Unearth Today’s Quicker Wins

Ann Gonzales is a children’s book author. “Beloved and the Pepper Tree” shares a young child’s sadness about moving away from her best friend, the Pepper Tree. Not only is the story relatable, the book is beautifully produced. Everyone who sees the book comments on how gorgeous it is. The story and production are well done. Ann placed it onto Amazon with little marketing or promoting the book prior to our meeting. Her initial print run of a few thousand copies was stored, split between her home and the publisher’s warehouse.

My company’s business model is large quantity bulk sales and content licensing to companies and associations. Our first steps are to expand the Subject Matter Expert's product line. That's done with one readily available product while marketing other agreed-upon related content versions. Small product runs are often done to produce samples. The additional product versions are promoted on a multi-product promotional sheet. Market first, produce next, and only when a well-vetted, prospective buyer is on the horizon.

Ann was ready to explore new pathways for her book – bulk sales rather than single-copy sales, and expanding her product line, despite coming to these models for the first time.

We agreed to three new concepts:

• Audio recording of Ann reading the story, creating a professionally produced product

• Jigsaw puzzle using one page of the book’s artwork as the completed puzzle image

• Card deck of 26-cards , based on characters and elements of the book's story

It was time to start the sales process, contacting corporate and association decision-makers. We got a lot done in the two months of working together. It was now early March, 2020. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic!

While corporate and association decision-makers had budgets , little was known about the pandemic and no one would talk with us.

Now what?

Ann was willing to continue working together. We discovered successful inroads by tapping ideas stored in our mental hard drives and seeing opportunities others may not have noticed.

A colleague’s photo on Facebook showed his life partner's decision to upend a bucket of orphan socks from the dryer, collected through the 13 years they lived together. I wrote a comment: “That’s quite an impressive collection of socks! If only they could talk.” And there it was. Those socks COULD talk – as sock puppets! And there was no barrier to entry for anyone.

That birthed a free activities club for children 3-6 to interact with adults in their life once the adult entered their email address. This would be a great way to engage website visitors and build a mailing list to show corporate and association decision makers. This email list would be evidence of interest from likely potential buyers for our corporate clients’ products and/or services. Ann is well versed and certified in Expressive Arts. The sock puppet idea resonated well with her. because of that.

The sock puppets and free activity club keep things moving while COVID-19 dictated life as we knew it. Then I recalled another chat I had. My friend, Lorraine, shared that her late husband left her a lot of money. She was learning about charitable donations to minimize her tax bill. I had an idea to help her, Ann, some non-profits, and the non-profits’ recipients.

It was October 2020, time to take my friend Lorraine to lunch, and to propose an idea. Ann’s book, sample audio CD in a beautifully designed jewel case, sample jigsaw puzzle, and sample card deck went with me to lunch. Ann's products came out when lunch was done.

I told my friend I knew she was looking for well-rated non-profits on Charity Navigator’s website aligned with her values and causes. I handed her Ann's book. I summarized the story of a sad child anticipating moving away with her family. This story would be ideal for military kids. I found two well rated non-profits whose mission is supporting military families. This was an important cause to my friend.

Oooing and ahhhing as she flipped the book’s pages, without missing a beat, said “I’ll give you $5,000 toward that.” That let us donate 500 book copies plus cover shipping. The donation went to two different non-profits who support military families. My friend had a tax deduction. Our author made a sale paid by my friend. The non-profits brought value to their military families. The children and adult recipients were delighted by the gift. My company was a catalyst in turning a challenging situation into successfully helping many people.

Private donor sponsorship is a new model to offer clients. It can be easier and faster than corporate sponsorship or direct bulk sales to the military for such gifts.