Mark Tewart Talks About His Book and His Promotion

You have been invited to share your promotional experience with others.

Your Name: Mark Tewart

1. Where you are from and where are you now?
I a was born and raised in Middletown Ohio and currently reside in beautiful Lebanon Ohio which is a country suburb of Cincinnati and Dayton Ohio

2. How did you get started writing?
I started writing training manuals with my ideas back when I was a General Manager of an auto dealership. That continued on when I became a professional speaker, trainer and consultant and I have written 11 or twelve training manuals and numerous CD,DVD and on line training materials. Later, I was asked to write a monthly column in a trade journal and that became several articles a month in different magazines. I also was asked to do an ongoing TV show on a satellite training network in which I wrote the shows. My new book is my first book through a publisher.

3. What do you do when you are not writing?
I own four businesses that keep me very busy. I am a speaker, consultant, coach and now author. I own a products company, a reinsurance company that reinsures many of the products and services I offer and a real estate investment/holding company. I am also married to my wife Kim with two children – Erin a 23 year old senior at Wright State University and Jake a 9 year old son. I am actively involved with Jake in coaching and supporting his sports and school activities. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, Authors Guild and the Elks Lodge. I like to scuba dive, ski, sky dive, read, write, travel and spend time with my family.

4. What would readers like to know about you?
I am the same as everyone else. I have hopes and dreams, triumphs and tradgedies, fears and trepidations. I grew up on the tough side of the tracks and left home after I graduated high school to make some money for college. I moved across country to a place with a better economic climate, but where I had no place to stay, no job, no car, no money. I experienced tough times but was able to benefit from it and persisted to create a successful path.

5. What inspired your first book?
Two things. First of all I was diagnosed with cancer in November 2005. I am a lifetime non smoker who eats right exercises and takes care of myself. However, I still got cancer. When you face a life threatening illness it causes strong introspection. I had always been pretty good about going for my goals but upon reflection I had not written he book that I had always had a goal to do. I got busy in educating myself about the book business and process. When I started writing, I wound up writing the whole book in less than two months. Secondly, I became tired and frustrated and watching intelligent, talented people either fail or not reach their goals, hopes and dreams. I knew that I could help them. I felt like it was my calling to share with anyone that had a desire to seek something better. I also know what a difference books have made in my life.

6. How many books have you written?
11 or twelve manuals I have self published, tons of articles but 1 published book so far.

7. What are the titles of your books and what genres are they?

How To Be A Sales Superstar – Break All the Rules and Succeed While Doing It
Sales, Sales Techniques, Sales and Marketing

However, I have been told by many that this book is also a book about life and strong self improvement book as well.

8. Why are you specially qualified to write about this topic?
I started selling when I was 18 or 19 years old. When I was in college, I started to sell automobiles and did well. I became a general manager of a dealership when I was 27. I started my speaking, training and consulting career when I was 31. I have personally sold many millions of dollars of products and services from business to consumer, business to business and presided over companies selling millions of dollars of products and services each month. I have spoke to over 2,000 audiences on sales, sales marketing and sales management. I have coached and consulted with many different companies in various industries that have had magnificent increases in sales and profits. I guess the simple answer is that I have and currently do what I write about. I have been fortunate to have success in the sales and business arena so I have a desire to assist people in reaching the goals and success they wish.

9. How do you manage to keep yourself focused and on track when you’re writing a book?
I set aside a time each day to write and in that time, I do not allow distractions. No emails, cell phones, office calls, office visits, family interruptions – nothing. The world has to wait. I wrote my book in less than two months. When I start something I am pretty fanatical about finishing it.

10. Do you write to make money, for the love of writing or both?
Both. I don’t believe that you have to separate the two. I think it’s dangerous to start making the two mutually exclusive. I think it becomes a self imposed roadblock. I love to write. I love to share. I also know that if my writing has great value it will be impossible for me to not be rewarded and one of the ways I will be and expect to be rewarded is financially. Money follows value.

12. What are some unique methods of marketing you have used? Which were the most successful?
Dimensional or lumpy mail – trash can mailers, bank bag mailers, barf bag mailers, FED Ex Mailers etc. email marketing – newsletters, autoresponders, special notices, tele-seminars, associations, articles with by lines, trade magazines, 800 recorded messages, special reports, ebooks, sponsorships, special events, speaking engagements, Twitter and many other social networking events, vendors and many more

13. Do you sell through a website? If so, what’s the address? If not, why not?
Yes, www.marktewartlive.com – www.tewart.com – www.marktewart.com – www.howtobesalessuperstar.info

14. Where can people order your books?
www.marktewart.com – www.marktewartlive.com – www.amazon.com as well as book stores and other online retailers

15. What format are your books – e-book, print, audio etc?
My book is only in print form at the moment. I do have a couple of ebooks and niched industry specific DVD, audios and workbooks as well.

16. Will you write more books?
My goal is write 1 or more a year for the next ten years minimum

17. What do you have in the works now?
I am writing another sales book titled – From Zero to Sales Hero In 60 Days or Less

18. What does the future hold for you and your books?
I will continue to write and have my books published where I am creating a brand around me and my writing and projects.

19. What was the most successful thing you did to promote your books?
Teleseminars, joint venture book announcements, speaking engagements, social media

20. What was the least successful thing you did to promote your books?
Hire a PR firm

22. What makes this book special to you?
It’s a lifetime culmination. The book is a completely different perspective on sales. The book emphasizes not only sales skills, people skills, life skills and marketing skills. I believe everyone is a salesperson and that we all should get better at sales. I have wonderful feedback from people who are not in traditional sales capacities that have expressed how much the book has helped them. I also wrote this book in a more conversational form which made it fun for me and hopefully for the reader as well.

23. What sort of comments have you gotten about the content of the book?
I have been told that it brings the missing elements to sales and success. I have been told that it updates and professionalizes the profession of selling. I have been told that it is a book anyone should read not just salespeople.

24. What makes this a book that other people MUST read and WHY?
This book is so much more than sales it is a success primer. The book addresses the roadblocks that in some form or fashion we all face and gives you real life effective approaches to use in your life. The things expressed in this book are not just theory they are tried and tested. The approaches have worked for myself and thousands.


25. What people NEED to read this book and WHY?
They only need two things. They need an open mind and a teachable spirit.

26. What sparks your creativity? Any tips to help others spark their own
creativity?
Just about everything. I look at everything and ask what the opposite would be. I am a Contrarian. I also look at everything from a value and marketing perspective. I read newspapers from a marketing and copywriting perspective. I also get great creativity and motivation from education – Education = Motivation. I am constantly self educating myself through seminars, books, CD’s mastermind groups and more

27. What do you think motivates people to become authors? What motivated you to get into this unusual industry?
I think most people feel they have something to say and a burning desire to share. I have no misconceptions about my ability to spin prose. I only have confidence in my information and ability to communicate.

28. Tell me about the most unusual things you have done to promote any books?
I am in the process of setting up corporate sponsors and utilizing non profits where I can donate some proceeds from the book and in turn they will assist me in marketing

29. If a potential reader thinks that your book wouldn't interest them, what would you say to convince them to buy? I'm thinking something better than "Its the greatest book ever." Give me something more specific :)
Everyone is a salesperson. To be truly great at what you do, you must be great at sales in some fashion. This book is unique in the approach it takes to help you get to that success. This book breaks the mold of traditional selling techniques and brings a new perspective to sales. The world and the marketplace is a different and changing all the time and this book gives real world information on how to sell and market in today’s environment.


30. Why does the topic of your book interest you? Why would it interest potential readers? Give us a hook to reel in new readers.
I have lived and breathed sales and marketing my entire adult life. I have seen the rewards this information can bring and I have seen the sorrows that salespeople, entrepreneurs and people in general experience if they don’t have sales and marketing skills. Quite simply, you can’t afford to not have this information. It can only help and not hurt you. If you want to excel to higher levels you cannot do what you have always done. For what a person pays for book in relation to the value received and the possible results it can being is minuscule.

To read the first chapter of How to be a Sales Superstar and to receive several FREE bonuses from Mark Tewart, visit www.marktewartlive.com.

Full tour details are posted at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-be-sales-superstar-by-mark.html

Winton Churchill Talks About Promoting "Email Marketing"

You have been invited to share your promotional experience with others.

Your Name: Winton Churchill

1. Where you are from and where are you now?

Originally from Miami, Florida and now a vagabond...my business interests mean that I travel quite a bit, my company is based in Los Angeles and my wife and I have a place in Huatulco, Mexico that we consider home base.

2. How did you get started writing?

I came to writing through the back door... through the door of long copy direct marketing and advertising.

3. What do you do when you are not writing?

I run a consulting business helping executives and owners of small to medium size businesses grow their business. That usually takes the form of systematizing their sales process to eliminate the chaos I see in about 80% of all businesses of this size.

4. What would readers like to know about you?

That would have to be my name...I get questions about my name every single day!... and yes, that is my real name...there is kind of a long story about my name and rather than include it here I’ll give your readers this link so they can read the full story if they have an interest: http://www.churchillmethod.com/name.html

5. What inspired your first book?

I do a lot of speaking to small business owners on the topic of growing their business. In particular, my talk about email marketing has been very popular. I got a lot of appreciation for demystifying the concepts and putting them into plain language most business owners and executives could understand. When audience members asked me if I could recommend a book on the topic, I couldn’t find one that explained this stuff in business terms for the non-technical person...so I wrote it!

6. How many books have you written?

This is my first.

8. Why are you specially qualified to write about this topic?

There are a lot of good books about email out there but the complex sales cycle gets neglected. The things that work for selling toiletries through an online catalog site are completely wrong for say an engineering consulting firm that has to build trust and credibility before their prospects buy.

I have been using email in the complex sales cycle for over 20 years...long before most of your readers even had email address. I had the good fortune to work for companies like Apple before they were a household name, and other great companies like Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Spinnaker to name a few. I am very measurement oriented and have seen thousand of testing results in thousands of marketing campaigns and I know what works in certain situations and what doesn’t.

9. How do you manage to keep yourself focused and on track when you’re writing a book?

I have my talks and seminars transcribed and do all my editing from there. I get in to a rhythm with that and it helps me maintain focus.

10. Do you write to make money, for the love of writing or both?

I wrote this book in part because it establishes me as an authority on the topic. Of the people the do the kind of work I do, not one in a thousand has written a book about it...so it definitely elevates one’s work in the eyes of the market.

The other thought I had is that there are so many people who could benefit from email marketing (and aren’t now using it effectively) that I wanted to say something to the business people beyond those who hear me speak.

12. What are some unique methods of marketing you have used? Which were the most successful?

The book is published by MorganJames Publishing and they have done a number of the traditional things like a press release and programs with the booksellers.

The blog tour is one of the most unique and most successful. I could clearly see how effective it is when, on the third day of the tour my book hit the Amazon best seller list.

13. Do you sell through a website? If so, what’s the address? If not, why not?

I sell my company’s products through my main website ( http://www.churchillmethod.com/onlinestore.html ). The book is distributed by Ingram and available at all the usual online locations including Amazon.

14. Where can people order your books?

I have a domain set up that takes you directly to the Amazon sales page:

http://www.easyemailbook.com

15. What format are your books – e-book, print, audio etc?

Today, both hardback and paperback.

16. Will you write more books?

Yes, I have one on the works with my wife. It is a book on Winston Churchill’s leadership secrets for college students.

18. What does the future hold for you and your books?

I will continue to do both consulting and writing. I find that working in the field means I can bring a different quality to the work. I find that so many authors on this topic don’t actually work in the field...they interview people that do and write from there. That is one approach but I like to bring the most current knowledge to my readers.

19. What was the most successful thing you did to promote your books?

Has to be the blog tour and that has spawned a number of other marketing opportunities.

20. What was the least successful thing you did to promote your books?

Press release...didn’t see a lot of activity from that.


22. What makes this book special to you?

I had my first email address in 1980...so I was using email a good 10-15 years before most of the people on the planet even knew what it was. I also knew how effective it could be to build relationships and trust. I am glad to be able to bring that expertise to a large audience with this book.

23. What sort of comments have you gotten about the content of the book?

Feedback has been great...the most common theme is that readers (mostly business owners or executives) say they finally see how they can use email without being branded as a spammer or marketing pest.

24. What makes this a book that other people MUST read and WHY?

Prospects want to get to know the businesses they buy from even more than in the past. Companies are starting to recognize that the quality of the LONG TERM relationships they have makes for better sales, more profit and a better run company. Email is the best tool to build, strengthen and extend that relationship. Spam is a big problem today and many have turned away from email marketing because they incorrectly confuse it with spam. As spam prevention improves email will continue to get even more effective if done right.

25. What people NEED to read this book and WHY?

Anyone who touches sales in a company must understand this medium. In our consulting practice we typically work with the CEO, VP marketing or VP sales to design and implement effective email strategies. As your competitors begin to understand and use email, they have a discernable edge over your business if you don’t have a similar program. They can reach prospects more frequently, for less money and with greater impact than you can. If they pull ahead of you it will be very difficult for you to recover that lost ground.

We also find a lot of sales executives reading this book. Their companies frequently have “glossy brochure” sent out as email campaigns that are largely ineffective. They want sales leads and to build sales relationships. By applying some of the principles in this book they can improve the speed with which they build relationships and close deals.

26. What sparks your creativity? Any tips to help others spark their own
creativity?

My creativity is sparked by the challenge of helping a client take their product or service and turn it into a successful marketing campaign. We find those campaigns can run for months to years because it really speaks to their prospects in a way that their competitors don’t.

When I am wrestling with a challenge like this, I like to immerse myself in as much data as I can dredge up. I talk to customers, past clients, prospects, internal people and when I am drowning in information for a day or 2 I begin to get tiny insights about some aspect of the problem. The insights build into a solution almost the way you would put together a puzzle.

27. What do you think motivates people to become authors? What motivated you to get into this unusual industry?

I think that every author (myself included) believes they have a message or insight that is not being heard.

28. Tell me about the most unusual things you have done to promote any books?

It was accidental...I was traveling to Chicago sitting in an aisle seat. I was preparing to give a talk and wanted to refer to something in my book. To make sure I quoted the information exactly as I put it in the book, I whipped out the book and started flipping through the pages to find my reference. The guy sitting on the window saw the book and asked me about it. I told him I was the author. Turns out that he owns a business and wanted my consulting advice.

29. If a potential reader thinks that your book wouldn't interest them, what would you say to convince them to buy? I'm thinking something better than "Its the greatest book ever." Give me something more specific :)

If they have any responsibility for a business this is an essential process to understand. To me this is like the early days of the telephone, automobile or electric light. Many people thought it would be a passing fad. It’s not. In fact it is looking more like the aorta of the business in 5 years...and if your aorta isn’t up to snuff your business will almost certainly perish.

30. Why does the topic of your book interest you? Why would it interest potential readers? Give us a hook to reel in new readers.

Email marketing completely changes the game. It is a nearly free way to communicate with people...that’s the good news. The bad news...if you don’t communicate well they may not give you a second chance.

If you have to form a relationship with your prospects before they buy, you have a complex sale. Most of what you know about selling won’t work in this new environment. Read this book and you clearly see how to make those changes.

For more information, visit www.churchillmethod.com. Visit www.virtualblogtour.blogspot.com for the most up to date information. His full tour schedule is posted at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/06/winton-churchill-email-marketing-for.html. Winton Churchill is offering a wealth of free gifts for every person that purchases his book Email Marketing. Visit www.churchillmethod.com/bookbonus for full details about how to download all of these free gifts.