The title of Monday morning’s first session for the Day of Education’s children’s edition was “Mind Share into Market Share”—a theme that carried over into the rest of the day’s sessions, as booksellers first brainstormed how to more effectively use their expertise to increase sales in general, and then how to best reach teen readers who have come of age in the digital era.

Both the “Mind Share into Market Share” session and the final session, “The Digital Market and YA” kicked off with Kristen McLean—a special consultant for the American Booksellers Association’s ABC Children’s Group, and former executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children—introducing findings about consumer buying habits gleaned from the fall 2010 ABC/Bowker PubTrack survey of 1,500 consumers of children’s books.

“People come into stores, browse, ask advice, and then leave the store, and buy books somewhere else,” McLean told a crowd of about 70 booksellers. “How can booksellers turn mind share (advice) into market share (purchases)?” Remember, she told the booksellers, they are selling “the experience of discovery.” Don’t be afraid to pluck the heartstrings of customers.”

“Start with ‘why,’ ” she added, referring to marketing consultant Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle model for inspiring people and organizations.

Urging booksellers to better articulate their core values as a means of driving sales, McLean led a q&a about the nuts-and-bolts of how to best communicate their “why” to customers with booksellers Diane Capriola of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Ga., and Valerie Koehler of the Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston.

“Take what you do and just push it a little,” McLean said. “Look for things you are doing already to better articulate that ‘why.’ ” For instance, Koehler said, Blue Willow provides free gift wrap, with wrapping paper emblazoned with the store’s logo. Capriola hands out promotional materials about the store to everyone who enters, whether or not they make a purchase. And both booksellers emphasized the importance of providing advice on new “must-reads” they’ve discovered that customers would not otherwise hear about.

They also both described how to draw in new customers by holding author events. “It’s the easiest way to bring people in,” Capriola said.

During the afternoon session, McLean and her three panelists—Scholastic editorial director David Levithan; bookseller Meghan D. Goel, the children’s book buyer at Austin’s BookPeople; and Figment.com founder Jacob Lewis—delved into the psychology of YA readers. McLean explained that 39% of teens read books for pleasure, and 58% of them use social media. Contrary to popular mythology, 35% of teens prefer print books to e-readers. While teens are admittedly tech-savvy, they value both content and community.

Use technology to energize teens, Levithan urged. “Get everybody together from the start with a call to action,” he said, for example, by bringing the author to any bookstore selling 100 copies of a book in advance. Teens are “social animals,” Goel noted. “If they’re into something, they can’t get enough of it.” It’s a matter of harnessing that enthusiasm and starting a dialogue with teens on their own terms.

“It’s not about the device,” McLean concluded. “It’s about the power of the device to let us be in the world more, to connect.”