The Dollars and Sense Behind Selling from the Platform
by David Newman and Steven Rowell

** NOTE FROM MELANIE ** Because so many of my clients are building a speaking business around there products and services, I thought this article might be interesting. I'll be one of the speakers at their Book Camp, April 9 - 12 in Orlando, FL. Be sure to register for the teleclass preview series where all the experts will be dishing their knowledge!

Because you share a common (and incorrect) belief that “selling from the platform” is cheesy, unprofessional, and pushy, you may be leaving HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars in revenue on the table!

Here's some news: you rightfully deserve this money for bringing your expertise, proven strategies, great information and time-tested experience to your audience. And when you provide high quality information, people actually WANT to give you their money, because you have added real value to their lives.

What do we mean by you’re “leaving money on the table”? Let’s say you’re a moderately successful professional speaker and you keynote 50 times a year. Your average audience is 100 participants. (Yours may be much higher or even a lot lower – stick with us and we’ll show you the numbers...)

If you spoke 50 times a year to 100 people, that’s 5000 prospects. With ZERO high-pressure sales gimmicks or pushy “selling from the platform” tactics (we’ve all seen ‘em and we don’t like ‘em), you could reasonably sell 10% of your audience on some sort of follow-up package. As a point of reference, seasoned pros can close between 26-58% of any given room if they’re in front of the right audience with the right message.

Stop the tape, here, folks. Before we go on, it’s VITAL to make clear that these “seasoned pros” DO truly have great quality material, are comfortable sharing their expertise, and know how to get people to go for their wallets with the utmost in professionalism and a genuine spirit of sharing valuable information.

OK, let’s finish the math - that’s 500 people buying your package. Now, the package consists of your book, some special reports, two audio CD’s, and a pair of follow-up 1-hour consulting calls. It sells for $149.

The math on this is 500 x $149 = $74,500. Are you SURE you don’t want to learn how to sell from the platform with integrity??

And for many experts and speakers the actual numbers are 500 x $297 = $148,500. Did you know the average profit margin from these information products ranges from 52-68% depending upon your industry or target audience? Now these are numbers worthy of taking serious action!

====Steven Rowell and David Newman are co-founders of The BookCamp(tm), the only professional-grade, anti-pitchfest conference aimed at entrepreneurs, authors, and experts who want to build a booming business around their books. Download their f.ree 44-page special report loaded with more strategies, tips, and tools at Bookcamp Info.