I have a few questions for you. Has your customer heard from you recently? Was what you had to say relevant? Is there currently a way for them to reference you after you have left their company? If the answer to one or all of these questions is NO, just think for a second how much easier it would be if you had a book to keep that conversation going long after they have left you?
These days, it isn’t enough just to be an expert, to really make your mark you need to be seen as THE expert, the leading light in your field. When I talk about the attributes of a REAL thought leader, I don’t mean real in its traditional sense. REAL is an acronym for Reach, Engagement, Authority and Longevity. Longevity is the one of the most important and it can be successfully achieved by Recency, Relevence and Reference.
I’m not going to go into too much detail here (you can read that in my book 24 Carat BOLD £10.99, Ecademy Press) but by far the most important part of Longevity is Reference – how do you get your audience to remember you, or your business, for the longest amount of time? Whilst it is true that audiences don’t always concentrate for the whole 40 minutes of that important speech or seminar you did this morning, and often want to go through your main points again in their own time. In my opinion, the best way to do this is in a book, where your customers can literally take you to bed with them!
The problem is many people never see their masterpiece through to completion. In fact I did some research some time ago and found that over 90% of people started, but never finished their book. Are you one of those people?
I’m sure many people will look forward to going to bed and enjoying the content of a good book in peace and quiet this Christmas; just think what impact it might have had on your business in 2010 if that had been your book they were reading!
Mindy is founder of The Book Midwife®. For more information visit www.bookmidwife.com
