Summary

Book Yourself Solid reveals why self-promotion is a critical factor to success, giving you a unique perspective that makes this guide much more than an ordinary “how to” manual for getting more clients and raising a business profile.

Notes

• The Red Velvet Rope policy: Choose your clients carefully. Working with non-ideal clients only leads to frustration.

• To be better at selling:

  • Identify your target market.
  • Identify urgent needs and desires of target market.
  • Offer Investable opportunities.
  • Demonstrate the benefits of your investable opportunities.
• The best strategy for personal and business development is bold self-expression.

• How to talk about what you do:

  • Summarize target market.
  • Identify and summarize their 3 biggest problems.
  • List how you solve those problems.
  • Illustrate most dramatic results your clients have achieved.
  • List results and benefits your client has achieved.
• Be likeable
• Have at least one compelling offer (like a free video/ebook etc) that has no barrier to entry.

• Sales Cycle Process

  • Create awareness for your products. Build a list of people who have given you permission to communicate with them.
  • Offer free products/service in exchange for permission to communicate with them in the future.
  • Continue to add value to potential clients and try to make a sale with low barrier to entry.
  • Over deliver on product sold in previous step, and try to sell next level of product offering.
  • Offer next level product for the right audience.
• Information products can be really powerful. Have an eye catching title and start with the end in mind.
• Selling is more about clients and less about you. Ask more questions and listen more.
• It’s better to think of networking as connecting.

Thoughts

I found the book to be a good introduction to self-promotion and sales, but having already read a few books and online resources on the topic, it was more like revising core concepts rather than learning new ones.