Stop Selling and Start Helping

While we have all experienced some recent difficult financial times, my economic background tells me the worst is over. But while we may all (0ver time) recover financially, the emotional road back may not be so easy. Many business and personal relationships have been compromised, if not destroyed.

Relationships need to be built around trust, not commerce. And trust takes time to develop.

My advice to all authors, entrepreneurs, business owners and marketers is to stop selling and start helping. Rather than peddling your goods, identify needs and find ways to fill voids in people's lives. Stand behind your product, support your customers, and most importantly, keep your word.

Attn CEO's: Treat Your Customers the Way You Would Want to be Treated

Recently Gap reported a "same store sales" decrease of 8% in March. I'll bet this did not make their shareholders happy. I visited a local Gap store this week. There were two customers in the store and two sales clerks. Neither clerk approached me with an offer of assistance, one told me she was too busy to check stock, and the other was unwilling to find out if a certain item would be available in the store again. So Mr. Glenn K. Murphy and Ms. Marka Hansen, you're getting paid big bucks to reverse the decline in your stock value. The problem may be less complicated than you think. It may have something to do with the way you treat your customers...

Google's stock is down approximately 50% off its 52 week range. This week I contacted Google via email (is there any other way?) to ask if they would transfer a 5 cent charge from one credit card to another. We have supported Google financially for many years by participating in their AdWords program. Do you think they would accommodate my request? No way. So again, Mr. Eric Schmidt, as I sit typing on your Google blog, this is not rocket science. It's all about how you treat your customers...

Plan Your Product Like You Plant Your Garden

When I was a youngster, my father introduced me to vegetable gardening, and every summer we worked the garden together. I didn't realize back then, that he was "sowing the seeds" for my future career. And while it's April 8 and spring is "officially" here, it's snowing in NJ. But next week, me and my kids will plant the vegetable seeds in the greenhouse so they will be ready to move outdoors in mid May. While marketing is my profession, gardening is one of my top favorite pasttimes; and the truth is that the processes are very similar. Maybe that's why I like them both so much.

In gardening, we plan, plant, thin, prune, fertilize, water and harvest.

In book or product marketing we spend months planning for our planting which we call a "launch", we thin out/prune back the least productive initiatives, fertilize and water the winners with increased effort and focus, and watch our clients harvest/reap the rewards.

So for all the avid gardeners out there, teach your kids to garden too. It may prepare them for a future career in marketing.

Marketing plan essentials

Recently I've been reading lots of comments on social networking sites from self published authors and business start-ups. Many read something like this "Help, I have a new book/new product and I don't know where/how to sell it. What do I do?"

Back in Marketing 101 in graduate school, I learned the 4 "P's" of marketing, and have been applying them through my businesses at www.nextdecade.com and www.barbarakimmel.com ever since.

1. Product-what is my product? If you can't clearly describe it in 3 sentences or less, go back to the drawing board.
2. Place-where is the best place to market my product? Start with your immediate circle of influence and work your way out. Think "concentric circles".
3. Price-what is the best price for my product? Don't be arbitrary. Look at your competition and set your price accordingly.
4. Promotion-how am I going to publicize my product? This is where you need to either become a publicity expert or hire one. Without publicity, the world will not know your book/product exists. Don't be fooled into believing that you need to spend thousands of dollars to get exposure.

Welcome to my blog

Good morning all aspiring nonfiction authors, published authors and entrepreneurs.

Today I will begin blogging about book publishing and affordable publicity for authors and entrepreneurs. Occasionally, I will blog about other topics of interest to me (and hopefully my audience).

Just as a little background, I have an MBA in Marketing and 20 years of experience as a nonfiction book publisher, author and publicist. You can read more about me and my company at www.nextdecade.com

Thanks for stopping by. Barbara