Chapter 7
Premier Positioning through Publishing

60 Second Summary

The first 60 seconds someone spends reading an article you've written is critical. This chapter will help you capture the attention of your reader and leverage that attention to start a relationship.

The first 60 seconds an editor spends reading your article pitch will determine if your article is published. This chapter provides you with a template for pitching articles.

Here is your step‐by‐step guide to increasing visibility, building credibility, and differentiating yourself and your business through publishing.

What's in This Chapter for You?

This chapter will help you develop a body of work that will clearly demonstrate your expertise in your field. If you want to differentiate yourself from everyone else who does what you do, building a cache of published work with intellectual rigor is the best way to do it.

The key concept you will discover in this chapter is the five‐step guide to creating an article that will help you attract new prospects. It contains an exact script you can use in email and letters to submit your work.

When clients and prospective clients read the articles you write, they will position you as a leader in your industry. Sharing your ideas with decision makers will help you shape their thought processes.

Your personal brand will be that of an expert beyond the rank and file sales professional. You'll not only stand out from the crowd – you will become a “category of one.” By publishing in your field of expertise, you set yourself apart as someone who owns a niche. It is impossible for you to be “just another salesperson.”

Publish and Smell the Money

As I walked into the office of a shareholder of one of the largest law firms in the United States, I could almost smell the money. All right, it might have been furniture polish on the mahogany that lined the walls or the leather sofa and armchairs that smelled rich. Regardless, this particular sales call was definitely with a qualified prospect, and he wasted no time at getting to the point:

I need to develop more business. My partners are giving me a hard time. I've always been successful because I'm a great litigator, and throughout the years I've teamed up with rainmakers who would bring in the cases and turn them over to me. My recent rainmaking partner just became the state's attorney general, so I need to bring some business in the door. I read your book. I agree with your approach. How soon can we get started?

With that, he reached for his checkbook, placed a six‐figure check on the table, and extended his hand to shake mine.

“Thanks for agreeing to take me on as a client; I was expecting to pay a lot more,” he said with just the right corner of his mouth turning up in a half‐smile.

The book to which this gentleman was referring was one I had written in 2012, Client Attraction Secrets for Lawyers, published by James Publishing. That book targeted a narrow niche audience, as evidenced by the title, but everyone who calls me after reading it is ready, willing, and able to work with me.

That is the power of publishing. It offers you the holy trinity of sales: visibility, credibility, and differentiation. When people read something you've written, they get a window into your thinking. This accelerates your relationship with them.

The way you write is the way you think. Sharing your thinking helps generate interest in you and your work.

I differentiate writing from publishing because you can write and send your thoughts to people in an email (which I highly encourage you to do with your RaporMax® System) or on your own website. Publishing is when someone else – a credible third party – disseminates your writing.

These publication vehicles are always in need of content. When you complete your Ideal Relationship Targeting 21 interviews, you will have a list of many publications your ideal clients read. These are the places you want to have your articles published. These include:

  • Online publications for businesses and special interest groups
  • Printed and electronic newsletters
  • News websites
  • Printed and electronic books

Each of these have utility for attracting new prospects.

Online publications always need content. If your ideal clients consume information from a specific website, you should regularly pitch the publisher on your articles. Having an article published there one time is excellent for credibility, but having your articles appear frequently is even better. (Remember, frequency of communication helps to build trust.)

Newspapers and online news websites will often accept content from people who are perceived to be experts in specific areas. The best way to establish yourself as an expert is to start by helping reporters and editors with background information on stories. Here's how you can do that.

Begin by reading the columns in your target paper, on the website, or in the magazine on a regular basis. Identify the reporters who cover the subject matter you want to write about. When a news story breaks on that subject, quickly write up some “talking points” or ideas for stories. These ideas should be just enough to get the reporter interested. After each idea, make sure you include how you can help develop the story for them. Include your bio and contact information.

This makes you an expert in their eyes, and they may call and ask you questions so they can knowledgeably write the story. Eventually, when you've built up enough trust with them, they may quote you in a story. After that happens, you can ask for an opportunity to submit an article to the publication.

Some publications – particularly trade publications – will not have specific reporters on staff. They may rely on freelance journalists to write articles. In this case, your approach should be similar. Instead of pitching the reporter on your areas of expertise, you pitch the editor or publisher directly on article ideas. You can even write up a specific article and send it directly to the editor.

Newspapers and news websites almost always have dedicated reporters covering different areas of the community or different business industries. Their contact information is readily available online, and you can offer your expertise for “background information” on subjects they are currently covering. It is difficult to submit an article for publication to a newspaper, but you can definitely be quoted by a reporter or serve as a source when there is a need for expertise.

It is challenging to have a book published by a traditional publisher. Your idea must be unique, you must be a credible expert, and you must have a platform to help sell books. That last part is most important. Since you have a job and it is not being a full‐time author and bookseller, you might not want to go down the road of pitching to book publishers. That's why self‐publishing makes sense. Your goal in self‐publishing a book is to use it as a tool to open doors for you and to prime people for working with you. The idea: Anyone who reads the book is ready, willing, and able to do business with you.

Five Steps to Attracting New Prospects through Publishing

STEP ONE: WRITE AN ARTICLE PEOPLE WILL SHARE

Wherever you sit down to write a business article, your goal is to motivate the reader to take action. One of those actions is to share the information. To make this happen, you have to evoke emotion within the reader. Here is a writing formula to help you create an article people will want to share:
Flowchart illustration depicting how publishing strategy produces prospects.

FIGURE 7.1 Publishing Produces Prospects

STEP TWO: SEND THE ARTICLE TO TRADE AND COMMUNITY PUBLICATIONS

If you work in the business‐to‐business space, trade publications are an ideal venue for you to use to publish your article. When you do your Ideal Relationship Targeting 21 interview, your clients will give you the names of trade publications they read. Ask them for copies. If the publications are online, do the Google dance and search for them.

Every publication has a masthead, which is a page that lists everyone who works to get the information together. Find the person with the title “acquisition editor” or “editorial director.” Email your article to that person. Also print out a copy and drop it in the mail. Include your bio.

You should write a cover email and letter and include them with the articles. Here is what the letter and email should say:

Dear Mrs. Smith,

Enclosed, please find an article on <subject>. Each month I write several of these articles; I am happy to provide you with this content at no cost and I give you permission to publish it. I ask that you leave the final paragraph with my contact information intact, so readers may reach out to me for additional information.

If you find this article valuable and you'd like additional content, I am happy to provide it as frequently as necessary.

To discuss this arrangement or for author verification, you may contact me at <your phone number>.

Warm regards,

<Your Name>

You can send the same article to multiple publications. The only time you need to provide exclusive content to a trade publication is when you have a contract to do so.

If you sell to consumers, you should still have a list of publications you've uncovered from your Ideal Relationship Targeting 21 interview. Included in this list will be magazines, newspapers, or websites focused on the local community. There are publications for people looking to hire vendors for the home, community‐focused publications, local civic publications, and religious congregation publications. Offer your content to all of them.

STEP THREE: FOLLOW UP FOREVER

Publishing is all about persistence. Eventually, the editor will need an article and your email or letter will come at exactly the right time. Don't give up. Keep sending the articles each month until they run them (or tell you to go away).

Editors are busy. Call the editor once after sending your initial email. Leave a message saying you want to make sure they are the correct person to send the article to. Tell them you will send an article each month unless you hear back from them.

Every few months, you can call and leave another message. If you do happen to get an editor on the phone and she tells you they don't accept unsolicited articles, explain that now that you've had a conversation, they know you. Then ask for the editor to request your articles. I know that sounds stupid, but it is stupid for an editor to reject an article with that excuse – yet I hear it all the time.

When I first started sending articles to trade publications, I reached out to a newsletter for lawyers published by a bar association in a big state. I sent articles each month. The editor returned my call almost immediately the first month.

“We don't accept unsolicited articles,” he said.

“Fine,” I replied. “Now that we've had a conversation, you know me. Can you invite me to send you articles each month? If you hate them, don't run them.”

“Sure, whatever,” was the less‐than‐enthusiastic response I received.

I modified my pitch email and letter to make the opening line:

“Thank you for the invitation to submit an article for your publication.”

Eventually, that editor was in a bind and needed a great article. He selected one of mine. The reader feedback was excellent. My “column” ran in that publication every month for almost three years. I received a few leads each month, and several of those became clients.

STEP FOUR: PROVIDE YOUR ARTICLE TO SECONDARY PUBLICATIONS

You want people to see you everywhere they turn. You want them asking each other about you. If your article is in a national trade publication, a community newspaper, and on a church website, people will begin to think you are the preeminent expert in your field. That's the idea.

The primary goal is to be published in a trade periodical or other publication your ideal client reads, but while you are making that happen (or after you make that happen), publishing your content in other venues is a smart practice.

One of my clients received an order for a $17 million aircraft as a result of an article he wrote on luxury travel in a community newspaper. The buyer – an aircraft fleet manager for a Fortune 50 company – was waiting to get a haircut in a barbershop and the community newspaper was the only reading material available. The fleet manager read the article, requested the honeypot, and a relationship began.

Secondary publications will almost always gladly accept your content, but you may have to make a few minor modifications to suit their readership. As long as the modifications don't take longer than writing an original article, it's worthwhile. Of course, the offer of the honeypot must remain or the entire exercise is worthless.

A note about church or religious publications: Most people do not explore this publishing avenue, and it is a big mistake. Go to your pastor, rabbi, imam, or clergy leader and explain the value of providing good information to the congregation in areas that go beyond religion. People who worship in your religious institution have lives and interests that go beyond what they receive in the religious services. Providing an entertaining and educational publication (online, physical, or both) is a valuable way to keep the congregation engaged.

Offer to be the editorial director for your place of worship. You can curate articles from other businesses and civic leaders in town. This is yet another way to develop great relationships and have your articles reach more people each month.

STEP FIVE: RETHINK, REUSE, AND REPURPOSE

Some of your articles will be better than others. If you submit an article and it receives no reaction – meaning nobody calls you, nobody requests your honeypot, and you are not asked to write another article for that publication – you need to rethink the topic.

In rethinking an article, check with your clients to see if this is still a subject that is of interest to them. If it is, your approach was probably wrong. Take a more controversial stand. Stake out a position that is contrary to what other experts advocate. This will help make an emotional connection with some readers. Don't be afraid of a little disagreement. It's good for business. People who disagree keep reading and, eventually, will look for a point of commonality – it's human nature.

When you have an article that works – that is, people request your honeypot, the editor receives positive feedback, and you're invited to submit additional articles – use that article again with a different publication. As long as neither publication (the place where it first ran or the second publication) requires original content, you're free to run the article again in another place. And you should.

A great article can also make an outstanding story for a presentation or a terrific educational video or even a webinar topic. When you have a subject that is clearly a winner – as verified by your publishing success – repurpose it in other forms of media. If it resonated with your audience once, it will resonate with them again in another venue.

Advanced Publishing Strategy

Our focus has been on publishing articles in media your ideal clients read. This is one of the best ways to direct clients to your honeypot and have them opt in to your RaporMax® System (see Figure 7.1). As you write articles, have them published, and become recognized as an expert in your field, people will ask you to write more often. This is when you may want to consider writing a book or a booklet.

Self‐publishing is easier than it has been since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439. There are many services that will take your content and do all the heavy lifting of publishing for you. You can sell your book online and make money to offset some of the costs. You can give your book away to enhance your credibility and attract speaking engagements. If you use a print‐on‐demand publishing house, you don't need to have the expense of storing inventory and your physical books can cost less than $10 each to produce.

The content for your self‐published work can come from your weekly newsletters, articles you've written for publication, or a combination. If your articles average 500 words, you will probably need about 50 to 75 articles with between 5 and 10 common themes for a coherent book.

If you'd like to polish the content and create continuity, you can hire an editor through one of the freelance recruiting services online. There is a good deal of publishing talent available at reasonable rates, and this is an excellent investment.

As a successful sales professional, entrepreneur, or business leader, a published book can help separate you from the crowd. If you have the content and the financial resources, this is an option you should explore.

60 Second Actions

  • Make a list of at least 20 publications to target for article submission, based on your IRT 21 interview results.
  • Write one article using the template in this chapter.
  • Pitch the article using the email and letter templates outlined in this chapter.
  • Repeat this process each month.