When selling books through bookstores, you sell one book to each consumer. You never know who they are, so there is no possibility of a repeat sale. One of the benefits of selling books to corporate buyers is that you cannot only sell many books to one buyer, but you can generate repeat sales from them. Here are Ten Tips for Generating More Sales From Fewer Buyers.
- Abide by the Pareto Principle – better known as the 80/20 rule -- which suggests that one fifth of your customers are responsible for four-fifths of your sales.
- Vocal, satisfied buyers can stimulate others to purchase by spreading positive word-of-mouth advertising.
- Increase sales to these “superconsumers” by demonstrating new uses for your content. For example, if you are selling job-search content to colleges, show students how they can use it to find their first jobs, show alumni associations how they can use it as a premium to generate more donations and show campus chapters of the American Marketing Association how they can sell your books as a fundraiser.
- Devote more time to superconsumers -- buyers who are both heavy users of books as premiums and are vocal about their experiences on social media platforms (blogs, social networking, etc)
- Cultivate buyers who are both experimental and not price sensitive
- Identify pockets of superconsumers and target your promotion to them to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your communication
- Employ direct and digital marketing to reaching these buyers with new ideas and new reasons to buy
- Expand your opportunities by increasing the number of high-volume users. If you are selling job-search content, get one state government to use your content in its workshops, then demonstrate to other states how it is being done.
- Sell more of your content to these buyers, perhaps resurrecting your backlist titles
- Plant the seeds for new superconsumers buy finding untapped needs in foreign markets and among other non-retail buyers such as associations, schools, government agencies and the armed services.
Brian Jud is the Executive Director of the Association of Publishers for Special Sales (APSS – www.bookapss.org – formerly SPAN). He is also the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books. Brian offers commission-based sales of books to buyers in non-bookstore markets. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001-0715; (860) 675-1344; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or www.premiumbookcompany.com twitter.com/bookmarketing
