How I Got Started Writing and Developing Manuals

Before I share the secrets to The Manual for Manuals…How to Develop and Market Educational Manuals With 4 & 5-Figure Results—Every Time You Speak!, let me take you back a few years and give you some history and perspective.  And, in the process, show you that success in product sales isn’t magical and now, isn’t even a secret.

In 1998, I co-wrote a book on marketing called Marketing For People Not in Marketing.  I co-wrote the book with 8 other marketing experts in the National Speakers Association (NSA).  It’s an excellent book and I was proud of my first “product.”

I bought one thousand copies from the publisher at $5 each and sold them for $15.  That was the price printed on the cover.  Besides giving me some credibility in the marketplace, I sold a fair number of copies at a tidy $10 profit. In fact, I sold Marketing For People Not in Marketing to about 25% of every audience I spoke to.

The very first time I sold my books after a speech,

9 out of 36 people bought one.  I walked away with $135, $90 of which was profit.  A few weeks later at a speech to about 100 small business owners, I sold $375 worth at a profit of $250!  Still from 25% of the audience.  I had never sold $375 in products before and I was pretty darn excited about it.

A year later, I co-authored another book with ten other NSA marketing experts called Celebrate Customer Service…Insider Secrets.  Same deal—1,000 books from the publisher for $5 and sold them for $15—again, the cover price.  Being a clever marketer, I packaged the two books and sold them for $25.  Even though the price was $10 higher than a single book, the same 25% of my audiences bought them at every speech.

This made me wonder what was going on.  How could I raise the total investment of my product package and not see any decline in the percentage of people buying them. 

In addition to the package of two books for $25, I continued to offer a single book for $15. Here’s something I noticed—almost no one bought a single book, ever! 

I concluded that if people like you and learn from you, they want everything you’ve got.

I figured that to take advantage of this phenomenon, I needed to write a third book.

But, it bugged me that I was “giving away” almost 25 years of marketing expertise and experience for $15.  I had created and implemented marketing ideas that had made millions of dollars for my consulting clients and I was giving those ideas away for $15.

Anyone who read my two books would agree the ideas in there were worth more than $15—a lot more.  But, no matter what’s in my book (or yours), you can only get $15-$20 for a book.  That’s what people pay for books--$15-$20 and no amount of good content will get that price higher—ever!

I wondered—how is it that I exchange valuable information in a speech for pretty good pay but practically give away my best information in my $15 books?

So buoyed by the ideas that if people like you they want everything you’ve got and that it’s not fair to give away your best information, I set upon a new direction—a journey in progress that has changed the way I do business forever!

Today, an audience of 100 that used to spend $375 with a profit of $250, now spends between

$4,425-$5,840 at a profit of $3,675-$4,850—

every time I speak!

Two weeks ago, an audience of just 26 spent $1,593—almost 5 times what my audiences of 100 used to spend—just 2½ years ago!

In November, 2002, an audience of 90 spent over $5,500 at a profit of over $4,500.

I’ve developed a system to make all this possible…a system I have refined and reworked…a system that works every time! 

This system will work for you too!

Back to Free Manual Development Ideas

Back to Free Speaker Marketing Tips

Back to Free Marketing Tips