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What is the role of the salesperson in the near future and long term?

Several months ago a member of our sales team asked me about the future and how it related to him as a sales person. It was a very good question and one that, if you are in sales, (remember—we are all in sales) you should pay attention to. The issue at hand- electronic downloads of both audio and video content from our authors as well as the next phase, which is well underway, digital downloads of the written product via Kindle and PDF’s.

 

If you have been anywhere but under a rock, these were some of the same issues that heavily affected the structures of the music industry, forever erasing the lines of ownership and distribution. I have included the three questions asked- but save your time- jump to the third question- that is the key question.

 

• 1.    In the Thomas Nelson website (our corporate site) we are selling downloads but are we the ones getting the sales, (meaning Thomas Nelson) or is it any other company? 

[>>>LAD]       We are as Thomas Nelson though our internet channel, they are also available through Audible, iTunes, i-amplify and many others.

 

• 2.    If our distributors would like to develop the idea in their own website, can we help with the technology to do it? If not how can it be done? Will we sell the license so they can have the product to be download by their customers?

[>>>LAD]     We already have developed the technology for them. And they can start selling tomorrow / actually today. Note that I am testing it on my blog. I simply followed the quick and easy steps – though I am doing mine as a freebie only directing everything to TN. But they can fill out the form and get a certain share of the sale. We hold the server. Check out the upper right column of my blog to see example. But we will not create new technology for them- they just need to become an affiliate (no, they don’t get a normal discount – it will be much less - but no inventory at all J) and copy and paste into their site- they can literally be up and running today.

 

• 3.    This question came to mind as I was doing these questions. How do you think this initiative will affect our roles as sales people in the near future and in long term?

[>>>LAD]      First of all “Near Future and Long Term” let me just say in the future. We are changing to quickly right now to differentiate much past 18 months. For right now- sell, sell, sell! But shortly - In the future we (as sales) will need to become providers of content for different vertical groups. You MUST become an expert in an area. That is to say- how do I begin to understand all the needs of specific groups of consumers, and how do I get them connected to my author’s content. Example: Leadership Books – driving down to business groups , Small Business Associations, entrepreneurs, managers, and many more… how do we reach them and make them fans of Maxwell and business content. Could we see a day shortly where they eventually sign up to be “mentored” by Maxwell daily with our content? Right now we are Horizontal as a publisher and even more so as an industry. We sell a wide variety and it is displayed widely in a bookstore waiting passively for people to come in and browse- scan the horizon. We must become Vertical – that is we must know:

1) who is our authors core customer base, we must know

2) how they want it delivered to them, we must know

3) when they want the product delivered to them,  and finally

4) at what price they want the content delivered to them.

This may be 5 years off- or it may be 18 months off. These are exactly the questions that the “digiready©” team at Thomas Nelson is tackling right now.

Four personal tips for marketing in today’s ever changing environment.

Earlier we talked about the fact that our industry is changing quickly and that one of the fastest changes really is happening inside of the marketing arena. We are moving quickly from a tradeshow driven industry to a social media evolution market. Below are 4 quick tips to help you as you march your way through the ever changing jungle of social media marketing hunting down your elusive consumer.

• 1)      Start a dialog: For many years we have told people about our products or company. We need

to start a two way conversation with our consumers. Yes this will take more of your time. Take the time to listen and then respond and listen again. Build a relationship network.

• 2)      Get your team involved: Its starts at the top. Real company buy in will necessitate your boss getting involved. If your boss isn’t convinced, go to this blog post by Michael Hyatt. We are working hard to get all of our back office as well as front personnel involved in all sorts of social media – from Facebook to Twitter to Blogging.

Follow Max Lucado and team as we travel through Brazil

Today, Friday, Max and team (Denalyn Lucado, Steve Green, and Cheryl Green) just landed in Brazil. This will be the start of a 10 day tour through the main cities of Brazil, speaking at over 16 live events. This is all being done through our publishing group Thomas Nelson Brazil under the leadership of Carlo Carenho.

I will fly down Sunday and join them there in Sao Paolo and travel with them through Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. I am very excited about the opportunity to see Max and team love on the folks there.

We are going to try and cover this trip just a little different. Let's call it an experiment. We are going to Twitter the tour. English, Portuguese, and Spanish. (if you use Tweetdeck - try the auto translate tool).

Max and I will be Twittering back as well as Carlo and the rest of the Thomas Nelson Brazil team. We will try and share thoughts, pictures, and videos as much as we can to allow those not traveling with us to share in the excitement of the trip.

You can follow us at any of the following: #MaxBrazil #fearless #maxlucado #larryadowns #lucadonobrasil

Below is a video that Max posted to YouTube via Twitter as he was ready to leave Dallas.

Twitter: is it a social fad or here to stay?

About 6 months ago I started to use Twitter as one of the areas that would allow me to explore some of the social sites and see what was going on around me in Spanish Publishing. Twitter is a quick burst communication tool that allows you to communicate with a group of people who follow you. Twitter is different from text messaging, different from Facebook, different from e-mail in several ways. Primarily Twitter is a network of links. Twitter will only allow you to send 140 characters. That’s it 140. Not one character more and yes that includes spaces.

Twitter really came of age just over the last week when suddenly it was the source for an entire generation of voters in Iran to get the word out about what was happening in their country. With lightning speed a world that was banned from reporting in Iran was networked around the world with information of where to go for more information. You see it’s not always about what those 140 characters say, it is where they send you.

The last thing I did as the doors shut today on the airplane was to get my friends timeline update via Tweetberry (a must have if you have a Blackberry and are Twittering). I was the only one on the plane who had received the word- Michael Jackson had died just minutes before. One of the groups that I follow had the word out within minutes, and it began to be forwarded all over (Retweet). I shared this with others and it trickled up and down the plane. We had many doubters, but as soon as we landed we walked out to a Dallas airport crowded around TV’s watching CNN.

Spanish publishing and the new Kindle 2

Last week I ordered in the Kindle 2 from Amazon. I know there are hundreds of blogs or reviews out there on the Kindle, but I could not find one as it related to Spanish products. So I thought I would place a few thoughts here and allow you to interact if you have one as well. Let me start at the top as for the why I went ahead and got a Kindle.

I was sitting in a meeting and we were discussing the future digital strategies and publishing. I have always said it is about content delivery, not about publishing books. But yet as the conversation went deeper I realized that I had read about, watched others use, but never even held a Kindle. And here I was pontificating on the future of publishing and digital content; I was like so many other publishers who have great head knowledge but zero experiential knowledge. So right there in the meeting I interrupted my boss and said, “I believe that each of us here needs to buy a Kindle to help us understand better how the future will be.” He agreed and in 30 minutes my Kindle was on the way.

Here is what I found and liked:

E-mail versus the telephone: Being efficient versus being effective.

Last week I was in a meeting that was long overdue. Trust was at an all time low. Relationships were rocky at best. Communication was becoming more aggressive. And thirty years of working together were in danger of coming to an end. No one really wanted the relationship to end, but neither did each party want to work with the other.

Many times in a business the original relationship between two people starts wonderfully. Communication is fresh, proactive, and trusting. But as so often happens the people move or shift to another area of the company all the while the business relationship is picked up by others. So a meeting had been called to get everyone in the same room, allowing for each other to hear the heartbeat of the other. Why we do what we do as well as how we do what we do. 

There was one specific issue that caught my attention. It was the use of e-mail versus picking up the phone. It had become an issue in this relationship. As I sat there I recognized immediately my short falling. I have been guilty of this many times, get a note from someone and then just quickly fire off a heavy handed e-mail telling the other party why they are wrong. Think about it, when relationships are in trouble we tend naturally to default to the e-mail. Here is what e-mail does in this scenario:

I went back to the Blackberry.

If you follow my blog, you will remember that back in June of last year I announced that I had turned my Treo back in and settled for a regular cell phone. That was a strong personal decision based on the way that I felt the Treo was allowing too much access and control over my own life and schedule. I had determined that the Treo was interfering with my personal life and that I could do without the personal time eating monster.

Over the course of the last nine months I had gone from “Phantom” vibrations and doubt, to envy as others checked their e-mails at breaks or at the gate waiting for the flight, to finally finding my new rhythm without the Treo and enjoying the freedom it brought and proudly demonstrating to others my simple phone.

Well this last month everything changed again and because of the new responsibilities assigned to me it was determined that I needed to be more accessible to the new groups that I am now involved with. So I crawled back to the Phone store and after debating between the I-phone and the Blackberry I ended up going with the Blackberry Bold based on their strong reliability standards and recommendations from my technicians from a service point of view.

But I knew that I needed to make decisions on my management of the Blackberry, versus allowing it and the persons contacting me to dictate its use. So here are a few things that I decided to do different this time.

Keep it in my pant pocket versus on my hip while in town or in the office. This does cut down the quick grab to check on e-mails. However, when I travel I use a hip holder, but I also cover it up with my suit coat.

Put it away when I get home. I simply plug it to charge it.

Keep it on vibrate. This is just simple respect for others should I get a call or one of the hundreds of e-mails.

Respond to less than 10% of the e-mails on the Blackberry. I only respond to the urgent quick questions. I use it to be informed, not to do all my work. If I respond to an e-mail on the Blackberry then I delete it there as well and it is set up to auto delete the e-mail off my Outlook.

Whether you own a Blackberry, an I-phone, or any other PDA; be sure that you have a plan for how to use it so that it doesn’t control your life. Remember – these are tools, and should be used as such.

A great way to share first chapters.

The other day I started playing with a tool I was introduced to by Carlo Carrenho from our TNB offices in Brazil.It is called Issuu. Some of you have already played with it from the note I sent out from the blog several weeks ago- I did however want to wait to get a few more titles loaded before we sent this bigger note out to you. This is a very cool product that you can take advantage of. Here at Grupo Nelson we are quickly seeing its usefulness internally amongst our own team. From here we are beginning to see its use with customers, and with our media relations. My goal is to get all our new releases posted here as soon as the 1^st 2 chapters are ready which should be at least 2 months before release. We are combining these chapters with a cover and placing it on our Issuu site. This allows for access from all directions at the same time.

Here is a recent cover and sample from our upcoming release “The Master of Masters” by Dr. Augusto Cury.

 

 

 

First of all you will need to go to Issuu, you can do so by going to the link here. You will need to sign up to be able to view all we have, and best of all, it is free (did you expect anything less from me).

 

Also- and very important- sign up for the RSS feed from us as Grupo Nelson for our Issuu site as well- this way every time that we load a new PDF you will get an e-mail sent to you as well as a cool RSS listing for quick access. You will be the first to know and read about what is coming in the future. It will only be useful to you if you sign up as I have stated. It is simple and will take you 5 minutes. If you don’t sign up for the feed it will become like all other technology, a cool thing that then never gets used to its potential.

 

After registering you can:

• See the cover
• View the table of contents.
• Read the 1^st 2 chapters or so of the book to get an idea of how it flows.
• Print out the PDF.
• Pass it along to your own clients or to others who need to read the book to get an idea.
• If you have a blog or website, you can easily load these into your site as well.
• This is your tool to help sell- and we are all in sales.

 

You can simply click on a cover to read more- and yes, play with it click on things to expand read in readability mode, add comments. Pass along to your clients certain books or the whole site as you wish. Technology is ours to use as we please. Use it to your advantage.

 

The biggest winner here as far as trade books go will be fiction and four color books. Fiction will gather enough to get the potential reader into the book and want a bit more. The Four color books will be able to show some of the artwork as never before.

 

Have fun, thanks for your confidence as we continue to grow. I am looking forward to hear your comments.

New inverter from Targus.

I am trying out a new adapter from Targus for my in-flight work with the laptop. About a month ago I needed to invest in a new laptop after my three and a half year old laptop finally gave out. I received and am working on the new IBM Thinkpad T61. I like the Thinkpads as they are great workhorses and travel pretty well. My only complaint is that the new ones aren’t compatible with the old AC adapters. The plug in just doesn’t fit. So that meant that the DC converter that comes with a dozen different plugs just didn’t fit my new Thinkpad.

I searched a few of the stores but could not come up with the right adapters. Then just a day before this trip I went in and a store manager challenged me to look at it differently. He showed me the Targus Inverter that serves any DC outlet like a car or airplane. Not what I was looking for and I was hesitant to invest in it as it was about $70. But the converters where running about $120 and didn’t have the compatible tip for me yet. The Targus inverters had different levels of output. I chose the 150 watt, as this was enough to charge multiples at the same time.

Understanding and using new technology.

If you are anything like me you simply cannot keep up with all the new technology as it advances by leaps and bounds across our industry.  We read about the Kindle, the Sony Reader, the digital download content, the audio content and consumption via MP3’s. Then we start hearing about things like Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Blogs, Facebook, Blogspot, Issuu, RSS, and a myriad of other new technologies that would fill this page. I have been in this business for a while; I can even remember writing all the UPS shipments in a book that the driver would sign. Or do you remember when the fax machine arrived in your office, let alone the copier or the computer. These are all things that we so quickly take for granted now and get frustrated when they don’t work or our high speed is less than stellar.

 

I do stand amazed at what the new technology can do but often I find myself intimidated to try it and a bit confused at where to start. Luckily I have my daughter Tatiana there to help me out. Here is a video that illustrates this point perfectly. And you don’t have to speak German or Spanish to understand it.

 

I love that video, I absolutely laugh every time I see it. It is so perfect, especially for those of us in the publishing industry that are just not quite so technologically up to date. Frankly many times as publishers we talk about technology and all the possibilities it brings us, but we have not experienced it. Let me put it this way (and if you are offended then yes, I was talking about you), many of us have “100” points of head knowledge but absolutely “0” points of experience, and the worst part is that we pontificate on it.

 

I have decided to try out several different technologies, not so that I suddenly seem cool, but so that I can understand them. As I begin to understand these technologies I then look for opportunities to implement them in our business. I look at what they do and can’t do, ease of application and start up, who is and isn’t using it. I have also found that certain people excel at how to use different technologies and gain an audience. Take for example Facebook and the current political Presidential race here in the United States. Each of the candidates and former candidates, or their organizations has a Facebook. John McCain had about 140,000 followers or friends, Hillary Clinton about 190,000, but the runaway candidate Barack Obama carried over 1 Million friends and followers.

 

I haven’t tried the Kindle or read a book on the Sony Reader so I won’t talk to you about it. My boss Michael Hyatt has and he commented here. I have been trying lately Twitter, Issuu, Orkut, Meebo, and Facebook. Some of these words may be new, but don’t let them scare you from using them. I have incorporated some into my Blog, while others I have tried stand alone. But in all I am finding if we can use them successfully and practically inside Grupo Nelson. I am excited to let you know that in a week or so we will be introducing you to some great resource sections using the technology we are trying out as a publishing team. At the end of the day it is about getting the authors message (content) to the readers (consumer). And frankly, the readers are or will soon be using the technologies as they develop. So I challenge you, go ahead and try the new technologies and find your audience.