ROI on a Business Book
What’s My ROI on Writing a Business Book?
A recent prospective client asked me that question.
“What’s my ROI? How do I justify the expense of writing a business book?”
It’s a fair question. I could have shared the incredible outcomes my authors have seen, but this guy was:
an accountant
a business owner
a co-managing partner
He needed measurable ROI. As in, “Show me the money!”
I’ve helped entrepreneurs justify the expense of having a book ghostwritten and published to their CFOs, business partners, and spouses.
Here’s a list of reasons a little more tangible than “I don’t know exactly why, but I’ve got to write this book!”
Marketing ROI
a permanent marketing asset you can use for years
Dollar for dollar, a book outperforms virtually every other advertising spend you can make. Plenty of entrepreneurs spend thousands of dollars on trade show booths, koozies, and pens or tens of thousands on ads and website redesigns. Yet none of those differentiates them from anyone else.
But what’s more memorable? Your 17th koozie? Or an autographed book?
generates more qualified leads
It doesn’t matter if your book doesn’t talk about your business at all. As I told this prospect, your book allows you to have an intimate 1:1 conversation with thousands of readers simultaneously. People get to feel like they really know the real you. And the more people know you, the more they trust you. The more they trust you, the more they want to do business with you.
creates marketing opportunities
Entrepreneurs with books are more likely to be invited to speak and to be interviewed. That’s increased visibility and the opportunity to market directly to people already primed to listen to you.
Some of those speaking opportunities might be paid, but more importantly, they give you a platform to further advertise yourself and your business.
Sales ROI
shortens sales cycles
Books build trust and credibility, leading to prospects ready to move forward with sales sooner.
increases conversion rates
A related but distinct ROI from the previous.
The more prospects trust you—the more of a known commodity you are—the more likely they are to choose you over the competition.
increases customer retention
Your customers and clients probably don’t care about your monthly newsletter or yearly Christmas gift as much as you think.
Receiving a signed book where you can “speak” directly to them counts for quite a bit.
HR ROI
a recruitment tool
Consultants have talked about the war for talent for years now.
It’s about more than salary and benefits. We live in a day and age where people have shown they will choose less competitive offers if they believe in the company ethos.
What better way to communicate that than through a book?
more qualified candidates
Used as a recruitment tool, your book can attract more of the people you want.
Perhaps even more importantly, your book can repel people who aren’t a good fit. If they don’t see themselves working for someone like you, bad culture fits can self-deselect.
Wouldn’t you rather discover a bad fit before the interview rather than 18 months from now?
an onboarding tool
There is always a lag between the time someone’s hired and when they become fully productive.
A book is a great way to bring them up to speed on how you do business faster.
stakeholder alignment
I once had a pair of tech startup founders who wanted to write a business book ahead of raising further venture capital. It was a tool to convince potential investors they were entrepreneurs worth betting on.
From employees to service providers, your stakeholders share a common point of reference when everyone has the same book.
codifies company culture
Similar but distinct from the previous. A business book can enshrine “the way we do things around here.”
It’s a tool to show your people something more important than the what: It shows them the why.
When your people come to a fork in the road, the insights from your book can point the way. It can show them what’s important and help them learn from lessons you earned the hard way.
The #1 ROI From Writing a Business Book
the lifetime value of a new client.
For my Swedish authors of Redesigning Capex Strategy, a single new client who chooses them because of reading their book more than pays for my fees as a ghostwriter and the costs of buying copies directly from their publisher, McGraw-Hill.
For many others, a handful of new customers will, over the course of their relationship with the authors’ businesses, more than cover the costs of writing a book.
If you speak with my authors, you’ll be surprised to discover that the benefits listed here are, in truth, secondary. (The primary benefit is…a topic for another blog post.)
That is, even without any of these more measurable ROIs, they would still consider writing their book to be a worthy financial endeavor.
As always, feel free to add to this list.
