One of my goals for 2017 is to read a book a week. My ability to sell marketing funnels, building a coaching program, write a course and become better with money are all down to self improvement.
These 11 books below have absolutely improved my ability to sell marketing funnels to customers. Finding new leads, understanding the sales process, working with customers and giving me time back.
We can all find time to read, every single one of us. Even 10 minutes a day can drastically increase your knowledge, confidence and ability.
So, with that, these 11 books have been fundamental in me increasing my funnel sales to customers. Some have done more than just help me sell, they’ve changed my life. Others are specific funnel based books that help me better understand what I’m delivering.
Think And Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill
Our first book on the list is so old it doesn’t even have an accompanying website or business. Published in 1937, Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a look at how 500 wealthy Americans became so rich.
It’s not about education, or where you’re from. It’s about the desire and dogged determination that you need to have in order to strike gold.
Think And Grow Rich was as much about faith in myself as it was about finding more customers. But overall, it taught me that just because I haven’t sold something today, in no way impacts whether I’ll sell something tomorrow.
It also taught me to look for people with similar energy. People who want to work hard and have a desire. People who are positive and know they’re going to make a difference.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Robert Kiyosaki
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki was one of the first self improvement and money management books I read. It covers Robert’s life through from childhood to later in life.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, again explores how your financial status in life is down to you and no one else. Not the government or big business, not your education or genetics or family. It’s about understanding what to do with money.
It taught me how to sell funnels better, by having a system in place which would mean I could focus on what works. No longer do I build the funnels myself, I can talk to customers.
The more I invest into helping people build funnels for me and with me, the more time I have to explore new ideas and ways of building businesses. It also taught me that above all else, we’re all human. So don’t forget that you’re still dealing with people.
4 Hour Work Week
Timothy Ferriss
Personally, I’m not a massive fan of Tim Ferriss. I honestly get why people love him, but I can’t connect with him as a person. But just as we separate artists from the personal behaviour, I thoroughly enjoyed 4 Hour Work Week.
4 Hour Work Week is a practical guide to leaving the office earlier and having more time for what matters. It follows Tim through his journey to self made entrepreneur, sharing real life stories and examples of others who have taken the challenge.
4 Hour Work Week helped me sell more marketing funnels, by teaching me that I’m not the only one who can do it all. Customer support, design, development etc. can all be handled elsewhere.
Eventually it’s my goal to support my business from far enough away, that it can run itself with great management and profitably. While I’m surfing in Portugal.
Built To Sell
John Warrillow
Built To Sell follows a fictional marketing and branding agency owner who wants to sell his business. He’s tired of client work and dealing with feast and famine income cycles. He decides he’s going to sell the business and move on.
The key to Built To Sell by John Warrillow, is that by building a business that you can sell, it actually becomes easier to manage. The reason the owner wants to sell, is to prevent dealing with all the problems that have appeared in his business.
But by reworking the business model and understanding what to focus on, you can create a business that is both easier to manage and profitable.
Built To Sell helped me sell marketing funnels by helping me focus on a target market and product. We no longer provide a “service” to our customers, they’re buying a product which is easily repeatable and easier to build. If people don’t want that, then that’s fine. But we now don’t bend our will to customer’s expectations. And we’re better off for it.
Deep Work
Cal Newport
Deep Work is a fascinating read and probably not something which would be easily sold to people as a concept. The idea is that we are constantly distracted more and more. Social media, TV, phone calls, meetings, games, apps etc. Our brains are getting used to the dopamine hit of changing tasks every 30 seconds.
We can’t even stand in a queue now for the bank, without taking out our phone and checking some social media or text bullshit. Meetings, phone calls, interruptions. They all prevent us from doing actual work. Deep Work provides a system and series of exercises for getting more work done.
No matter how busy or “hectic” your life is, you can carve out time to develop better work habits. Deep Work helped me sell more marketing funnels by giving me more time back. I have time where I can do client work, have meetings, answer emails, write content and go to the gym.
Deep Work didn’t teach me any sales tactics, but it did give me 2 hours every day to find customers and that’s worth it’s weight in gold.
The 10X Rule
Grant Cardone
I’m a huge fan of improving my overall sales technique. I understand that a lot of business, particularly funnel businesses aren’t a fan of sales. But that’s because sales has been given a bad rap. Without sales, nothing gets sold.
Grant Cardone’s The 10X Rule, was so impactful on me that I re-listened to the audio book and bought the Kindle version to read along with. It’s about how if we want to have a 10X result i.e. 10 times the number we’re used to, 10 times more sales or more income. Then we MUST be willing to 10X our input and activities.
That was such a huge point to me that I took it immediately to heart. It’s as if I finally understood what I had to do, to reach the results I wanted.
The 10X Rule helped me sell more funnels, by helping me understand the journey I was going to take for my business. I wanted a “10” as a result. Well then I better be prepared to input 100. If I wanted blog traffic, and everyone else is doing 1 post a week. I was going to do 4 posts a week. And a podcast. And videos. And training.
If people told me to back down, I’d ramp up. If one person turned me down, I’d make a call to speak to two more. Long and short, the motivation behind my business comes from Grant’s book and philosophy.
The Invisible Selling Machine
Ryan Deiss
Ryan Deiss is the CEO of Digitalmarketer.com. He was the first person in the world to explain “funnels” to me as I understand them today. The first time I read his blog post on the CVO, I read every post on that website. I watched all the videos, consumed all the courses and am still an avid learner of his work.
The Invisible Selling Machine is a behind the scenes look at how successful funnels work. The Invisible Selling Machine taught me how to sell more funnels, by understanding the value and offer that was being built. I understood the results and benefits of what I was selling.
I began to see clearly what it was I building for my customers and how they’d be better off. I understood the value and how their lives are better with this system.
DotComSecrets
Russell Brunson
Another funnel specific book. Russell Brunson’s DotComSecrets is a play by play look at how to build online marketing systems. It’s got INSANE levels of value, with stories, examples, written email templates, funnel blueprints – the works.
In theory, you could learn everything you need to know about funnels from just this book. The way that DotComSecrets taught me to sell more funnels, is by showing me what Russell found beneficial in them. Everything he did in the book, is an account of what a customer would find useful. Every new point he raised and every time he learnt something, is something my customers would find helpful. It it essentially a story on how he benefitted from building funnels.
Pitch Anything
Oren Klaff
I first heard of Oren on a webinar held by WP Elevation. It was about how to pitch a website to a customer. I was hooked from the moment he spoke. Oren’s book, Pitch Anything, is not just a strategy on building presentations, pitches and sales letters. It’s an entire insight into the psychological and physical reasons why people DON’T buy from you.
Everything about the book is designed to reposition and skyrocket your value. Instantly you can position yourself as the prize and stop seeing the customer’s money as a gift. You are the prize and they should pay for the privilege.
Pitch Anything helped me sell more funnels by helping me understand the argument, pitch and sale of a marketing funnel. I knew the benefits and results I could get. But I had no way of structuring the story. The journey someone made from “I’ll hear him out” to “I want this in my life” became so clear and almost every video, pitch, presentation, blog post, course, proposal and sales letter followed Oren’s S.T.R.O.N.G. method.
Traction
Gabriel Weinberg
“Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.”
― Gabriel Weinberg, Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
I kicked myself for not reading this book sooner. It’s from the Founder of Duckduckgo, a search engine that doesn’t track you. It’s a playbook of 13 methods and channels that your business can find customers in. Seriously. Read this book.
Businesses don’t fail because their product sucks. What they do is try something like social, and give up. Then they move onto something else and again and again until they have to call it quits. Traction is about choosing the right channel for you and nailing it until you’ve built momentum. THEN moving onto the next stage.
Traction taught me how to find customers for my funnel business, by showing me where I need to focus my energy and how to do it. Mark and I (the CEO of MeBox), focused purely on networking and referrals for the first year. It landed us a few solid customers which allowed us to move into other areas.
Duct Tape Marketing
John Jantsch
John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing was the first marketing book I read when I started my first business. Rather than focusing on high level marketing tactics, it talks about getting shit done.
Doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to be done. Release what you have and focus on who you’re helping. Duct Tape Marketing helped me sell more marketing funnels by giving me a practical and “boot-strap” (even though I hate that term) marketing plan.
Focus on my customer and focus on helping them.
I don’t have time to read!
Find time.
My favourite book out of all of them…there isn’t a favourite. I know that’s a copout. But my favourite point raised, by every single book and something that helps me sell marketing funnels every day. Is persistence.
Constant, committed, persistent, regular work. Small steps every day to move me closer to my goal. Not giving in or accepting failure as a reality. Setbacks are temporary. I’m comfortable knowing that I’m going to sell marketing funnels to people who need them. Everything else is temporary.
MeBox is going to help 100 membership businesses generate $100 million. It’s that simple. It’s my job to help people do that.
Have you read any of these books? Which of your favourite books have I missed out? Let me know in the comments below.
