When negotiating a large-quantity order your prospects will expect you to present a proposal. This is your recommendation of how to proceed, your solution to the buyer’s problem. Give them an answer to the unspoken question, “How will your product make a credible improvement over the existing or previous ways in which they have conducted promotional campaigns?” Here are the Top Ten Tips for Creating a Sales Proposal.
1. Give a summary of what you propose, why it will benefit the buyer and how much it will cost – all on one page.
2. An 8 – 15% improvement gets attention. If you predict a result that is too low, they are not interested. If too high, it is not believable. Make a reasonable and doable claim that is backed by credible data. Do not offer a guarantee.
It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. You write a great article either on your blog or as a guest post, and one day you find it on someone else’s site with no credit to you whatsoever. In the case of what happened that prompted this piece, an article I wrote was lifted and tinkered with *slightly* and then reposted onto someone else’s site. What do you do if that happens? Well, it’s certainly a hassle but it’s one you should consider following up on because stealing someone else’s work – especially stealing it and repurposing it, is not right and certainly a copyright infringement.
Authors ask me all the time: How can I get my book into Costco? To tell you the truth, it’s really not that complicated. But let’s look at the different ways that Costco stocks product:
Nationally: In order to be considered for national in-store distribution, you need to pass several (many) checks and your book needs to go to their book buyer who is super particular about what she buys for the stores. Product needs to move fast in Costco which is why you may see something one week but not the next. Books that are given national distribution meet a certain criteria - most of it having to do with sales and movie tie-ins. If your book doesn’t meet this criteria, take heart. There are other options.
SELF-e is the partnership between Library Journal and Charleston, SC’s BiblioLabs. A BiblioLabs product, Biblioboard, is a platform that seeks to bring (among other things) self-published works into the library ecosystem.
I spoke recently with Hallie Rich, Cuyahoga County Public Library’s communications and external relations director, about the library’s pilot project with the platform.
It all began when LJ reached out to the Cuyahoga team about a year ago. In October of this year the library did a soft launch, then rolled out a call to local writers and writer groups. It culminated in a talk by BiblioLabs’ Mitchell Davis, and a discussion panel of local authors.
Home-shopping networks (QVC, HSN) reach millions of people every day with information on a wide variety of products, including books. Before you try to reach these buyers, consider your books’ salability on television. Does your book …
We all want to make a good first impression when calling on a sales prospect for a large book order. An order for thousands of books could be at stake. So the pressure is on you, and that alone could cause you to make a bad first impression. But there are other reasons, and some are beyond your control. The most expeditious thing to do is to control the impression you make on buyers. But if you don’t, you may be able to correct it. Here are Ten Ways to Make the Right Impression.
Publishing companies need to innovate regularly to create new value for their customers. But innovation in itself should not be the final goal. Not only must you spot opportunities, but you should capture value so you get paid for it, too.
There are two kinds of innovation. One is in value creation and the other is in value capture. Many businesses stop the creative process when a good idea is developed, believing that once it is implemented it will generate money. But unless value capture –maximizing the return on your idea – is also contemplated, you can leave money on the table.