The 3 types of books

Stuart: Foreign. Welcome to another episode of the book More Show. It's Stuart here with Betsy Vaughan. Betsy, how are you doing?

Guest: Hey, I'm great, thanks.

Stuart: Stuart, I was introduced with your surname. Maybe I should start introducing me with my surname as well. Just in case people start thinking I'm like Madonna or Cher and just have just go by a first name only.

Guest: I bet that's what they're thinking.

Stuart: I do often get mistaken for one of those too. Okay, that was an embarrassing start to the show, but we're going to plow on. So today we're going to follow on from the episode we did last week with Dean. We were talking then about the types of books and we kind of explored the idea of a nice being 90 minute book being perfect for three types of books really. A lead generating book, a lead converting book and a blueprint type book. And depending on where you think about using your book in the funnel, depending on the kind of particular use case, one of those models kind of fits quite nicely in the quick and easy and convenient and cost effective way of creating a 90 minute book and having it as a super valuable asset in that funnel. So we're going to elaborate a little bit on those ideas.

Guest: Very good. Should be interesting, I think.

Stuart: So just before we started recording we were kind of running through a couple of the examples of the books that people have already written with us and kind of categorizing them as those types. So this should be a great show to give people kind of specific examples of what we've done in the past and hopefully that'll trigger something within kind of your business as you're listening in, thinking you've had the thought already or you know that a book is a valuable asset, but perhaps you haven't quite contextualized it to where you could use it in your own business. And this hopefully will give you a few more ideas to kind of dial that in and see for yourselves where this could fit and start uncovering those invisible leads. And for the leads that are already uncovered, kind of give those people a way of educating themselves and revealing the kind of self evidencing that this is the right solution for them.

Guest: All right, sounds good, let's dig in.

Stuart: Okay, so bit of context then, I guess we always use the same language so there's always the assumption that people know where we're coming from. So when we talk about lead generating books and profit activator number two, which you'll hear is mentioned quite a lot, that's referring back to the breakthrough DNA framework which is the eight profit activators to accelerate the various areas of your business. So if you're joining us for the first time and you haven't listened to a description of the eight profit activators before in the show notes, I'll link across to the Breakthrough DNA book so you can grab a copy of it and then run through those just so it's a little bit clear in your mindset. I think as we talk about a lot of the things we talk about understanding, particularly the before unit, that profit activator one, which is selecting a single target market Profit activator two, which is giving people an easy, low commitment way of raising the hands as, as being a, a valuable, valuable lead, a valuable prospect and profit and number three, which is patiently educate and motivate people towards making a decision when they're ready. Understanding those three areas is kind of key to understanding where your book fits into it. So if you are joining us for the first time, head across to the show notes@90minutebooks.com podcast and this is episode 40 and there's a link in there to the, to the Breakthrough DNA book. And, and that's really going to help kind of conceptualize this and put it into, into the funnel that you're trying to create. So the lead generating books that we're talking about is revealing leads that you aren't necessarily already aware of. People that haven't raised their hand already, they're not on your list, you're not having a conversation with them. And some of the books that we've got, we talk about lead generated books at length. But some of the books we've got in the gallery, even just going through the titles, you'll see that these are kind of introducing new ideas or you can, even if it's not your area of business, you can see and understand how a customer who is broadly interested in that environment or that product or service would be compelled by the title to raise their hand because it gives the promise of a, of a fixed promise of a solution. It kind of guides people on the next step down a journey that they're already thinking about taking the lead. Converting books, as we were saying last week, is a little bit more around. People already know this is a good idea. So this is the type of book that we would offer to people on the 90 minute book list already or people who listen to the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, which is a sister podcast that we've got. These are people who are aware of the environment already, but maybe need a little bit more Guidance and structure into why it's a good idea, how it could work for them. All of the doubts and objections that people might have to why something is a good idea. A lead converting book is a great way of overcoming those up front and giving people more evidence they've made the right choice kind of progressing down this path. And then the blueprint book is a little bit more of a profit activator 3 tool, a little bit more of a how to book. Not necessarily at the top end of the funnel like introducing a whole new concept to people. But it's the model that I always think about when I think about these books are the ones where you've got perhaps a program of work. So let's say for example, you have a dentistry. We just ordered some more books for fill one of the clients Return on Hygiene. That is a dentistry book. It falls nicely into a profit activator 2 camp. It's a. To a certain degree it's a lead converting book because it's talking about how to use your hygienists as a profit center rather than a cost center. So although to a certain degree it's introducing a new idea and, and it's certainly the case that we talk about three different types of books, but I mean there's a big crossover between them. They don't just sit in one particular pool or do one particular job. There's definitely a crossover. But Return on Hygiene is less around introducing a brand new idea. Although it is that to a certain degree. But it's a little bit more about overcoming objections to why hygienists might be a profit center or could be a profit center within your business. A blueprint book. If Rachel then went on to do a further book look moving people towards the. The goal, the objective of working more specifically with her. Let's assume, for example, she had five modules in a particular the framework in which she delivers this training. A blueprint book may be the first step in that process. It might be the first module of the material all grouped together into. Into into one book. More of a how to book that kind of educates and motivates people that they're still in the right place, is adding further value and kind of moves the conversation along further to a. To a conversion point. Lots of words there. Does it make sense so far?

Guest: So far I'm following you.

Stuart: It's always a good start. Okay, a mouthful of coffee must be talking too much because I'm. Yeah, my voice is starting to crack up already. So this concept, I think this is something we want to dive into a little bit more today and break down that difference between a lead converting book and a blueprint book, how they work together in. In concerts. Not necessarily that you need all of these things, although it would definitely be a benefit because you've got a lot of assets in your individual funnel then. But just thinking about the difference in the way they sit and the job of work that they're doing at that particular time. So if we look at the before unit, the profit activator 1, 2 and 3, the choosing a single target market for this particular funnel, the writing something that encourages people to raise their hand and they're having something in profit activator number three that really converts. Oh, sorry. Educates and motivates people to, to convert. Then you can see where, depending on the type of people that you're trying to engage. And this is where it's always beneficial to start with the end in mind. So don't think about writing a particular book as a, a kind of be all and end all as in one thing that will do all of these jobs, but think about it as doing a particular job of work. So writing something that engages people at the very front end. So with the dentistry model, the return on hygiene book is. It's to a certain degree already assuming that those words make sense, that you've already got hygienists in there, which I mean, again, trying to use a specific example of an already existing book, it crosses over all of those three areas.

Guest: Yeah.

Stuart: So it's always. It's not. The model isn't kind of binary. It's not black and white. There is. It's more of a, an art than a science. But to a certain degree it already assumes that people have introduced the idea of hygienists and already introduced the idea that they might be a valuable asset within the business for dentists. That's probably the case because I can't think of a dental practice that doesn't have hygienists there as well. But it's not necessarily the case. I guess the lead. Getting the lead generating book before that may be five ways to increase profits in your practice. A book that talks about that. So as a dentist is trying to solve the problem, the problem being becoming more profitable then having something at the top end that answers that question has you run. A more profitable practice might be more compelling than offering the same person a book saying return on hygiene because they might not have made that step. To say that the answer to solve the problem is lies. Within their hygienists. So fishing from the broadest, deepest possible pool at the top, separating the job of identifying people from the sifting and sorting those that are interested in the, in the more niche, the more specific thing that you're looking for, it's in the model that we're talking about. It's possibly more valuable to go at that top level. So lead generating being five ways to increase the profitability of your dental practice. One of those five ideas, knowing that your particular program is talking about hygienists. So one of those five ideas should be introducing the concept that there are profits being left on the table within the hygienist's area. The lead converting book, the second book, the book that's starting to educate and motivate people, is then talking about return on hygiene. So it's taking one of those five areas and kind of diving deeper into it to overcome the objections to why focusing on hygienists might be the way to go. So again, not my area of expertise, but it might be the case that historically they are always seen as a cost center. Maybe people don't put value on that as a service as opposed to things like Invisalign braces or things that you could maybe charge more high value for, maybe they're seen as not part of the critical, like the critical care side of things. It's not like dental pain. Customers coming in, looking at the hygienist side of things don't have this kind of urgent desire to fix the problem because it's causing pain. So it's a little bit like the mechanics model, the garage model of servicing versus car sales. Car sales are kind of the high ticket value, front and forecourt, big drawing line item in the budget. But actually sales, if you can get a, a, the, the turnover going well within servicing, then there's a big ongoing revenue stream to come from that. So all of these things that might be why people don't think about this particular solution. So hygienists in this example, overcoming all of those objections, saying, well, actually what you'll find is this, bringing all of those things together in return on hygiene, is that compelling evidence that here's the seed of an idea, here's the detail of it, and towards the end of the book, then obviously we're leading people towards a call to action and we want them to take the next step. And the next step really is joining the bringing us in as consultants or joining the program so that we can walk you through step by step, how to execute on, on this particular, this particular strategy that we've got a program to help you fix. So far so good.

Guest: I think I'm. I am, I think I've got a lot of notes here in front of me. I think I'm following, I'm following along. Okay, here. Yeah.

Stuart: And actually last week's episode and we've done some work on this in the intervening week, last week's episode was really kind of wake up call for ourselves because in the kind of cobbler's shoes type example actually does that nursery rhyme or that story translate or is that just a British thing? Do you know what I mean? It's like the cobbler's shoes.

Guest: Yes, that's. Yes, it's familiar.

Stuart: Okay, good. My head is usually in US vs UK for a lot of the time, but there's still some things that default back to uk. It might not necessarily translate. So. Yeah, so this example or this model that we kind of. Because we spend so much time focusing on other people's stuff, we don't take the time to look at our own stuff. Last week it was a real reminder that actually the 90 minute book is a great kind of profit, a one, two type tool. It crosses over between the two. It kind of introduces people to the concept and it gets people to raise their hand who are already thinking about a book. But it definitely doesn't address an audience of people who don't necessarily know that a book is a valuable thing to do if they're thinking about lead generation. So we don't necessarily have a book out there that is focused on one particular single target market looking at help them increase their marketing effectiveness, increase the number of leads that they're getting in and the new business. It presupposes already that there is a book in the thought process. So we've got a gap at that end. The 90 minute book itself then starts to do some of the lead conversion job because it runs through a lot of the barriers to entry for people, a lot of the preconceptions that people have. So it does a pretty good job of educating people as to another option. But then we also then don't really have any blueprint books. We don't necessarily have the. We do in other areas and we do for customers when they come on board because we've got, as we mentioned last time, we've got Preparing for your 90 minute book and then beyond the book, which both kind of set that up for people, but we don't have those things in the funnel. So it's Even for us who are doing this and talking to other people about doing it kind of day in, day out, it's very easy to miss these steps because you get kind of caught up in the thing that you're doing right from the people that obviously you're at the front end. You're talking to a lot of the people as they come on board. Board. And then as they go through the process, they're dealing with a lot of the other team members. But then as they come towards the end of the process, you're dealing with them a lot. And I get a chance to speak to people towards the end of the process as well as we're doing some of the strategy calls with people. That early stage or even potentially once people are finishing this thinking about using their books, do you find people are talking in terms of this kind of lead generation versus lead converting book? Is that a. A kind of narrative that's going on in people's heads?

Guest: Yeah, really is. And I think, because I hear, you know what, sometimes in the beginning, before someone comes on board, you know, one of my questions I always ask is, tell me why you want to write this book. What is the goal of writing this book? And I get, well, I want to use it for lead generation. And I can tell you, I don't know that the term lead conversion has ever come up, but I, you know, it's all. It's always like, you know, there's. They're wanting to grab that, but I don't think people are thinking of that next step of getting people to, you know, raise their hand. And it's really. And I think from my standpoint of talking to people, I think it's really. When I'm looking at my notes now, I'm thinking I'm not even doing that. I'm not even speaking like that to people on a regular basis. You know, I mean, really and truly, because it's such a focus on lead generation. And so I think that discussing more about, you know, the conversion, the raising the hand, you know, I think maybe that needs to be part of. More part of my spiel at this point, you know, when I'm talking to potential clients or clients, you know, at this point, towards the end of it. But. But yeah, there's always that lead generation. And I think that that's, you know, they're just thinking about that first step of I just want to grab that. Those leads and I just want to, you know. But then we don't always. They don't. And obviously I'm not either thinking about the conversion aspect of it, you know,

Stuart: and it does cross over into so many different things that we do. I mean, we regularly refer to the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast here as examples of, of people who are working with books as tools or sitting into the rest of the eight profit activators and looking at engaging people once they're, once they're in. But it is a. I think often the thought of creating a book has so much baggage and energy around, takes 80 units worth of effort for someone to think about it and think about what they're doing with it. And, and then there's only so many units of energy left to think about. Okay, well how am I using it in that funnel? And certainly when people work with us, we can help that by taking of those 80 units to get it done. We can reduce that overhead to 20 or 30 units because we're doing the rest of it. But still, then it's not necessarily, there isn't necessarily anything that's then leaping back round with people and saying, okay, well with this spare capacity that you've got now, let's take some of that and think about how it fits into the model. And also, as we started off by saying, this isn't cut and dry. It's not. Clearly, this can only be a profit 1 book, this can only be a profit 2 book. This is only for collecting leads and this is only for conversion. It's definitely crossover. Exactly. Yeah. And even looking at our example, so if you had to categorize the 90 minute book in, if you could only categorize it in one or one of those three pools, then it would probably fall just into the lead converting book, although we primarily use it for lead generation. So anyone that's listening, I wouldn't want them to get too. Just think about this in terms of they can be used in different ways and they can do different jobs. But don't let it be a, a point of concern that, oh well, I can't move forward until I've had. I've got this absolutely nailed down because that's definitely not the case either. It's. It's having something out there. I think we might have said this last week. Having something out there is infinitely better than having nothing out there, even if that something isn't entirely dialed in. So it's great to take the opportunity to look at the different categories, but definitely don't let it stop you getting that first one out there. Because even, even something out there and then dialing in over time is far, far better than having nothing out there and waiting for everything to be perfectly aligned before moving forward.

Guest: Right? Exactly. Definitely. I think you're right. I think that, you know, mentioning these three, I would hate for someone to think, oh, I don't know where I fall at this point, you know, so maybe I shouldn't do anything. Maybe, you know, but there is a lot of crossover pretty much with everybody that, you know, we deal with. I can think of examples. So wouldn't want someone to say, oh, I'm not ready, I'm not there, because I don't know what it is I'm actually looking for, but not necessary. We can start anyway, you know, figure

Stuart: it out along the way. And the other thing is that you don't know either. Until you actually get it out there in people's hands, in real customers hands and start getting some feedback, there's absolutely no way of knowing what the perfect implementation is. And this is really something that we try and drive home with people saying that in comparison, we're doing a different type of book, a more traditional book that takes a lot longer and costs a lot more. Again, the exact same risk is true that you don't know how that's going to land. And doing something more quickly and efficiently and getting it out there and testing the market allows you to iterate and develop on it afterwards. So absolutely the case with what we've done. Anyone that's listening to this with an idea but not knowing which category it falls into, it doesn't matter, move forward with it because it will do all of those jobs. And if you then decide that you need to dial it in a little bit more six months down the track, or it makes sense to write a second book to have a slightly different job of work six months down the track, that's fine. In the meantime, the first one's been out there doing all of the work that had you've waited, it obviously wouldn't have done. So with jumping back to the example then. So we were using dental hygienists as the example. So we've got a pure lead generation book at the top end of the funnel, the broadest end of the funnel, trying to attract dentists who are looking to improve the profitability of their practice. So something talking about five ways to improve the profitability of your dental practice, one of those five being looking at the hygiene department, hygienist department. So then the lead converting book of taking away the doubt and answering the questions about why addressing hygienists is a good way of going a blueprint book then is more around the educating and motivating part of it. So by this point, the people who are the most engaged, the hottest, the people who have had all of their questions answered to the point that they want to move forward and try this, will have converted into whatever you're offering at the end of those books for people who are still in the funnel, people who are still on your mailing list, those who haven't converted immediately because either the time isn't right for them or they're still waiting for some further information. Something like a blueprint book, a specific how to may be a great way of educating and motivating those people a little more towards executing. Again, this isn't to say that it's not a converting book. I mean, it really is a converting book, a blueprint. It's kind of like a subset of the converting category. Equally, it's not to say it's not a lead generating book because whatever that specific topic is, then people are going to be interested in this and those invisible leads will still convert into that title because it will still be raising the interest of people who are kind of dialed into that area. So if, for example, I mentioned if you've got a, the product or service that you're trying to sell is either a coaching service or a consulting service, or you've got a online or an in person program, the first step of that, the first stage, the first module, might be a blueprint type book in its own right. So we talk about going deep and answering one question as robustly as possible to really give value in all of the books that are written. The blueprint book is exactly the same. So for example, if I think about what we can do better on the 90 minute book side of things, we talk about titles as being really the single most important thing out of the whole process. So we can write a book. We could write a book, we should write a book that talks about creating killer titles, titles that convert and step by step walk people through all of the pros and cons, all of the benefits of writing one type of title versus another type of title, the things you want to consider as you're picking a title, the ways you can, as we were talking last week, the ways you can kind of dial in that word palette of phrases and language that people are interested in, the kind of narrative that they've got in their own mind, all of these things. We can create a blueprint book looking at that one particular subject, the hygienist. It can be. And again, this really isn't my area of expertise, but there might be one particular skill or discipline that they do where you can dive deep into it and almost give away the first module because you need then to, or the desire then is to lead people into the subsequent modules. The target for all of these is those people who remain on your list and aren't converting because either they're lacking a piece of information or the time just isn't right for them. And that list is really where the gold lies over time. The likelihood of someone being coming on board and converting immediately, depending on what it is to a certain degree. But it's a sub, it's a small group of people who are ready there. And then the far larger pool of people are those who convert over time and being able to continue to stay in touch with them, send them what we would call flagship broadcasts, have a reason to continue to communicate with them after that initial opt in. That's really the long tail of the conversion. And a blueprint book, or over time, several blueprint books are a great way of having a reason to reach out to those people, continue to add value and just be front of mind and put in front of them offers where they can convert and take that step into being a paying customer.

Guest: Well, there you go, that was good.

Stuart: Categorization of those three categories. Does that make sense? I'm always conscious of kind of the model because we're in it all the time. The model that's in our head and the separation between the two, particularly how things fit in with the eight profit activators, the breakthrough DNA, that model of a before, during and after units, the profit.

Guest: Yeah, it absolutely makes sense. I think it's very. I think, I do think it's very important for people to look at the eight profit activators, you know, for sure. Just to make a definite connection there, you know, I definitely recommend that. When you said you're going to put the link, I thought that's really a good idea.

Stuart: Yeah, it really does help set a kind of framework around the books where they sit in your funnel as you create something and then most importantly, what you then do with it afterwards. So having the asset created is great. It's getting that job done. You can tick the box, but it's not until you kind of move on and then use it and decide which is the best way of using it, either at the top of your funnel or with an existing list. It's really that usage that is there, the main thing, because that is what, what translates to new business through the door. And at the end of the day that's really what we're, we're looking to do for everyone.

Guest: Exactly.

Stuart: Perfect. Well, I think we're just passing half an hour so that's, that seems like a good time to wrap.

Guest: You did an awesome job and my

Stuart: voice just about held out as well, so. So if anyone's listening and has any questions about those, those three types of books or you want to chat about it a little bit more, then feel free to shoot us a question to support at 90 Minute Books. And we can either answer questions directly, we can answer them on future shows if it's something to share with other people, or if you want to jump on a, on a call and just have a quick chat about a book idea that you've got in your head, how it might fit well into a particular funnel, then just choose an email to support at 90 Minute Books and we'll be able to follow up and answer any of those. If, if you're looking for the show notes then this is going to be episode 40. So as always, head across to 90minutebooks.com forward slash podcast and this is episode 40. I'll make sure to link to the breakthrough DNA book in there that, that goes into the eight profit activators a little bit deeper. We also have a score card, a profit activator scorecard which is available@profitactivatorscore.com so for those eight profit activators that walks you through step by step on scoring yourself against those, activate those eight profit activators and see how, how not robust but how, how advanced you are on each of those profit activators and it's a good way of revealing kind of strengths and weaknesses. So not specifically related to this but it's, it's a good exercise to do. So I'll make sure links there as well. And of course, if you're ready to get started, if one of these things that we talked about has resonated with you, then again just head over to 90minutebooks.com, there's a get started link at the navigation at the top and then we'll be here waiting to get the execution of your book done for you in, in a quick and effective way and then we can get that asset out there and get it into your funnel and, and convert into, into getting some leads. So anything, anything that I've missed, I think that's it.

Guest: No, got it covered.

Stuart: Perfect. Well, in that case everyone, we will catch you in two weeks time next week. We've got a, an interview with one of our existing authors, Yvonne Myatt. So that's going to be a great show. And then we'll be back with more, more questions and answers the week after that. Thanks, Nancy.

Guest: You're welcome. Always a pleasure.

Stuart: Okay, speak to you, everyone. Bye.