Yes he did kick off the “Printing Revolution.”   Yes his efforts were absolutely central and crucial to the development of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution.  Yes, the education of the masses skyrocketed after his printing presses got cranked up.  One might even credit him with laying the foundation for our modern, knowledge-based economy.  But he did NOT invent moveable type.

What he did invent was vastly more inspired, and reflected his true genius.

What he did invent was a process to produce a single piece of moveable type in 30 seconds instead of the typical 3 days.  Think about that…  Think about the massive impact that had on the time and cost of producing a printing press and therefore books in high volume.  Think about the fact that Gutenberg solved a manufacturing problem, not a printing or sales problem.  Think about the 30+ years he invested in learning the goldsmith trade.  (Goldsmithing was his father’s business!)

So what can we learn from this?  I see 4 lessons each of us can still apply:

1. Put in your 10,000 becoming a true expert at something
2. Work your butt off
3. Stand on the shoulders of giants (The world is way too complex and competitive for anybody.)
4. Be a dreamer

That last item is the key.  In modern terms, his stockholders were beating the daylights out of him – demanding that he sell more books!  A non-dreamer would have been hell-bent, laser-beam-focused on shoving more really expensive books down the throat of the market. Instead, Johannes the dreamer (while he was working like hell) pondered, fantasized and dreamed about his goldsmithing skills, the delicate touch required there and how that might be related to working that heavy, dirty, unwieldy printing contraption.

And he saw the connection.  The crazy combination of knowledge and skills from his own brain and the brains of others that utterly demolished a heretofore unseen bottleneck in the bookselling business.  3 days to make a piece of movable type?  How about 30 seconds?

Dream, baby.  Dream!

Yes.

A published author.

Yes, the kind of author where people go to Amazon to buy your book(s).

It has never been easier to write and publish books. Why should you even consider this?

1. Because, despite how simple the process is, most people won’t do it. And thus, you will stand out in the marketplace.

2. Modern digital tools do make it very simple.

3. Unless you are fooling yourself and your market, you have ALL the knowledge, wisdom, and experiences you need to write a book and publish it to the world.

But despite this, most people won’t do it. Why?

1. Lazy.

2. They are afraid the market will find out they don’t really know anything.

Still hung up on this idea?

1. You don’t have to write 100,000 words. Heck, five to ten thousands words is PLENTY sufficient.

2. You don’t even HAVE to write. You can use a tool like Dragon Dictation, and speak it. Dragon will transcribe it. All you have to do is edit the transcription.

3. Books published to Amazon are found in Google search results. This helps your SEO and findability.

4. Other than your time, publishing to Amazon can be FREE.

But don’t do it because it is FREE, do it because it helps you stand out in the marketplace.

Do it because you have knowledge to share to help your target audience.

Do it because sending a sales prospect a (free) copy of your book to help them better understand a critical concept or idea is important to advancing your sales opportunity.

Do it because publishing a book establishes you as an expert in your field.

[And yeah, do it because it is frickin' cool to have books for sale on Amazon. And that you can add "author" to all your biographies.]

OK, wise guy. Tell me how I do this.

1. Create a free Kindle Direct Publishing account here.

2. Write your book in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Scrivener, or (my heartfelt recommendation) Pressbooks.com.

3. Take the outputs from any of these solutions, and simply upload to Amazon. (and/or Barnes + Noble and iBookstore if you choose).

Simple.

As you’ve seen above, I’ve included mock-ups of three covers of new books I am currently working on. As you can see, even I can do this. Which means, you can do this.

It amazes me when people I DO NOT KNOW reach out to me on Twitter telling me they loved my book. How amazing is this? Amazon, and digital books on all available platforms, is simply amazing.

But a real shame that most people are NOT taking advantage of new opportunities to be found, to better serve their market, and fully plug into the Matrix that is Amazon, which is changing the game on how people connect to and learn about the world around them.

People are reading content on their Kindle, smart phone, or tablet each and every day…

It might as well be YOUR book.

NEXT IN THE SERIES: “Ok, I’ll write a book. But what in the hell would I write about?” We’ll give you some ideas…

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The second edition of The Zen of Sales will be out soon, but if you want to go ahead and see what I am talking about, check out the first edition here:

If you email me the (digital receipt), I will send you the 2nd edition when it is published.

In a business context, the plummeting influence of the power of knowledge is gutting the competitive advantage of the unwary.

Up until about 20 years ago, product knowledge was the most powerful tool in a sales rep’s arsenal. Even back then, knowledge of product/service application packed far more punch in terms of creating differentiation and competitive advantage. Knowledge though, was still king.

Consider the traditional sales approach:

• Gather knowledge about the customer’s pain
• Use industry knowledge to diagnose the causes of that pain
• Apply product and application knowledge to identify and package the appropriate products and services

Can this “gather and apply knowledge” approach still generate sales success?  I don’t think so.  Mainly because of the “gather” piece.  Face it,  knowledge about virtually everything is available on every Internet-connected device.  Since even the greenest of greenhorns can do it, skill at gathering knowledge is no longer a differentiator.

Even skill at applying knowledge is not the differentiator it used to be, and for basically the same reason.  Just surf to any “user forum” type web site and you’ll find a flood of digital discussion surrounding knowledge application.

Knowledge Creation is the new king.

If you’re not focused on creating new knowledge and new insight, you are by definition run of the mill.  And what’s the simplest way to train yourself to create knowledge.  Create content.  Start a blog and post to it regularly – at least weekly.  Sound too difficult?  Too time consuming?  Well, OK  …just don’t expect to sell a lot.  Ready to go?  Start with a short course on Content Harvesting.

The implication is that any operational business process that leverages that speed moves at a quicker pace.  Orders and invoices get created and delivered faster.  In the manufacturing world, the proverbial “tops” get put on “bottoms” in less time. Errors are detected and corrected faster.   ALL information gets created and distributed in less time.

Complex decision making however, hasn’t sped up much if at all.

For a sales pro, that means getting to “yes” is just about as painfully slow as it’s ever been.  And why is this so?  It’s so because the human brain still works as the same pace it always has.  Information can get to it much more quickly, but gets into it at the same old speed.  Not only that, more information is available more easily.  The human nature of decision makers makes them craves more info – as much info as possible – when making a complex, therefore risky, decision.  In other words lots more information is more easily available than ever, but still gets processed at the same old “brain speed.”

Ughhh…  That could easily mean that the complex decision making process could even slow down!  What’s a sales rep to do?  At least two things:

1. Focus on continuously upgrading the quality of the information you provide
2. Focus on upgrading your reputation as a source of high-quality, useful, valuable information

Since your info arrives at the same speed as everybody else’s info, an element of differentiation is essential.  Bigger, louder, more clever or other gimmicks ain’t gonna’ cut it.  Your content just plain needs to be better and more valuable.  Your next piece of content needs to be more valuable than the last one.  The one after that needs to be better still, and so on.

AND…  you need to have fans.  Fans that gladly share your content.  Fans that gladly promote your content.  Fans that sing your praises.  Fans ready, willing and able to vouch for you and the value you deliver.

Just two little items.  Now go get busy!

But there is a third leg of the stool, and it is the networking component. I use podcasting religiously as a means to connect with people I want to connect with. Requesting an interview with someone you want to know better is a non-threatening way to reach out to someone. You are offering something, you are NOT asking for something. Easy!

So, this morning, I wanted to share commentary from my friend Mitch Joel, who says it better than I could, from his post called The Small Wins From Social Media:

Podcast. Between smartphones getting much better at being able to handle streaming media, Apple’s latest developments in their podcasting app and major media and entertainment people starting their own audio and video podcast series (Alec Baldwin, Joan Rivers, Adam Carolla, Joe Rogan and others), podcasting is experiencing a growth spurt. A good swath of the business and brand-based podcasts still come off as infomercials (or worse). A credible podcast is a powerful tool in social proofing. Asking recognized authorities and industry thought leaders for a twenty-minute interview not only provides value to an audience, but it can be used in other ways. A show of this nature is a great internal communications tool to help your peers learn more about the industry you serve. It also acts as a great way to corner one your industry’s stars and get them to talk about themselves (which these people love to do) and – in a more subtle way – be introduced to you. So, imagine you’re attending your industry’s annual convention and this celebrity was a guest on your show a few months back, If you did a good job, you could reach out to them, connect and network in a way that your peers could never do. Small win: use podcasting as a way to network with your industry’s key thought leaders.

Enough said.

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Join our list to learn more about how to integrate podcasting into your sales and marketing process.

Drawing by Hugh.

1. “I don’t fully get social media selling as it applies to the B2B world.”
2. “You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.”

What led me to ponder these two statements?  As a  baby-boomer, I like to think I’m hip because I truly have incorporated my own blogs, several other blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare into my daily B2B sales and marketing routine.  Those tools and the practices associated with them unequivocally contribute to my ability to close business.

This might sound a bit cocky, but I’m beginning to think I’m one of a very small cadre of baby-boomer vintage sales types that’s learned how to use the stuff; that has a bona-fide e-Rep.  “Youngblood,” you say, “How can this be?”

I’m thinking maybe all we B2B social selling “gurus” can’t explain it to our grandmothers.

It might take another 5, or 10, or 15 years, but make no mistake, non-users are of these tools are toast.  Permanent and profound changes are already here.  I challenge you to find anybody who does not conduct online research prior to making a significant purchase.  Most people do online research prior to buying phone, or a new bicycle, or a pair of friggin’ shoes for that matter.

I repeat…  If you’re trying to sell something and don’t have a robust digital presence, an e-Rep, you’re toast!

But the vast majority of B2B sales and marketing professionals still do not get it.  Those of us working to help folks use social selling tools need to get much, much better at explaining the why and how of it.

Excuse me now…  I need to call grandma.

It involves tagging your connections into groups around categories and keywords. Much like circles with Google Plus, lists with Twitter, or groups on Facebook.

This a way to organize your connections into buckets to help you send targeted messaging and/or specific content to them. Simple concept.

This isn’t necessarily new, but it is not something I’ve experimented with much. Until now.

This isn’t a hard process to do:

1. Go to LinkedIn.
2. Mouse over “Contacts” and then click on “Connections.”
3. In the left column, you will see “Tags.”
4. You can click on “Manage” to add/remove/update your tags. You can have up to 200 of them.
5. In the second column from left, click on the name of a connection, or check the box of many connections, and then click “edit tags” to get your connections tagged with a keyword.
6. Finally, when you are ready to send a message/content, click on the tag in the left column, and then “send message,” which will appear in the third column from the left. This will be another way to stay on their radar.

[let me know if you have any questions!]

How to use this? Well, I don’t have a complete story to tell on this yet, since I myself am new to this strategy. But rest assured, I will be experimenting.

But here is what I have already started to do with this:

1. Organize my connections around certain needs and problems, and send them related content to help them.
2. Organize my connections around interests, and send them my podcasts that will be of interest.
3. Organize my connections into groups of prospects, and send helpful content when appropriate.

One final tip: Don’t spam people with an endless river of content. Send only stuff you know they need, and will get benefit from. And send only when appropriate. Don’t send stuff three times daily, or even daily.

And test. You will soon learn what people want and are looking for, and adjust accordingly.

Good luck, and let me know what works and what doesn’t. And stay tuned, I will report findings down the road…

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Go here to learn how to hack digital tools to rock your sales and marketing!

Do these five things habitually – obsessively.  All the time.  Every day.  Do so and you’ll never, ever have the “what can I possibly blog about” mental block again.

Read

Read blogs, newspapers, books, magazines, brochures, web sites, e-newsletters, the stuff the competition spews out…  It is not possible to absorb enough information and insight.  Be selective.  There is Lots-O-Drivel out there.  Find a few authors that really resonate with you and stick with them.  Constantly read bits by folks you’ve never heard of.  Now and then you’ll find a gem.  Read opinions that are at odds with your own thinking.  Jar that brain!  Rotate through who you read and your sources.  Beware of getting caught in a rut or echo chamber.  Feed your brain with the written word!

Listen

Listen to conversations.  Really, really listen!  You’re in and around them every day.  There are bits of genius floating everywhere and all the time!  Listen to podcasts.  iTunes podcasts and iTunes U are unbelievably rich sources of content.  Install iTunes and/or Stitcher on your smartphone and you will never want for great intellectual content in audio form ever again.  Don’t daydream while you’re standing in line or working out or driving.  Feed your brain with audio!

Watch

Watch people and videos.  Pay attention to what others are doing and saying.  Every day, people do things from incredibly dumb to stunningly brilliant.  YouTube you know, is the second biggest search engine on earth.  Start with TED.  Go from there.  Feed your brain with video!

Capture

Capture the flashes and store them in your official repository.  As you read, listen and watch, the flashes of insight will occur.  Capture them!  Don’t let the little rascals get away.  Write ‘em down on whatever is handy and then put them into a designated folder – your official repository.  Use the “notes” function on your iPad or phone.  Copy/paste.  Dictate your thoughts into your recording device of choice.  Take a picture or record a video as “it” is happening.  When it’s time to harvest content dive into the repository and grab an insight to run with.

Think

Think.  Take time for solitary reflection.  Shut off all the electronics.  Close the door, or better yet take a walk in the woods.  Get away from everyone but you.  Focus on two or more things/facts/insights and try to make connections between/among them.  Or focus on a single issue and mentally solve it in different ways.  I’m continually amazed at what I learn from myself!

It’s really that simple.  Read – Listen – Watch – Capture – Think.  Do that and Curate – Edit – Create becomes easy.  And if you’d like to get really ambitious, host a podcast.

You also might want to sign up for The Workingman’s Content Marketing Course!  It’s a great companion to the Content Harvesting series and it’s free!

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Join our list, and learn other hacks about using digital tools to increase sales.

Think of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. as sewer pipes, dumping all manner of yuck into the pond at the front end of a sewage treatment plant.  No B2B sales rep – any business person – should be rushing to take a drink from those pipes or go for a swim in that pond! Yes, lots and lots of clean water gets dumped into those streams with every flush – environmentalists are justly alarmed at that waste – but for the most part, well… it’s sewage. (I don’t care what you had for breakfast, and I for sure don’t care what you had for breakfast yesterday!)

Now picture the latest and greatest waste-water treatment plant in the world.  It’s got sludge ponds and it’s got filters and it’s got biological reaction chambers and it’s got all manner of technology specifically designed to get rid of all the yuck. ALL OF IT!  The water that comes out is literally and figuratively as pure as the driven snow.

Dive into the pond fed by the pipe coming out of that treatment plant.  Take a drink from the pipe coming out!

And what’s the equivalent of a waste-water treatment plant for the manure-filled social media world? Thankfully there are lots and lots of options.  We’ll walk through just three of them here. (Especially if you secretly think of social media as a river of %&@#, walk through all three yourself.  An epiphany just might happen.)

1) Choose a topic that’s of great interest to you.  Go to a professionally produced Facebook page about it and “Like” it.  If you’re a baseball fan, “like” the Atlanta Braves page.  If you’re a classical music fan, “like” the Georgia Symphony Orchestra page.  If you’re into  fine wine, good food, craft beers and artisanal spirits, “like” The Food Studio page.  You get the idea.  When you go to Facebook, do not go through the main “news feed.”  Instead visit only the pages you’ve “liked.”  Those pages are all on the far side of your personal social media sewage treatment plant.

2) Choose an author, blogger or consultant whose work you respect.  Go to twitter.com to find their Twitter handle.  Download a copy of Hootsuite (or TweetDeck or similar). Set up a stream that follows just that one person.  Check the feed every few days and electronically pick their brain.  (Might I not so humbly suggest @youngbloodtodd?  Or maybe @toddschnick, or Seth Godin @ThisIsSethsBlog?)  Slowly but surely increase the number of folks & streams you monitor.  They’re all on the far side of your personal social media sewage treatment plant.

3) Recruit a small (3-5 people) group of like-minded individuals with similar job responsibilities who agree to “give a LinkedIn group the old college try.”  Ask each other questions; help solve each other’s problems.  (DO share blog posts, etc. you find of interest with this group, but DO NOT fall into the trap of doing nothing but.  Ask & answer within the group!)  Slowly but surely invite others to join.  The group is on the far side of the group’s social media sewage treatment plant.

There are many, many more things that can be done with social media to help sell more B2B biz in less time.  First things first, however.  Build your personal social media sewage treatment plant!

Think about three types of tools; those that help generate ideas, hardware tools and software tools.  The single best idea source tool is an RSS reader.  With an RSS Reader, an individual can create a news feed that is totally customized.  For example, one can subscribe to several different blogs that have content of interest, news from a variety of sources as well as audio and video feeds.

Everything shows up in one place.  It’s a simply awesome tool to ensure that a steady of flood of ideas and intelligence comes your way.  From there, it’s a very short step to curate – edit – create and the production of your own content.

Personally, I use Feedly, but there are lots and lots of RSS choices out there.  Just do a search and pick one that fits what you like.

LinkedIn is another terrific source of content harvesting inspiration.  Join a few relevant groups.  Check out the questions getting asked.  Have an answer?  There’s your inspiration.  Read someone else’s answer and have a different spin or additional insight?  There’s your inspiration.

And there’s Twitter.  A massive and endless stream of consciousness from a huge horde of users.  I challenge you to simply read your Twitter stream for five minutes and NOT come up with several good content ideas.

As far as hardware tools go, a smartphone is as close to an all-in-one gadget as you can get.  My iPhone, for example, is a notepad, voice recorder, still camera and video camera and I can also make phone calls with it.  If your personal preference is a moleskin notebook or a USB microphone or a fancier video camera or whatever, have at it.  Just don’t ever forget that as long as you have your phone, you have all the basic content harvesting hardware you need.

Software-wise, you already have at least one of the basics, word processing.  I mostly use Google Drive these days, but from habit still bang out text with MS Word now and again.  Audacity is a great choice for audio recording and editing – and it’s free!  If you’re a Mac person, Garageband is also good for audio recording and mixing.  For video editing, VideoPad will do the trick for PC users, although adding captions is pretty basic.  On Mac iMovie is the obvious and excellent choice.

As noted above, the list of tools could go on forever.  Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees!  It’s WAY too easy to get enamored with and lost in all the “cool stuff.”  Remember that the goal is to harvest content.

Next in the series:  Content Harvesting Tips & Techniques

You also might want to sign up for The Workingman’s Content Marketing Course!  It’s a great companion to the Content Harvesting series and it’s free!

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Join our list, and learn other hacks about using digital tools to increase sales.