Guy Kawasaki recently blogged about a book which has been increasing in rankings in part because of an online, interactive test that people can take to find out if they are the ones that the book is talking about (it deals with jerks in the workplace). Apparently anyone can take the test. Without a doubt, I believe that this would help increase sales of the book. So, why aren't the authors of "Now, Discover Your Strengths" doing that same thing? They have one of the best online tools that I've seen in a while that helps individuals identify the innate strengths that they have. You can only take the test if you buy a copy of their book first and get a keycode from inside. Even worse, if you buy the book used and the first person has already taken the test, you're out of luck. Their response: You should have bought it new. You can't buy a keycode. Not only is that some of the worst marketing that I've ever seen, but it seems incredibly arrogant. I understand that their is positioning and they may be trying to use the strengthsfinder tool as a tool to complement the book, but it would help spread the word and spread the ideas to offer it to everyone. I loved the book and wanted to do a summary of it for some classes and have the students take the profile. Apparently that can't happen without everyone in the class buying their own copy of the book. So you might think that this will help sell more copies, but instead, we're just not even going to mention the book or the strengthsfinder profile. Why mention something that the people can't access if you know they aren't going to go out and buy the book? So, lost sales versus position. It's a hard debate.

Labels: books