Most writers are thrilled to see their books earn big sales on Amazon. But I can count on one hand the number of writers who’ve said to me, “I enjoy marketing.” For many writers, marketing, aka asking people to buy your book, makes them cringe. Why? This is a question on which you want to spend some serious time to discover the answer.
This dread (or excitement) is what I term your selling-mindset.
Possible Reasons of a Negative Selling-Mindset
Reason number 1: Selling often means getting in front of people in some way, and you’d rather not be seen.
Why not? Are you afraid of something? If so, what? It might be you’d feel rejected if they say no. I want you to dig deep for an answer. If you don’t, that fear is going to continue to control you, and you’ll always struggle with selling your books.
Is everybody going to like you? No. But on the opposite end, neither is everybody going to hate you. Does everybody need your book? Of course not. But I can say with confidence there are people who do. With the right selling-mindset, you will draw to you those people whom you can help.
Number two: Selling makes you feel bad in some way.
Again, ask yourself why. For those of us over 50, we are well-acquainted with pushy salesmen who do everything under the sun to convince you to buy a product you don’t want or need.
That’s not what selling/marketing truly is. Selling is about helping people clarify whether your product/book is the right one for them.
If you approach your marketing/selling with the idea of “I’ve got to get this person to buy my book,” you’re coming it at it from the wrong angle. You are working to get rather than give.
The Principle of Giving and Receiving
Approach your marketing from a giving mindset rather than getting. And giving doesn’t mean your product is free. You are giving a valuable product; the buyer is giving a dollar value for that product. The buyer receives a valuable product, and you receive the monetary value of the product. The biblical principle of giving and receiving in action.
Here’s an interesting scenario my business coach recently posed. If I gave you a product worth $1,000 and said, “Go out and give this product away to 1000 people and I’ll pay you $1,000,000.” How would you feel about that? Pretty good, right?
Now, if I said, “I want you to go out and sell this product to 1,000 people for $1,000 each and you can keep the money,” how would you feel?
When he presented that scenario, I felt very different about selling it than giving it away, and in a negative way. I’ve had to spend time asking myself what’s the difference between the two. It will be different for everybody.
If I’m not willing to spend $1,000 on a product that will bring positive change to my life, but I’m asking others to do just that, then I’m battling what my business coach calls a double-binding message. People will pick up on my belief despite my words and will not buy.
You Have Value to Give to the World
A lot of the discomfort of selling boils down to our own lack of self-worth. When God placed mankind on the earth, He had already created everything mankind would need. He said, “be fruitful [give] and multiply [bring more life to the world].”
He placed us on Earth with a purpose (see Ephesians 2:10). No one person is anymore valuable than another. We have the same value in God’s eyes.
Do you believe you have value and that you have something of value to offer? I should have made this the first question. It’s foundational to all the rest.
Schedule a time on your calendar right now to seek the answer to these questions. Don’t gloss over them. Dig deep and be honest with yourself. Knowing how you truly view each of these is the first step to discovering your selling-mindset and making any necessary changes.