Are you thinking of authoring a business book to help improve the sales of your business?

What follows is an extensive list of advantages to writing a business book; directly from the mouths of successful book authors.

1. Executives are “pre-sold” after reading the book: After people read your book, they will be aligned with the book’s point of view and have “drank the punch.”  “Many of our sales ready leads are people who read our book,” said Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.  “The books differentiate us from our competition and help us get big name client work.  When somebody calls you and says, ‘I’ve read your book and would like to hire you,’ you know it was worth everything,” said Ford Harding, author of Rain Making.

2. Company and authors are automatically positioned as “thought leaders”: “The entire company benefits from the book,” said Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies.  Authors are credited as “the” industry experts.  Behind every guru is a book.  “Suddenly they see me in a while different light,” said Peter Bowerman, author of the Well-Fed Self Publisher.

3. Incredible proof source: It demonstrates the expertise of your company and provides extensive evidence.  The result: immediate credentials. “Suddenly you have a credential and most people are more included to do business with you,” said Bob Bly, author of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing and 70 other books.  “The credibility from the book has been its major benefit in landing clients… after all, ‘I wrote the book,’” said Douglas Hicks, author of Activity-Based Costing.

4. Unsolicited business opportunity: Business leaders will approach the authors/company when looking for help.  “People will call and say they’ve read your book and ask how much you charge,” said Bob Bly, author of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing.

5. Door opener: “If I’m interested in talking to someone and I send them my book, chances of me getting to meet with them are much greater,” said Ford Hardling, author of Rain Making.  “Books have helped me open up more doors than you can imagine,” Bob Urichuck, author of Online For Life.

6. Good closer: When asking, ‘why should we hire you,’ you can say, ‘because we wrote the book’ on the topic.  It becomes a powerful credibility tool.  “A book is a great sales closer; people will want to hire the person who wrote the book,” said Bob Bly, author of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing.

7. Key tool in account entry toolkit: The entire sales force can use the book.  “I’d mail it to every executive I could,” said Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies.  Sales executives will be seen as problem solvers rather than money takers.

8. Generate more desirable client base: High profile, large businesses are more likely to work with the industry leaders.  The book will help position you as the leader.

9. Charge higher fees: Businesses will be willing to pay more to achieve the types of results outlined the book.

10. Improve business with existing clients: Book can give sales a reason to cross-sell to existing clients.

The above quotes were sourced from personal one-on-one interviews and from the Rain Today report The Business Impact of Writing a Book.

Having authored my own book, I can say I agree with all of these points.

What say you? Do you have anything you would add?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 am and is filed under Freelance Writing, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.