My Market Is ...Or Is It?

Exploring the possibilities with a prospective client the other day, the person said a couple of very specific directions were the market for their book. Yes, those places were good for starters and made perfect sense, no doubt about it. The more time passed after that meeting, the more directions surfaced that also seemed ideal for that book, places the author had undoubtedly never considered. When our formal work together begins, those additional markets will be presented.

I think back on my own booklet, now over a million copies sold. The booklet is about organizing your business life. When the booklet was written I had direct access to all the major office supply manufacturers and large box office supply retailers because of a top leadership role I had in a related professional association. It seemed like a red carpet was rolled out just waiting to sell multiple millions of copies of the booklet without my breaking a sweat. It didn't turn out that way, for a myriad of reasons. In fact, there was only one major who ended up buying and bought big. The others were on different paths, didn't see how it would fit their plans, had a change of decision-maker midway through the negotiations, and on and on.

Through the life of this booklet, lots of surprises presented themselves, including buyers who were never anywhere on my pro-active radar. The classic one was an electrical manufacturer's rep firm in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I promise you they were never on my target market list. However, as I like to say, their check for 5,000 copies of the booklet cleared my checking account just fine, thank you.

Take another look at who you think your market is. That's probably an ideal starting place. It's highly unlikely it's the finish line. And none of us can think of all the possibilities in a vacuum. Call me. Let's talk.

Until next time,
Paulette
http://www.tipsbooklets.com