this is a problem? Or this is a priority?

 

David Newman

 

12:22

And why now? What is it about the present moment about my current situation that makes sense for me to even look at this right now? When you do research, You know what they're going through. You know what they're excited about. You've seen the press release about a merger and acquisition, a new product, a new service, a new program.

 

David Newman

 

12:46

Maybe they're in the local news. Maybe you did some news jacking. And you're looking in the business section of your paper. You're looking at your most recent list of 40 under 40. The rock stars, the movers, the shakers in your industry, when you reach out at the right time talking about the right thing and the right thing is what they're working on, what their priorities are, you have a much better chance.

 

David Newman

 

13:03

Of getting in. Now let's say they agree to a call. You need a great opening question. My question that I ask folks generally is give me a quick sketch of your professional journey up to this point with this problem. Right?

 

David Newman

 

13:17

So for leadership, it would be a leadership problem strategy. It would be a strategy problem in my world. It's sales and it's a sales problem. And then we'll spend the rest of the call on where you'd like to go next. Now, what does this initial question do?

 

David Newman

 

13:37

It gets them talking from anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes. And the sooner in the sales conversation, you get them talking the more sales you will close. So now they've given me a little bit of a background about where they've been, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Second question in this exploratory conversation. Hey, Barbara.

 

David Newman

 

13:54

Do you mind if I treat you like a fee paid client. For the purposes of our call today, do you mind if I treat you like a fee paid client? Now notice when you say fee paid clients, that means the, well, you have other fee paid clients. They will sometimes say, oh, yeah. No.

 

David Newman

 

14:18

That'd be great. Other people will say, well, I'm not sure what that means. So, David, what do you mean treat me like a c paid client? And my answer is, that means I'm gonna give you some specific advice I may interrupt and redirect our conversation to maximize the value of our time together, and I'll tell you what you need to hear and not necessarily what you want to hear. Is that okay with you?

 

David Newman

 

14:27

You know how most prospects respond to that question? They go, oh my gosh. That would be great. Yes, please. That is exactly what I want.

 

David Newman

 

14:46

And then what you wanna do in this exploratory diagnostic call is to be radically helpful and radically generous. At the end of that call, The choice is not, hey, do I wanna hire this person? Do I wanna work with this person? Do I wanna bring this person into my company? It's, oh my goodness.

 

David Newman

 

15:02

This was so valuable do I want to continue? And the mantra here, Susan, is if you treat prospects like clients, you will get a lot more clients. That's how to have that initial call.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

15:18

That's so comforting just even giving us the words, David. So thank you for that. And listeners, you're gonna have to replay this. Several times to really capture everything. And of course, we're gonna have the transcript to notes.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

15:35

But just to hear David say these words and those questions that he has given as the intro to a conversation, being able to ask people that they'd like to be treated as a fee paying client. I love that.

 

David Newman

 

15:35

Oh, to

 

Susan Friedmann

 

15:49

say note that -- Right. -- it's like, oh, my goodness. And you're gonna give me information. I just had this kind of conversation with a prospect. I just said, look, I'm telling you the truth.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

16:08

I'm not sugar coating everything because I have a hard time sugar coating stuff. I'll tell it as I see it. Based on what I know in the marketplace and what I would offer or invite you to consider and know about the marketplace. They would like gum founded --

 

David Newman

 

16:09

Yeah. -- when

 

Susan Friedmann

 

16:42

we talk like that because it was a whole different type of conversation. Because at this point, they came to me for 1 service. I didn't think that this service was the right 1 for them. We were talking around, well, perhaps, we're looking at something else that might be better, you know, my 6 week program versus, let's say, being a bestselling author pro best selling launch, campaign launch. It isn't necessarily for everybody depending on what you want and what you want your book to do for you.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

17:17

And how you want it to be seen and how you want your message to be out there. I think 1 of the things that you said earlier too is talking about the research and knowing who your peeps are and what their concerns are, what their challenges are, and knowing that before you even try having this conversation, I think that is gold dust. So, yes, keep it coming, David. You talked about cold calling and that wasn't a way that people really enjoy. So you find the people you want to talk to.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

17:25

What's the best way to reach out to them? Is it an email? Is it through LinkedIn? What would you advise us

 

David Newman

 

17:46

being sure? Sure. Why? So I think there are so many places now to find blogs, portals, communities, groups conferences, associations, meetups, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups. So your target market they're already gathering both online and offline.

 

David Newman

 

18:35

And if you can identify specifically which blogs, portals, communities, groups, forums, associations, conferences, meetings, where are these people gathering? Who are the big players and the big players are usually some sort of industry association or trade in a professional group. The beauty of this is that as an author, you are automatically positioned as an authority because you can't spell the word authority without the word author. Great news, Susan, for your entire audience here. When you say I wrote the book on blank and you're not gonna say that out loud necessarily, but they're gonna see it on your website, they're gonna see it on your LinkedIn, they're gonna see it in your email signature file, you have this baked in authority.

 

David Newman

 

19:32

When you're doing the research and you're finding the areas online and offline where people are already complaining about these problems, asking these questions, you insert yourself into those communities, into those conversations, you start being helpful and then you take it from the online world, right public, to a private message or an email, or some sort of, you know, if you're not LinkedIn, you're gonna use LinkedIn private messaging. If you're on Facebook, you're gonna use Facebook. If it's a blog, a portal, a community, a forum, there's almost always some email registrations. So when you hover over someone's name, their email address gets revealed, you can then follow-up completely or organically and say, hey, Susan, my generic name for a client is Susan, so I apologize for any confusion. It's Bob, Susan, and Barbara, that's my cast of characters.

 

David Newman

 

19:51

Even though I'm talking to you Susan, our esteemed host. This is Prospect Susan. Hey, Susan. I saw your post in the XYZ group Is this still an area where you could use some help? And so we're going from a public question, a public complaint, a public ramp of some kind.

 

David Newman

 

20:06

I am so frustrated about my leadership team and I don't know blah blah blah blah, what should I do? Where can I go? Is there a good book? It's like, well, as a matter of fact, there is a good book and perhaps you wrote that book. You say, hey, Barbara, I saw your comment.

 

David Newman

 

20:47

In the XYZ group, is this still a challenge for you? I'd be happy to hop on a call and give you a couple of ideas that might be relevant for your exact situation and goals. When you're already in that community, you have a front row seat to the complaints, the problems, the questions, you can see which posts get the most likes and shares and answers and interaction. You can then private message those people So here's the overall flow. If you wanna use this kind of social media, social prospecting, we go from a social post to a private message, hey, saw your comments, saw your question, is this still a problem?

 

David Newman

 

20:56

We'd be happy to hop on a call. Great. What's your best email address? Now we're going from private message. Step 3 is, let me email you some resources.

 

David Newman

 

21:14

I can also email you my calendar link if you'd like to hop on a call. Now we're an email. Email leads to a helping call, and the helping call is truly a helping call It's not a veiled sales pitch. It's a value call. Then at the end of the value call, here's the exact language I want you to use.

 

David Newman

 

21:41

Barbara, I've got 1 final question for you, then I'll throw it back to you for anything else that you'd like to ask me. There are 2 kinds of folks that tend to book these calls. The first kind of person, they just want the free advice, they just want the free help, and that is perfectly fine. The second kind of person, they also want the free help, but they're test driving what a working relationship with me might feel like. Which camp do you find yourself in?

 

David Newman

 

21:59

And, Susan, real Susan, you will be amazed at how many people say, no, I was totally test driving. I checked you out on LinkedIn. I saw your book on Amazon. This is an area where we need some help. We need to talk about how we can bring you in and how we can hire you.

 

David Newman

 

22:20

About 30 percent of people because guess what? They're not booking the call with you because they're bored. They're not booking the call with you because there's nothing good on that flicks that day, they're booking the call with you because they have a serious problem where they think you can be helpful. 30 percent will say, yes, I'm in test drive mode. 50 percent.

 

David Newman

 

22:26

We'll say no thanks. Just want the free info. You're awesome. You're great. I know where you live.

 

David Newman

 

22:46

If we need anything, we'll get in touch. So 50 percent hard no, 30 percent yes, let's talk further. What about the remaining 20 percent? The remaining 20 percent, if you've done a great job on this call and I've had many of these calls go this way, people say, David, you know what? I took you up on your very kind offer to have a call.

 

David Newman

 

22:58

I had no intention of hiring you. I had no intention of signing up for any kind of program. I don't need sales coaching. I don't need sales training. But I'll tell you, this call was so valuable.

 

David Newman

 

23:13

I now think I might want to work with you. Can you tell me what that looks like? How does that work, etcetera? So you will convert some people from window shoppers to come into the store. And when this happens, here's the final piece of this.

 

David Newman

 

23:30

You say, Bob, I appreciate that. That's great news. That was not the purpose of this call. I would never do a bait and switch This was truly a helping call and a value call. This call was my gift to you.

 

David Newman

 

24:00

Because you mentioned that you'd like to explore working together, let's set up a separate call tomorrow or the next day, and we can talk about it. What does your calendar look like tomorrow Tomorrow, I've got 02:00 and 04:00. By the way, I'm on eastern time, or we can talk Friday at 11AM eastern. Which of those works best for you? Before you end the helping call, I'm gonna say that again because people forget this step, it's vitally important.

 

David Newman

 

24:27

Before you end the helping call, you set up the sales call, hard time and date on their calendar because they asked for a sales conversation. At this point, there's no more bait and switch. You were completely transparent. You had a hundred percent integrity. They asked for a sales call, they know it's a sales call, you know it's a sales call, and it's booked on the calendar before you hang up.

 

David Newman

 

24:30

That, my friend, is how that works. Oh,

 

Susan Friedmann

 

24:48

and that's beautiful. That's absolutely beautiful because you're right. It's always, we'll get in touch with you, we'll, okay, let's turn that around and you take control of the conversation. And if you want take it further, then let's set up a call

 

David Newman

 

24:48

right now --

 

Susan Friedmann

 

25:20

Yeah. -- because otherwise, it never happens. Your calendar gets booked up they forget you forget and you've lost potentially a good client. So -- Yes. -- I would like to just spend a few minutes turning this conversation around and looking at you've got a brand new book that will be out by the time this interview goes live, you're doing some marketing slash selling in advance of this book.

 

David Newman

 

25:21

Yes,

 

Susan Friedmann

 

25:39

being published, and being available. Talk to us about what it is that you're doing obviously, being on this show is 1 of the things that you're doing. Talk to us about more of what you are doing and what you've set up. To do before the book comes out.

 

David Newman

 

25:40

Sure. Choice in

 

Susan Friedmann

 

26:05

terms of the fact that, hey, we are and in integrity, we're a few months out from when the book will actually be available. You're doing things in advance of actually having the physical copy of the book because And I'm asking you this because so many of my clients feel that they have to have a book in hand before they can do anything. That's why I'm posing that question too.

 

David Newman

 

26:15

Totally. Totally. Totally. And I agree with you a thousand percent. Clearly, you're the book marketing ex I'm simply the humble marketing expert and sales expert.

 

David Newman

 

26:47

But in my opinion, you need to be getting into massive actions 6 months. Before the book physically exists. If you're doing it when the book comes out, if you're doing it 30 days before the book comes out, you have missed the train in my humble opinion about this. We did a couple of things well well in advance. The first thing that I did, and this is my third book in a series, so do it marketing, do it speaking, and now do it selling.

 

David Newman

 

27:21

I did not do this with the first 2 books, but I would never not do this again, which I did with my third book, this new book. Beta readers. Beta readers are priced less. Data readers number 1 gave me actionable feedback that I actually made many, many, many changes to the book based on the feedback of beta readers beta readers are also your initial raving fans. They know it's gonna be months and months and months and months until this book comes out.

 

David Newman

 

27:48

But you've just activated your first 40 or a hundred or 50 or 25 people who are now excited about your book, excited to spread the word about your book. They love you because hopefully you've communicated back to them the changes that you've made based on their feedback. So now they feel the I kinda put my thumbprint on David Newman's book. He listened to my feedback. He made some changes.

 

David Newman

 

27:54

He clarified some things. He cut some things out. He fixed some things. He upgraded some things. He added some more detail.

 

David Newman

 

28:20

To something that I said, hey, this could use more detail. So they are literally involved in the book writing process as beta readers and I would never do another book without doing a beta reader campaign. That's number 1. Second thing as you mentioned Susan Podcast Tour, you can only do so many podcasts a week. I might be talking, you know, this is an amazing show that you have here, of course.

 

David Newman

 

28:59

I'm talking to maybe 3 or 4 amazing podcast hosts per week, but this is week after week after week after week let's say we have a, you know, 6 months is 24 weeks, 3 shows per week. When this thing goes, it's gonna have 72 either during the pre launch or soon in that window of when I want eyeballs and preorders and orders of the book So you can't cram that process into a 30 day cycle. I mean, I've seen authors and consultants try that and it's exhausting and it's very scattered. It's very stressful. So podcast guest thing for sure.

 

David Newman

 

29:18

The next thing is warming up your email list. And you all the big famous authors do this all the time. Right? So if you're 1 of the big names, both fiction and non fiction, You know when Seth Godin's next book is coming out. And it's coming out in, you know, 6 months from now.

 

David Newman

 

29:48

And there's serbs, and there's previews, and there's training, and there's videos, and there's meetups, and there's all kinds of things long before this book is ever ready to ship. But what's he doing? He's collecting reader emails. He's collecting people who are interested in pre orders and premium. 3 orders, where by 10 books, by 50 books, by a hundred books, by 500 books, for you and your friends or your company or your team.

 

David Newman

 

30:14

By doing that, he is stacking the deck in his favor. Every author does this fiction, but especially non fiction business authors, this is something that you have to take into account way, way early. Because if you prime your audience and you prime your readers, they will start to spread the word. They will bring people into the community and it just starts the snowball. That's really important as well.

 

David Newman

 

30:44

The final thing I'll share with people is sort of behind the scenes social media. When I was editing the book, when I was marking up the book, I actually printed out the book as we all do. You take out the purple marker, the green marker, the red marker, every page is marked up like a football playbook and then I lay them out on my coffee table or my kitchen counter and I do a little video And I say, hey, team. I'm editing the book and oh my gosh. It's, you know, 45000 words and, you know, you can see I marked it up here.

 

David Newman

 

30:53

I'll turn some of the pages over. So they'll see some of the design. They'll see some of the headlines and subheads. They'll see everything laid out. People love behind the scenes.

 

David Newman

 

31:24

Whether that's an Instagram video, whether that is, you put that on YouTube, you put that on your LinkedIn or Facebook, people love being part of the process. Invite them into the kitchen where you're cooking up your book and show them the snaps and show them the process. Another thing that I did early early on that I think many people do because it's smart is I had a book cover contest. It wasn't like, oh, I already have the book cover picked out. Let's just do this as kind of a a fake thing to stir up some interest.

 

David Newman

 

31:32

I really have 3 different book covers. And I said, okay. Option a is the white 1. Option b is the black 1, option c is the yellow 1. Please vote.

 

David Newman

 

31:54

What do you think? And we had a vote Luckily, the vote agreed with my personal preference, so we actually went with the white cover. But that's another thing that behind the scenes early preview show them the process. Don't just show them the product. And if you do all of those things, your book will sell like hotcakes.

 

David Newman

 

32:11

This is dynamite information. Dynamite. Quick question, how do you find beta readers? Well, we went to our email list. So depending on the size of your email list, even a small email list would work a couple hundred people.

 

David Newman

 

32:32

In my experience with email marketing, the smaller the list, the more responsive the list. Depending on how these people came to you, no matter how large or small your email list might be, that would be 1 way. Another thing you can do, even if you have no email list and I hope there's no authors out there with no email list, but I know we all have to start somewhere. I would go to friends and family. I would go to clients.

 

David Newman

 

32:43

I would go to past clients. I would go to friends. I would go to other people that you know in the industry, networking connections. People that are in your virtual Rolodex. Kids, you can look up what a Rolodex is on Wikipedia.

 

David Newman

 

33:21

You'll love it. It's very exciting. People that you know, past clients, anyone in your circle, that would have some valuable feedback Now I think the beta readers need to have some relevance to your target readers. It shouldn't just be, you know, if your book is about corporate strategy for pharmaceutical companies, you know, stay at home moms that have an Etsy business might not be your ideal reader. But wherever you have contacts in the industry that you're in and for the people that you've written that book for, I would use your email list, I would use social media, I would use your personal connections.

 

David Newman

 

33:44

And you don't need a lot of beta readers. I went overboard because I'm an overachiever, and we had about a hundred and 20. Beta readers. And like anything else, you know, there were 40 of them that were active and another 20 that were semi active and there was a whole bunch that didn't do anything. But if you have, let's say, between 10 and 30 beta readers, you will get amazing feedback from your book.

 

David Newman

 

34:03

And those 10 to 30 people are your earliest advocates and champions for the book. They will see it through to publication They will tell 10 other people about your awesome amazing book. They will be the ones who preorder. They will be your first Amazon reviews. They will just be by your side the whole time.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

34:17

Are you asking anything specific of them like that you would want them to write a testimonial, let's say, or some kind of review? Do you offer to give them a book afterwards?

 

David Newman

 

34:56

For the beta readers, I did not make it a heavy ask. What I did do at the end of the beta reading period is I said, hey, If you enjoyed the book, will you draft up a potential Amazon review? So I have about 12 or 15 Amazon reviews they're not on Amazon yet, of course. But what I'm gonna do then is when the book is up on Amazon, I'm gonna go back to each of these people and say, hey, remember 7 months ago, you wrote this amazing Amazon review. Would you be wonderful enough to copy and paste it into the live Amazon list thing because now it's up on the site and it's ready for sale.

 

David Newman

 

35:21

Literally copy, paste, post, It is the simplest task. People will do it because they've already prewritten it. That's how to get your first tenant reviews literally in the first 24 hours. These are legitimate reviews from people who have read the book, have benefited from the content and have already written a review they just didn't write it in real time. They wrote it 7 months ago when they first read the book.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

35:27

Okay. So it doesn't really matter that they're not necessarily a verified purchaser. Which, of course, now they they

 

David Newman

 

35:53

Yeah. I know Amazon's starting to crack down on that. And I think it's, you know, ideally, yes. It should be a verified purchase if you're a little bit more have a little bit more footspa, you might say, hey, would you do me a wonderful favorite? Would you buy a copy of the book and then post your review, you know, buy the Kindle copy, buy the audio version, buy whatever version you like, and then you'll have a verified review and some people will do that and some people won't.

 

David Newman

 

36:04

But, you know, even with new books, I still occasionally see some not verified reviews. I think a shot on goal is better than not trying at all. Ideally, it should be a verified review, though, you're absolutely right.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

36:26

Yeah. Good. We could go on for hours. I know, David, This is so amazing and such meaty and useful practical information, which I know our listeners absolutely love So, David, how can we find out more about the book, about you, anything you feel our listeners need to know?

 

David Newman

 

36:49

Absolutely. So 3 resources for you. The first is resources about the book itself, which is at do it marketing dot com forward slash selling because the name of my company is do it marketing. So they do it selling book and the companion real other free resources downloads tools in the book. Are at do it marketing dot com forward slash selling.

 

David Newman

 

37:12

We also have the do it marketing manifesto, which is a free PDF download about 37 pages of additional value insights, ideas, mind sparking. That's at do it marketing dot com slash manifesto. And then we also have some free web training. And our latest on demand web training is at do it marketing dot com forward slash webinar. Those 3 resources should get people started down the path.

 

David Newman

 

37:17

All free, all fantastic to help you build your author expert platform.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

37:32

Perfect. Thank you. And if there hasn't been enough information that you've shared. We always like to have our guests as you know leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?

 

David Newman

 

37:41

I can boil it down to 3 words and I've really tried to run my business and run my life by these 3 words Action eliminates fear.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

37:48

Action eliminates fear. You need a bumper sticker with that.

 

David Newman

 

37:51

I know. Right?bumper sticker, fortune cookie, something.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

38:00

Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful, David. I knew this would be amazing. It was even more amazing than I knew it would be.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

38:37

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. And by the way, listeners, if your book isn't selling to where you wanted or expected to, let's jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales, especially with David's great information. You've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy in its time you got the return you were hoping for. Go to brainstorm with susan dot com to schedule your free call. In the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparked some ideas you can use to sell more books.

 

Susan Friedmann

 

38:37

Until next week. Here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Get a copy of David's book today along with priceless bonuses:
Do It! Selling: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Land Better Clients, Bigger Deals, and Higher Fees

Click here to schedule your 20-minute brainstorming session with Susan
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