Once you've put your list together, you'll want to contact them and pitch them idea. Or, in some cases, our company will send them book and proposal before we even make phone contact. Sometimes companies you've targeted will be on lookout for incentive items, other times this will be a new (and exciting) area for them. If you're going after employee incentives, it's interesting to note (and mention in your sales letter) that employee incentives increase individual performance by 27% and team performance by %45 percent.

Be open and creative with your pursuit of premium sales! Many times, companies will want to put their logo on cover or include an extra page in book with a letter from President or CEO. Check with your printer or publisher on whether this is possible for you and what additional costs will be before you start pursuing premium sales arena.

So, how long does this process take? We've seen premium sales turn around in a week, while others take a year or more to complete. Oh, and most important part... how many books can you plan to sell? Anywhere from one thousand to several thousand depending on deal and company. We've even got a deal in works for a half a million copies of one book. Discounts and negotiations vary. Often, we'll negotiate volume discounts of 50% to 70% on bulk orders. Again, make sure you've got these figures ready when you pick up phone to make your pitch.

With right book, premium sales are not only a great way to gain exposure of your book. But in end, they make great "cents."

Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed ranks at Amazon.com to #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: No More Rejections. Get Published Today! was released in July of 2002 to rave reviews. Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.booksbypen.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com Copyright  2004 Penny C. Sansevieri

It is also important that you can take some no-holds-barred and no-punches-pulled feedback. If one of your advisors tells you, “I think you are full of sh*t on this issue, and this is my evidence”, what do you do?

Remember boardroom is not for politeness and niceties. It is for brutal bone honesty. If you advisors tell you something it may hurt your ego. But if market tells you something, it can cost you big dough, or even can send you to wall. Business is an emotional issue and during heated discussions four-letter words can fly sometimes uncontrollably. It is just part of process.

Using Orson Welles’s words as Harry Lime, in “The Third Man”, “In Italy for 30 years under Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed—and produced Michelangelo, da Vinci and Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce — cuckoo clock.”

Once you have these advisors, let them push you into a little bit of boardroom warfare and bloodshed, and let them help you to become a da Vinci of your field. Nobody has ever been sweet-talked into excellence. Except if your vision is to build cuckoo clocks.

Sadly many business owners would throw these advisors out of their offices, which only confirm that so many business owners do not want advisors. They want a group of people who unanimously agree with business owner’s choice and praise his/her god-like wisdom.

The other problem is when business owners do not even involve board members in decision making. They only call emergency meetings when ship is sinking after repeated hard blows caused by a chain if decision icebergs.

Meet your advisors 2-4 times per year at least for one (two are better) full day. You do not have to pay them a fee but paying their expenses at a reasonable resort or a restaurant is bare minimum.

What to Discuss with Your Advisors?

Keep your discussions as strategic as possible. Then when strategy is done, you can ask for some help on tactical issues, but main emphasis is on strategy. Include topics like...

* New people to hire

* Market movements

* Economic trends and indicators

* Current and upcoming management issues

* Your strategy in current and future market climate

* Competition intelligence

* Your publishing ideas and intentions

Your personal growth and life plan (Business is just a means to an end, that is, to a better quality of life. The idea is not to balance your business AGAINST your life, but to seamlessly blend business into your whole life. With balance something has to give. With blending you can have your cake and eat it too. Watch that waste line!)

The final wisdom is this: “Only Prince who himself is wise, can be wisely advised.” ~ Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. You can have best advisors under sun, but if you habitually ignore their advice, then nothing will happen.

So, what can you do today to bring objectivity to your firm through advisors?

Start shortlisting people whom you would have on your board and explain why. Make sure you avoid typical Multilevel Marketing (MLM) problem. MLM people only mix with other MLM people within same company. What is wisdom there? It looks like incest to me.

Make a list of first three issues you want to discuss with your advisor and get moving.