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| Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 142 reviews)
Sales Rank: 8533
Category: Book
Author: Harry Beckwith
Publisher: Business Plus
Studio: Business Plus
Manufacturer: Business Plus
Label: Business Plus
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0446520942
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.8
EAN: 9780446520942
ASIN: 0446520942
Publication Date: March 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
The transformation from a manufacturing-based economy to one that's all about service has been well documented. Today it's estimated that nearly 75 percent of Americans work in the service sector. Instead of producing tangibles--automobiles, clothes, and tools--more and more of us are in the business of providing intangibles--health care, entertainment, tourism, legal services, and so on. However, according to Harry Beckwith, most of these intangibles are still being marketed like products were 20 years ago. In Selling the Invisible, Beckwith argues that what consumers are primarily interested in today are not features, but relationships. Even companies who think that they sell only tangible products should rethink their approach to product development and marketing and sales. For example, when a customer buys a Saturn automobile, what they're really buying is not the car, but the way that Saturn does business. Beckwith provides an excellent forum for thinking differently about the nature of services and how they can be effectively marketed. If you're at all involved in marketing or sales, then Selling the Invisible is definitely worth a look.
Product Description
A comprehensive guide to service marketing furnishes tips and advice on how one can apply one's business knowledge to any area of sales and marketing, from a home-based consultancy to a multinational brokerage firm.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 137 more reviews...
 Know Where To Hammer November 18, 2008
The excellent book Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith makes many great points about service marketing, including that a good solution today is better than a perfect solution tomorrow. A ready-fire-aim approach (implement first, then iterate to fix mistakes) is generally better than a ready-aim-fire approach (wait for the perfect solution, then implement). You've still got to aim. You've still got to fire. But you may need to reconsider the order.
 Drinking from a fire hose October 12, 2008
Nutshell review - This little book has +/-200 tips and points about marketing in service businesses. These are presented in a collection of short stories or mini-chapters of a paragraph or two with a bullet point note at the end - a field guide indeed. It's a bit like drinking from a fire hose with almost too many points being made but if just a few points help your cause then it will have been a worthwhile read.
 Worth the price for 1.5 pages rated below September 7, 2008
It's a good read, but there is a page and half that has had a major impact, showing me where I have a huge blindspot in business and how I stop my own progress. This page and a half is possibly the most important material I've read in a book in several years (for me it applies directly).
The author talks about the Fallacy of Planning in a business setting. He ranks plans in this order:
1. Very Good
2. Good
3. Best
4. Fair
5. Poor
Why is Good ahead of Best? Simple, to arrive at Best takes orders of magnitude more planning than Good. Also, who defines Best? How much time is spent creating the Best plan? Will Best stand the test of time? Can everyone agree on Best? Would Good work just as well as Best in the real world? Is Best satisfying the client's need better than a Good plan?
Choosing the "Best" plan leads to Paralysis by Analysis. Good plans allow for quick action and constant improvement. The most successful people in the world have acted on Good plans that they have refined over time. An actionable plan is more successful than a plan that never leaves the drawing board!
Personally, I've fallen into the Best trap many times. There is no such thing as a "Best" plan. Going forward the "Best" plan will be the "Good" plan that I can put into action and refine over time!
A lightbulb went off in my head when I got this concept. Thank you Harry for this valuable lesson.
A Great Book. September 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great advice on how to sell a service.
I have a Moleskine full of notes from this book.
I have a photography business and I'm implementing the tactics from this awesome book now!
Very Well Done - Get This and Potter's "Winning" Book August 28, 2008
Now, this is the book to get from Beckwith - don't waste your time with "What Clients Love" (60% of that book is in here and the rest of it is largely a promo for why you need hire a professional branding firm).
This book has lots of good gems that you should be able to put to use right away, including:
- the three stages of a service company and the relationship to positioning and sales
- tips on customer/client surveys
- why, when selling a service, you're actually selling a relationship and what to do
- how prospects decide
- why the there are really 2 aspects you bill for: the commodity (such as hammering a nail) and the expertise (knowing where to hammer)
And so on. Very well done.
As a side note, what this book will not do for you is lay out a plan for you to compete in this "invisible" market effectively; for that, take a look at Potter's "Winning in the Invisible Market."
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