| Title | : | Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0446520942 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780446520942 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 252 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1997 |
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing Reviews
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Sound bytes on how to sell services, which is drastically different than selling a product.
Key points, borrowed from others reviews:
1) Simplify access to your work! [Learn how to create executive summaries, tables of contents, hyper-links, etc.--don't assume that everyone knows your value and is willing to spend time digging into your work.]
2) Quality, speed, and price are *not* in competition, they must be offered simulaneously and at full value.
3) What is your promise or value proposition? Are you just showing up, or does every day offer a chance for you to show your value in a specific way?
4) Don't just be the best in your given vocation, *change it* for the better and redefine what "best" means!
5) Sell your relationship (and your understanding of the other person's needs), not just your expertise in isolation. Your boss or client has three choices and you are the last: to do nothing, to do it themselves, or to use you. Focus on being the first choice every time.
6) Execute with passion--and if you are a super-geek or nerd that does not have a high social IQ, form a partnership with a super-popular person and put them in front. -
Powerful, practical advice on marketing and selling services and intangibles. Overall, one of the best books I’ve read on sales and marketing. The short lessons are easy to read, yet thought-provoking and entertaining. Most lessons contain examples from the sales and marketing efforts of companies, or anecdotes from the author’s experience. The examples and stories work well for illustrating his points, but I prefer to see claims backed by broader research and statistical evidence.
Some of my favorite parts were about selling relationships rather than expertise. I also liked the advice about making your brand known and your services comfortable, because people buy what they’re familiar with. I’m a huge fan of value-based pricing over hourly pricing, so I enjoyed the lessons on pricing based on experience rather than time. There are several tips for maintaining client relations, and I liked the point about telling your clients what you’ve done for them. I really liked the point that you don’t win people with service quality, but with the merchandising of your service quality.
I read this because it was recommended on
BizCraft Episode 6 – All about pricing. Later, a friend who runs a successful IT services company recommended it. I wish I had read it a year ago when I first heard about it.
Here are my notes. The quotes are straight from the book.
Getting Started
• “The core of service marketing is the service itself.”
• “Create the possible service; don’t just create what the market needs or wants. Create what it would love.”
Surveying and Research
• “Have a third party do your surveys” because clients won’t tell you their true feelings.
• Conduct oral surveys rather than written ones because people say more and you can hear tone of voice.
Marketing is Not a Department
• “In planning your marketing, don’t just think of your business. Think of your skills.”
• “In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise - because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are selling a relationship.”
• Most clients aren’t choosing between you and your competitors; they’re choosing whether to use any service at all rather than do it themselves or do nothing.
• “Be professional - but, more importantly, be personable.”
Anchors, Warts, and American Express
• “Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can.” People choose services based on familiarity, not objective attributes.
• “Take advantage of the Recency Effect [bias towards most recent data]. Follow up brilliantly.”
• “Forget looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice. Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice.”
• “[People don’t] choose a good experience; they [choose] to minimize the risk of a bad experience.” “Yes, build the quality into your service - but make it less risky, too.”
• Eliminate fear by offering a trial period or test project.
• “Rather than hide your weaknesses, admit them.” Being honest and trustworthy increases conversion rate.
Positioning and Focus
• Position yourself as an expert in the hardest task in your industry, and it will imply that you can also handle simpler tasks.
• Take advantage of the Halo Effect. “Say one positive thing, and you will become associated with many.”
Ugly Cats, Boat Shoes, and Overpriced Jewelry
• The Picasso Principle: “Don’t charge by the hour. Charge by the years.” When a woman objected to Picasso’s price, claiming that a painting only took him three minutes, he replied, “No, it took me all my life.”
• The Carpenter Corollary to the Picasso Principle: “Charge for knowing where.” A carpenter charged $2 for hammering and $43 for knowing where to hammer.
Monogram Your Shirts, Not Your Company
• “In service marketing, almost nothing beats a brand.”
• “A service is a promise, and building a brand builds your promise.”
Benefits of having a brand
• Word of mouth spreads easier and farther.
• More clients convert because they’re comfortable with brand names.
• Branded services spend less time and money in the selling process (there’s less effort required in following up).
• “Give your prospects a shortcut. Give them a brand.”
• “Your greatest competition is not your competition. It is indifference.”
• “Say one thing.” “Saying many things usually communicates nothing.”
• “Prospects do not buy how good you are at what you do. They buy how good you are at who you are.” When asked to rank criteria, clients put trust and relationship above performance.
• “People will trust their eyes far before they will ever trust your words.” “What do your visibles say about the invisible thing you are trying to sell?”
• “Offer quality without creating that perception of quality and you have failed the client, and yourself.”
• “Advertising is publicity.” Advertising can be as effective as (or more than) word-of-mouth for raising awareness.
• “Don’t sell your service. Sell your prospect.” Find out what they want, what they need, and who they are.
Nurturing and Keeping Clients
• When you think you’ve earned a client’s business, they think you’ve only earned the right to earn their business.
• “Failures are obvious but most successes are invisible…[so] advertise your successes. Show your client what you have done. If you beat the deadline...make sure the client knows. If you came under the estimate...make sure the client knows. If you are especially proud of something you did, make sure the client knows.”
• “Create a feeling of satisfaction by showing the client how you are satisfying others. Communicate your successes: new clients, new successes, new awards, new recognitions, new testimonials, growth in staff and revenues.”
Summing Up
Think of staying in a hotel. “We do not see the quality; we see the symbols of quality that say ‘clean room.’ It is not the hotel’s service quality that wins us; it is the hotel’s merchandising of its quality.” -
What I enjoyed most about this book was the idea that services should be viewed as something to sell, just like a product. I found I wanted to hand it to several local businesses and even some larger corporations, because if more people behaved like this, we'd all enjoy our business interactions so much more.
My only complaint is that in business terms, it's been awhile since it's been written. I'd love to see it revised and include a chapter on the internet. Though, to be fair, I got my copy from the library, and this may exist but I don't know it.
I'll add that I am in no way a marketing type; I read this for research for a character I'm writing. So I'll add that this book is very accessible for a layman. -
BEST BUSINESS BOOK I'VE READ YET.
All you wedding industry business owners - put this on your must-read list. It's packed full of good stuff. Not to mention it's written with us in mind.
Take the title: "Selling the Invisible." Those of us who are selling a service are doing just that - selling something that, at the time it is purchased, is invisible. I love how Beckwith starts the book: "So as a service marketer...you face prospects almost shaking with worry, and sensitive to any mistake you might make. That is where your marketing must start: with a clear understanding of that worried soul." Recognizing how the potential client who walks into my office must feel -- they want to remember the most amazing day of their lives and are willing to spend thousands of dollars to do so but there are no guarantees -- really humbles me and makes me want to do whatever I can to help eliminate their fears and uncertainty.
Over and over again while I read this book, my belief in the power of blogging was confirmed. Blogging is so powerful because it helps form a connection with potential clients that can grow trust within their hearts and eliminate the fears and uncertainty they are faced with when hiring a wedding photographer. Blogs give the business owner the opportunity to demonstrate integrity and consistency which are foundational if we are going to ask clients to trust us. As Beckwith says, "A service is a promise....What you really are selling is your honesty." I can't tell you how many times I've been hired by couples without even meeting them or how many times they have walked into my office already sold because my blog has removed all obstacles for them already. They feel they can trust me. What an honor. I really take that seriously. And it makes me want to do whatever I can to continue to build trust in them throughout the course of our working relationship through amazing customer service.
Beckwith explores so many different areas of marketing -- getting customer feedback, knowing your client & what you are selling, positioning and focus, pricing, naming and branding, communicating and selling -- all with the service industry in mind. His chapters are short and to the point with the point literally spelled out in bold faced type at the end of each one. There is just a wealth of information in this book and it really inspired me. -
Don't charge by the hour. Charge by the years.
My first impression of the book? If there is a book that says the word "service" couple million times, it's "Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing". At one point it started to be so ridiculous that I was beyond annoyed – I was certain that English language simply must have other words that could be suitably used instead of "service". Thesaurus gives me 32 synonyms and not all of them are equivalent but I felt like Mr. Beckman was purposely trying to make me hate the word. I even felt sorry for the poor narrator, Jeffrey Jones, who probably still goes to therapy because of this word-abuse.
But let's focus a bit more on the other aspects of the book now. I startedreadinglistening "Selling the Invisible" because I know next to nothing about marketing and it came up when I was scanning Amazon for "Best Books about Marketing / Selling" (I know, my googling skills are off the charts). So I thought I'd give it a try. And it left me with some mixed feelings.There's little point in killing an idea by saying it might fail. Any idea might fail. If you're doing anything worthwhile at all, you'll suffer a dozen failures. Start failing so you can start succeeding.
First of all, it's a very short book (the audiobook is less than 2 hours long) and therefore it doesn't have the luxury to beat around the bush. The chapters / subchapters are usually very short and try to get to the point very fast. Often so fast, that I didn't even register that the chapter was over and this subject is done and closed now. Which was okay at times but more than one occasion I was left with a feeling that I wish it went more in-depth and explored some ideas further.Building your brand doesn't take millions. It takes imagination.
Secondly, as you may have figured out already, "Selling the Invisible" tries to be the kind of book that gives out short pointers to people who are already in the business and try to think outside the box. Bear in mind, that I'm not an economy nor business major (although my family is very business-oriented) and while I'm in the business, I cannot consider myself an expert.
Nevertheless, I found very little new information from "Selling the Invisible". Yes, there were some interesting pointers and some sentences were formed nicely into slogans that one could print on a poster or shout from rooftops. But it wasn't revolutionary. And while it tried to be innovative and push you to step further, I wasn't left with a rush of inspiration nor motivation after finishing this book. I didn't feel like my way with dealing with customers changed. No, what I felt was more in the lines of "Great, I still have to figure this shit out myself."
I can't figure out which baffles me more: that it's a best-seller or that is marketed as "an eye-opener".
Yes, I, too, had hopes that maybe, just maybe it actually holds valuable and even life-altering information. In a way, it does (I mean, in a way every book does) but it didn't really leave with a lasting impression. I've already forgotten most that was discussed in "Selling the Invisible" and some bits that have stayed with me still have to face the endless battles of the real world business. Do they stay relevant? Are they really that universal?
Overall, I hope there's a better book on marketing / selling out there. Forever the optimist.
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I've read this thing probably 5 times. As is often the case though you need to re-read these things from time to time. It's one of the first marketing books I read that specifically addresses the challenges of a 'service' business. Marketing a service is a unique challenge given the intangible nature of what you're dealing with. This is a quick read, and while not as entertaining as other authors it Beckwith does impart some important tips and ideas.
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4 starts because I wanted more but this book is designed to deliver sound bites and is rather good one.
Straight to the point with the confidence of an expert reminds old and new in service business the basics of marketing. -
Work in marketing? Read this book. Work in customer service? Read this book. Work in sales? Read this book. Starting your own business? Read this book! (Borrowed a copy from our CEO, read it cover to cover, then bought a copy for myself.)
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Quite a few years old now, this book still has plenty of relevance and tips for service marketers. I keep it handy on the shelf and full of Post-it flags!
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Loy Machedo’s Book Review – Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
Harry Beckwith is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Standford University, the author of books which have sold over 1.2 Million Copies in 24 languages and among the World’s Five Best Speakers on Sales and Marketing as per a 2009 Poll of 13,000.
Among the books he has authored,
• Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
• You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself
• What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business
• Unthinking: The Surprising Forces Behind What We Buy
• The Invisible Touch: The Four Keys to Modern Marketing
I have read two.
You, Inc. and now this one Selling the Invisible.
Beckwith's style of writing is essentially mini-essays ranging from half a page to maybe a couple of pages. In all his books, his standard is the same - The language is simple, straightforward and each little piece contains a nugget of marketing truth.
Selling the Invisible focuses on the core problem of Service Marketing – Service Quality. It suggests how to learn what you must improve, with examples of techniques that work. There are not many examples and anecdotes in the book, however the ones that are mentioned – McDonald’s Super-Fast Service, Standard Processes, Super-Clean Environment & World Class Experience; FedEx’s Supremacy in Logistic and the Disneyland Experience of Magic does drive home the point very effectively.
The one question that Harry did ask and which stopped my whole world dead on its tracks was when he stated ‘Define the Business You Really Are In’. That question by itself opened the flood gates of reality and made me really think. It was more like paraphrasing the age of question ‘Who are you?”
Divided into eleven sections with multiple one- to three-page chapters in each section, Beckwith’s book gives bite-sized lessons on what clients and prospects (that is, potential clients) want, expect, and find persuasive.
Highlights
These are the highlights of the Nuggets Beckwith parts with.
Regarding Your Basic Service
1. Assume your service is bad. It can't hurt, and it will force you to improve.
2. Let your clients set your standards.
3. Ignore your industry's benchmarks, and copy Disney's.
4. Big mistakes are big opportunities.
5. Don't just think better. Think different.
6. The first rule of marketing planning - always start at zero.
7. Create the possible service; don't just create what the market needs or wants. Create what it would love.
Regarding Market Research
1. Always have a third party conduct quality satisfaction surveys.
2. Survey, survey, survey.
3. Beware of written surveys; it's far better to conduct oral surveys, as you have a chance to clarify any misunderstandings.
4. Beware of focus groups - they often reveal more about group dynamics than about how individuals think.
Regarding Marketing
1. Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing employee.
2. "In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise - because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead you are selling a relationship."
3. Before you try to satisfy "the client", understand and satisfy the person.
4. Often, your client will face the choice of having you perform the service, or doing it themselves. Therefore, often your biggest competitors are your prospects.
5. Make technology a key part of every marketing plan.
6. Study each point of contact with your client - your receptionist, your business card, your building, your brochure, your web site, your invoices. Then improve each one significantly.
7. Be professional - but, more importantly, be personable.
Regarding Planning
1. You'll never know the future, so don't assume that you should. Plan for several possible futures. (p.59)
2. In successful companies, tactics drive strategy as much or more than strategy drives tactics. Do anything.
3. Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally.
4. Do it now. The business obituary pages are filled with planners who waited.
5. Have a healthy distrust of what experience has taught you.
6. Don't let perfect ruin good.
How Prospects Think
1. Appeal only to a prospect's reason and you may have no appeal at all.
2. Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can.
3. Take advantage of the Recency Effect. Follow up brilliantly.
4. The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate their fear. Offer a trial period or test project.
Positioning and Focus
1. Stand for one distinctive thing that will give you a competitive advantage.
2. To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.
3. In your service, what's the hardest task? Position yourself as the expert in this task and you'll have lesser logic (the idea that if you can do the hardest thing well, you must be able to do everything well) in your corner.
4. Don't start by positioning your service. Instead, leverage the position you have.
5. Positioning statements should address the following six points:
• who
• what
• for whom
• against whom
• what's different
• so...? (p. 114)
6. Choose a position that will reposition your competitors; then move a step back toward the middle that will cinch the sale.
7. In positioning, don't try to hide your small size. Make it work by stressing its advantages such as responsiveness and individual attention.
Pricing
1. Setting your price is like setting a screw: a little resistance is a good sign.
2. Beware the deadly middle. If you price in the middle, what you are saying is "We're not the best, and neither is our price, but both our service and price are pretty good." Not a very compelling message.
3. Don't charge by the hour. Charge by the years (of experience).
4. In services, value is a given. And givens are not viable competitive positions. If good value is your best position, improve your service.
Naming
1. Give your service a name, not a monogram.
2. Generic names encourage generic business.
3. Never choose a name that describes something that everyone expects from the service. The name will be generic, forgettable and meaningless.
4. Be distinctive - and sound it.
5. In service marketing, almost nothing beats a brand.
6. A service is a promise, and building a brand builds a promise.
7. Invest in and religiously build, integrity. It is the heart of your brand.
8. A brand is money.
9. Give your prospects a shortcut. Give them a brand.
Communicating and Selling
1. Your first competitor is indifference.
2. Say one thing.
3. After you say one thing, repeat it again and again.
4. Don't use adjectives. Use stories.
5. Attack your first weakness: the stereotype the prospect has about you.
6. Create the evidence of your service quality. Then communicate it.
7. Seeing is believing. Example: even when people know the tricks used by the grocery industry to make ripe oranges appear orange, they still are buy fruit with the most orange-looking peel exterior.
Check your peel.
1. If you are selling something complex, simplify it with a metaphor.
2. You don't listen to clichés. Your clients won't either.
3. In presentations, get to the point or you will never get to the close.
4. Tell people - in a single compelling sentence - why they should buy from you instead of someone else.
5. You cannot bore someone into buying your product.
6. If you want publicity, advertise.
7. Make your service easy to buy.
8. Above all, sell hope.
Nurturing and Keeping Clients
1. Watch your relationship balance sheet; assume it is worse than it is, and fix it.
2. Don't raise expectations you cannot meet.
3. To manage satisfaction, you must carefully manage your customer's expectations.
4. Keep thanking your clients.
5. Out of sight is out of mind.
Unlike books Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Ram Charan, Built to Last from authors like Jim Collins and Influence by Robert Caildini; the only drawback if you are seeking to find any is that there are no statistics or no research to back what the author states. But that having been said, does not dilute the impact this book has in all its entirety.
Overall Summary
So the moment of truth.
If you are looking for a simple yet interesting read, profound reflection and easy to understand language, this book has them all. I liked the book and I believe if the author did ever come with another book, given his reputation in my eyes, I would surely be among the many who would go and subscribe to his wisdom.
Overall Rating
7 out of 10.
Loy Machedo
Loymachedo.com -
Продавать надо уметь. И в первую очередь - себя :)
Много интересных фишечек, которые можно спроецировать и применить в чем угодно. -
This book is most interesting in the world
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Основні ідеї: продавати не просто послуги, а їх видимі атрибути; продумувати гарантію на послуги як на товари. Багато думок стосуються загального маркетингу, без прив'язки до послуг. Приклади застарілі, стосуються 50-70х років. Жодних ідей про маркетинг цифрових послуг.
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(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)
Я решил перечитать эту книгу, ибо что-то мне подсказывало, что в предыдущий раз, я дал слишком низкую оценку. Увы, но если первый раз я книгу прочитал полностью, то сейчас я бросил чтения на 97 странице (русского издания). Я просто не смог заставить себя читать дальше. Даже удивительно, что я вообще прочёл эту книгу, когда читал её в первый раз. Наверно, в тот момент я ещё мало что знал о маркетинге и о социальной психологии, ибо в этой книге очень много социальной психологии и очень мало самого маркетинга. Более того, в российском издании эту книгу нарекли книгой №1 по маркетингу услуг. Да, в книге говорится об услугах, однако много применимо также и к маркетингу не связанному с предоставлением услуг.
С моей точки зрения, книга ��ессмысленная или практически бессмысленная и для маркетологов и для людей никакого отношения к маркетингу или бизнесу не имеющих. Первые не найдут в книге ничего полезного для себя, а вторые совершенно не поймут суть маркетинга. Так почему же такой высокий рейтинг и так много восторженных отзывов у этой книги? Я думаю, это связано с тем, что автору искусственно создали образ «эксперта» в маркетинговых вопросах, а также то, что книга очень просто написана. Она настолько понятна для не посвящённого в маркетинг читателя, что её могут читать даже школьники. Какой вывод они сделают из прочитанного? Что маркетинг очень неконкретная профессия, которой не понятно кто занимается в фирме и не понятно кто за маркетинг отвечает. 4P, Майкл Портер, логистика, ценообразование, позиционирование и пр., как бы идут фоном, т.е. еле заметны. Да, со многим, что пишет автор, я согласен, но как он пишет, именно это является главной моей претензией.
Если после того, как человек прочтёт эту книгу, спросить, что же он понял и сможет ли он, не открывая больше книгу, реализовать всё то, что только что прочитал на практике, я очень сомневаюсь, что у него хоть что-то получится. Книга совершенно не запоминающаяся. Когда я преступал к чтению во второй раз, я помнил только об истории с Пикассо, а когда я бросил читать на странице 97, я не вспомнил ничего, за исключением пары моментов. Причина этого в том, как написана книга. Книга небольшая по формату и поэтому каждая новая тема занимает, фактически, 1-2 страницы. Получается, автор пытается уместить целую тему на 1-2 страницах, а иногда даже 0,5 странице. К примеру, он берёт такую противоречивую тему как «ошибочность системы VAL» и умещает все свои аргументы на двух страницах. Как он объясняет, что эта система ошибочна? Да так и пишет, что «аура научности обладает потрясающей способностью дурачить людей» и в качестве примера и приводит VAL. И всё. А зачем что-то добавлять, когда это самоочевидно. Или нет? Возможно, мы говорим о разных вещах, ибо полное название не VAL, а VALS ("Values and Lifestyles"), но в книге переводится VAL как «ценности, отношения, стиль жизни». Учитывая, что о VALS пишут в каждом учебнике по маркетингу, такой вывод о VAL/VALS выглядит довольно странным. Разумеется, многие маркетологи в своих книгах, вообще не ссылаются ни на какие иные источники, кроме своего собственного опыта и это вполне допустимо. Но в данном случаи автор вообще не приводит аргументов. Он просто говорит, что VAL ошибочна и точка.
Или на странице 47 автор утверждает «фокус-группы не работают». Сильное утверждение, не правда? Сколько страниц автор уделяет этому вопросу? Практически 0. Настолько мало, что я могу подсчитать количество слов, сколько он использовал касаемо этого вопроса. 110 слов. 110 слов, чтобы объяснить, почему фокус-группы бесполезны. Смело. Ещё один пример связан с так называемым заблуждением, что стратегия важнее тактики. Автор уделяет этому вопросу одну страницу, а в качестве примера приводит компьютеры Apple Macintosh. Да-да, те самые компьютеры, что привели Apple к угрозе банкротства, когда только благодаря Microsoft, компания не оказалась банкротом. И это успех? Успехом был iPod, iPhone и iPad, после которого компания Apple стала знаменитой на весь мир, а не только среди креативного класса, которые и были главными потребителями компьютеров Macintosh (абсолютным лидером была и есть Microsoft). Так что нет, автор совершенно не убедил меня в том, что тактика важнее стратегии. Как раз наоборот, стратегия задаёт направления тактике. Но даже допустим. Как можно такой вопрос уместить на ОДНОЙ странице?!
И последнее. Не могу не вставить один абзац из прошлой моей рецензии на эту книгу: Автор пишет, что «если вы решили для себя, что не можете предложить качество, скорость и цену, вы просто не хотите прикладывать никаких усилий, чтобы стать лучше». Логически всё может выглядеть правильно: чем выше качество, скорость обслуживание и чем ниже цены, тем лучше. Однако на ум приходят многие компании, которые, не стесняясь, заявляют, что сервис у них "никакой", но зато клиент получает возможность путешествовать по стране на самолёте, практически, по цене такси. Как известно, это компании Ryanair и Southwest Airlines, которые предлагают свои услуги по самым низким ценам, но в тоже время компании практически не имеют высоко сервиса. Так что, быть всем для всех, как пишет Джек Траут, ещё никому не удавалось.
Но не стоит сосредотачиваться на темах VAL/VALS, фокус-группах и Macintosh, ибо де��о не в них, а как я сказал, дело в самом подходе автора к написанию книги. Если бы книга была бы написана в 2020, то многие люди сказали бы, что эта книга является сборником постов из Facebook, ибо главы в книге очень короткие. Да, я думаю, успех книги частично связан с те, что в некоторых случаях автор пишет вполне правильные вещи, с которыми трудно не согласится. И можно даже сказать, что книга является хорошим способом напомнить многие вопросы. Я бы согласился с этим, если бы книга была более сфокусирована на маркетинге, а не выходила за пределы этого предмета, вторгаясь на территорию социальной психологии. Получается типичная привычка многих авторов бизнес-литературы, когда заканчиваются собственные мысли, заимствовать их у других авторов и в других отраслях.
В общем, я рекомендую пропустить эту книгу и тем, кто только собирается знакомиться с маркетингом и/или бизнесом и кто вообще никак не связан и не будет связан с темой маркетинга. Книга содержит несколько опасных или неоднозначных или спорных заявлений, которые могут создать искажённое представление о маркетинге.
I decided to reread this book because something told me that, the previous time, I gave too low a rating. Alas, the first time I read the book in its entirety, but now I gave up reading on page 97 (of the Russian edition). I just couldn't bring myself to read any further. At that time, I probably knew very little about marketing and social psychology because this book contains a lot of social psychology and very little about marketing itself. Moreover, in the Russian edition, this book was called the number one book on marketing services. Yes, the book talks about services, but a lot also applies to non-service marketing.
From my point of view, the book is meaningless or practically meaningless for marketers and people who have nothing to do with marketing or business. The former will not find anything useful in the book for themselves, and the latter will not understand the essence of marketing at all. So why such a high rating and so many rave reviews for this book? I think it has to do with the fact that the author has artificially created the image of an "expert" in marketing matters as well as the fact that the book is very simply written. It is so clear to the uninitiated reader of marketing that it can be read even by schoolchildren. What conclusion will they draw from what they read? They will conclude that marketing is a very unspecific profession, and which is not clear who is in charge of marketing in the firm. 4P, Michael Porter, logistics, pricing, positioning, etc., seem to go in the background, i.e., barely noticeable. Yes, I agree with much of what the author writes, but as he writes, that is my main complaint.
If, after a person reads this book, you ask him what he has understood and whether, without opening the book again, he will be able to put everything he has just read into practice, I doubt very much that he will be able to do anything at all. The book is not at all memorable. When I started reading the second time, I could recall only the story with Picasso, and when I stopped reading on page 97, I remembered nothing but a couple of things. The reason for this is the way the book is written. The book is small in format, so each new topic is 1-2 pages long. It turns out the author tries to fit an entire topic into 1-2 pages, and sometimes even 0.5 pages. For example, he takes such a controversial topic as "the fallacy of the VAL system" and fits all his arguments into two pages. How does he explain that this system is wrong? He just writes that "the aura of science has a terrific ability to fool people" and cites the VAL as an example. That's it. And why add anything when it's self-evident? Or is it? Perhaps we're talking about different things, for the full name is not VAL, but VALS ("Values and Lifestyles"), but the book translates VAL as "values, attitudes, lifestyles." Given that VALS is written about in every marketing textbook, this conclusion about VAL/VALS seems rather strange. Of course, many marketers in their books do not cite any sources other than their own experience, and this is perfectly acceptable. But in this case, the author makes no argument at all. He simply says that the VAL is wrong, period.
Or on page 47, the author states: "focus groups don't work." That's a strong statement, isn't it? How many pages does the author devote to this issue? Practically zero. So few that I can count the number of words he used regarding this issue. 110 words. 110 words to explain why focus groups are useless. That's bold. Another example relates to the so-called fallacy that strategy is more important than tactics. The author devotes a page to this question, giving as an example the Apple Macintosh computers. Yes, yes, the very computers that brought Apple to the brink of bankruptcy when only thanks to Microsoft the company did not go bankrupt. So this is success? The success was the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, after which Apple became famous, not only among the creative class, which was the main consumer of Macintosh computers (the absolute leader was and is Microsoft). So no, the author has not convinced me that tactics are more important than strategy. On the contrary, the strategy gives direction to tactics. But even so. How can such a question fit on ONE page?
One last thing. I can't help but insert a paragraph from my previous review of this book: The author writes that "if you have decided for yourself that you cannot offer quality, speed, and price, you simply don't want to put any effort into becoming better. Logically it might look right: the higher the quality, the speed of service, and the lower the prices, the better. However, many companies come to mind that do not hesitate to declare that their service is "not good," but the customer gets to travel around the country by plane, almost at the price of a cab. As you know, these companies are Ryanair and Southwest Airlines, which offer their services at the lowest prices, but at the same time, the companies have almost no high service. So, to be all things to all people, as Jack Trout writes, no one has yet succeeded.
But don't focus on VAL/VALS, focus groups, and Macintosh, for that is not the point, but as I said, the point is the author's approach to writing the book. If the book had been written in 2020, many people would have said that the book was a collection of Facebook posts because the chapters in the book are very short. Yes, I think part of the success of the book has to do with the fact that, in some cases, the author writes quite the right things that are hard to disagree with. And you could even say that the book is a good way to remind many of the issues. I would agree with that if the book were more focused on marketing rather than going beyond that subject, invading the territory of social psychology. It turns out to be a typical habit of many authors of business literature when they run out of their own thoughts, to borrow from other authors and in other fields.
In general, I recommend skipping this book also to those who are just getting acquainted with marketing or business and who are not and will not be connected to the subject of marketing in any way. The book contains several dangerous, ambiguous, or controversial statements that can create a distorted view of marketing. -
Takeaways:
Ignore your industry's benchmarks, and copy Disney's. (p. 9)
In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise - because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead you are selling a relationship. (p. 42)
Often, your client will face the choice of having you perform the service, or doing it themselves. Therefore, often you biggest competitors are you prospects. (p.45)
The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate their fear. Offer a trial period or test project. (p.98)
Beware the deadly middle. If you price in the middle, what you are saying is "We're not the best, and neither is our price, but both our service and our price are pretty good." Not a very compelling message. (p.134)
Say one thing. (p. 171)
After you say one thing, repeat it again and again. (p.175)
Tell people - in a single compelling sentence - why they should buy from you instead of someone else. (p. 199) -
Marketing advice for those with low attention spans.
On the one hand, lots of business books are just a single idea repeated over and over again, and at least I wouldn't accuse this book of being one of those. On the other hand, this book had so many superficial ideas that I don't think I'll remember any of it in a few weeks. Worse, I also don't think I encountered something I hadn't heard already.
I might recommend this to someone who has never read a book about marketing before and suddenly ends up in a marketing role. But that's a pretty low bar... -
Selling something invisible like services are very different from selling a physical product.
This book illustrated from the branding, marketing and selling points of view on how a service product should be positioned and sell it in the end.
A simple great reference book which i enjoy reading. -
Stopped on page 92 of 250.
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The dust jacket calls this "the best thing ever written on the subject," and "the best book on business ever written." I agree. Don't miss it!
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Pazarlama/ marketing hakkinda genel bilgi. Basarili bir calisma.
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Typical marketing book, offers a lot of useful advices but nothing spectacular.
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ebook:
https://goo.gl/JlmRMC
Goodreads:
https://goo.gl/YtZ4NS
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---Preface, Intro & Getting Started---
Services are just promises that somebody will do something.
Core problem of services marketing: service quality.
Services are not products, and service marketing is not product marketing.
"Product" marketers typically have two choices: reduce cost or add value.
Recognize the powerful influence of perceptions.
Nothing works more powerfully than simplicity.
The core of service marketing is the service itself.
First, before you write an ad, rent a list, dash off a press release - fix your service!
The average American this he isn't.
Assume your service is bad. It can't hurt, and it will force you to improve.
Remember the Butterfly Effect. Tiny cause, huge effect.
To err is an opportunity. Outstanding service does not mean zero defects. Take the hit and fix the problem in a way that says, "You really matter to us, and we will get this right for you."
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---Surviving and Research---
People won't tell you what you're doing wrong. Your prospects won't tell you. Your clients won't tell you. Sometimes, even your spouse won't tell you. So what do you do to improve your service? Ask.
Even your best friends won't tell you. But they will talk about you behind your back.
Have a third party do your surveys. Have you clients send their completed surveys to a third party. Have the third party assure your clients that they can leave their names out, and that their names won't be revealed. Your clients will give you far more candid answers. Your customers will appreciate it.
Marketing is not a department. It IS your business.
Don't open a shop unless you know how to smile.
Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing person.
McDonald's figured out that people weren't buying hamburgers. People were buying an experience. Find out what your clients are really buying.
If you are selling a service, you're selling a relationship.
Experts think that their clients are buying expertise. But most prospects for these complex services cannot evaluate expertise; they cannot tell a really good tax return, a clever motion, or a perceptive diagnosis. But they can tell if the relationship is good and if phone calls are returned. Clients are experts at knowing if they feel valued.
In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise - because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are selling a relationship. And in most cases, that is where you need the most work.
Before you try to satisfy "the client", understand and satisfy the person.
In the service industry technology creates the adapter's edge. The adapters become more proficient sooner, work out the bugs, and quickly recognize the benefits of the technology. The adapters learn and turn that learning into a great competitive advantage. Make technology a key part of every marketing plan.
Study every point at which your company makes contact with a prospect. What are we doing to make a phenomenal impression at every point?
The competent and likable solo consultant will attract far more business than the brilliant but socially deficient expert. In large part, marketing is a popularity contest.
Winning is a matter of feelings, and feelings are about personalities.
Be professional, but more importantly, be personable.
18 Fallacies
#1 Fallacy: You can know what's ahead.
You never know. So don't assume that you should. Plan for several possible future.
#2 Fallacy: You can know what you want.
Accept the limitations of planning. The greatest value of the plan is the process, the thinking that went into it. Don't plan your future, plan your people.
#3 Fallacy: Strategy is king.
Ready, fire, aim. Lead, take a shot, listen, respond, lead again. Do anything.
#4 Fallacy: Build a better mousetrap.
Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally.
#5 Fallacy: There'll be a perfect time.
Do it NOW.
#6 Fallacy: Patience is a virtue.
Moving organizations tend to keep moving. Dormant ones tend to run out of air and die. Not-moving begets more not-moving. Act like a shark, keep moving.
#7 Fallacy: Think smart.
Highly intelligent people are the world's foremost experts at squashing good ideas. Think dumb.
#8 Fallacy: Fallacy of Science and data.
Don't approach planning as a precise science. Planning is an imprecise art.
#9 Fallacy: Focus groups
Beware of focus groups, they focus only on today. Planning is about tomorrow.
#10 Fallacy: Memory
Beware of what you think you remember.
#11 Fallacy: Experience
When we infer things we tend to overgeneralize. Have a healthy distrust of what experience has taught you.
#12 Fallacy: Confidence
Careful to leap on any evidence that supports your opinion and ignoring all contrary evidence. We are wrong far more often that we know. Do not be overwhelmed by other people's total confidence. Beware of the overconfidence bias.
#13 Fallacy: Perfection is perfection.
Getting to best usually gets complicated. Will all that excellence really benefit the person for whom it is intended? Will the prospects care? Will it be worth the cost? The planning process tends to attract perfection. Don't let perfect ruin good.
#14 Fallacy: Failure is failure.
Any idea might fail. Start failing so you can start succeeding.
#15 Fallacy: Expertise.
Don't look to experts for all your answers. There are no answers, only informed opinions.
#16 Fallacy: Authority.
Question authority.
#17 Fallacy: Common sense.
Common sense will only get you so far. For inspiring results, you'll need inspiration.
#18 Fallacy: Fate
You gotta believe.
Appeal only to a prospect's reason, and you may have no appeal at all.
We tend to choose the one we hear the most about. You need to make yourself familiar to your prospects. You need to get out there. Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can.
Do everything possible to be the last company to present. The essential point is that you should always take advantage of this effect, with a follow-up that is as well conceived and powerful as anything in your presentation. Take advantage of the recency effect. Follow up brilliantly.
People do not look to make the superior choice, they want to avoid making a bad choice. Forget looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice. Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice.
People do not simply form impressions. They get anchored to them. They are more apt to make first impressions as snap judgments, and then base all their later decisions on them. First impressions have never been more critical - they take hold very quickly, and they become the anchors to which you and your success are tied. Identify and polish your anchors. They remember the first and the last items but forget the middle.
They were not looking for the service they wanted most but the one they feared the least. They did not choose a good experience; they chose to minimize the risk of a bad experience. Yes, build quality into your service - but make it less risky, too.
Instead of asking for the business, ask for a project. One free review of their retirement plan. If it is a big account, ask for a tiny slice. The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate her fear. Offer a trial period or a test project.
Research concluded that the criticism of a person made the praises seem more believable; and that makes the person look like a stronger candidate. Showing a person's warts actually helps. Rather than hide your weaknesses, admit them. Tell the truth. Even if it hurts, it will help.
With meaningful differences to find, prospects look for signals in seemingly trivial differences: the decor of the lobby, the color of the business card, the heft of the brochure, even the smell of the salesperson's cologne. Accentuate the trivial.
Fanatical Focus
1. You must position yourself in your prospect's mind.
2. Your position should be singular: one simple message.
3. Your position must set you apart from your competitors.
4. You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people; you must focus on one thing.
Stand for one distinctive thing that will give you a competitive advantage.
To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.
Say one positive thing, and you will become associated with many.
Every service is different, and creating and communicating differences is central to effective marketing.
In positioning, don't try to hide your small size. Make it work by stressing its advantages, such as responsiveness and individual attention.
Invest in and religiously preach integrity. It is the heart of your brand.
Make the service visible.
Your first competitor is indifference.
People cannot process two conversations at once. Say one thing. Saying many things usually communicates nothing.
What makes you so different that I should do business with you? Give me one good reason why?
After you say one thing, repeat it again and again.
One story beats a dozen adjectives. Most nonfiction writers begin their articles with an illustrative story. Our primary form of entertainment is still the dramatic narrative- the story.
Attack your first weakness: the stereotype the prospect has about you.
If you think your promotional idea might seem silly or unprofessional, it is.
Marketers are are wrong to emphasize superiority. You can accomplish just as much by convincing a prospect that your service is "positively good".
It is far better to say too little than too much.
People will trust their eyes far before they will ever trust your words Look at your business card. Your lobby. Your shoes. What do your visibles say about the invisible thing you are try to sell? Watch what you show.
Potential buyers are hesitant to consider things they cannot see. So they emphasize what they can see. Watch, and perfect, the visual clues you send.
Give your marketing a human face.
If you're selling something complex, simplify it with a metaphor.
Tell people - in a single compelling sentence - why they should buy from you instead of someone else.
If you want more publicity, do more advertising.
Above all, sell hope.
Don't raise expectations you cannot meet.
A customer's satisfaction is the gap between what the customer expects and what she gets.
Few things feel more gratifying than gratitude. Send twice as many thank you notes this year. Keep thanking.
Stay present. Advertising and publicity reminds clients of your service and assures them that you are around , viable and successful. Communicate your successes. Out of sight is out of mind.
Say P.M. Deliver A.M. -
I have spent my entire marketing career shooting arrows into the abyss – not so bad as I make it sound but I was sure there is a more efficient way of doing marketing. There is a way of looking at service marketing that is universal and that very universality is what one can use to map out work, engage with fellow human beings and be an overall badass at selling almost anything. Selling the Invisible is a collection of analogies and metaphors used by Harry Beckwith to demonstrate the most and least effective methods of marketing and selling services and how a marketer can use these to their advantage. The stories all have a common theme: success is about developing a strategy, a foundation based on measuring and evaluating customer needs, and adapting accordingly. The structure is implemented tactics; they are about building and maintaining relationships based on chemistry, popularity, and the client's beliefs. Understanding people and nurturing relationships is how true success is achieved. This book is compressible into the below key insights
There is no effective marketing without understanding human psychology:
When last did you think about an ad that empathises fully with the needs of the end user? Given the sheer volume of messages that are oscillating within our orbit, we are often time challenged with personalising our marketing communications in a way that people can relate with. Beckwith provides examples of pitches that fail because the salesperson focuses on themselves and their service or product rather than the client. People think about themselves, not you, and in our businesses fall into this trap too. It takes much practice to learn to think about others rather than yourself. We are somewhat intrinsically wired to step on a podium and immediately speak about ourselves just as we were trained in our early years. If you can try going through a workday without talking about yourself but talking about your clients, communities, and readers… how could this affect your relationships? Consider how much better your business relationships could be if you practiced this every day. Harry notes that “Services are human. Their successes depend on the relationships of people. People are human – frustrating, unpredictable, temperamental, often irrational, and occasionally half mad. But you can spot some patterns in people. The more you can see the patterns and better understand people, the more you will succeed."
Clear Communication is the cornerstone of effective marketing:
It is true what they say about, “what you say cannot be as important as how you say it” because this rings true for communication across different publics. In his book, Beckwith gives examples of how salespeople can complicate a sale by providing too many options to customers or communicating more than necessary. A salesperson who shows a customer three shirts instead of the one he requested, or who makes the customer question the value of an extended warranty while offering a variety of financing options, frequently loses the sale. This is known as a hard buy because the customer is perplexed and unable to make an informed decision and thus needs some informed guidance. He contrasts this with an easy-buy situation in which the salesperson identifies the customer's needs, clearly communicates the offer and price, and builds trust by lowering the customer's risk. He may even offer the customer the opportunity to try out the service or product first, removing the need for an unearned long-term commitment. People buy when the decision-making process or other associated processes are simplified. Clear communication gets you the buy-in from any stakeholder.
In life, there is nothing such as an easy sell, selling is a very intricate and sensitive process that varies from business to business. Harry Beckwith provides a simplified and biteable guide to modern-day marketing. Naturally, as a communication professional, my focus areas for this book were the relationship aspects of marketing services and products, which I encounter in my current field. As Beckwith points out, recognizing patterns gives you an advantage in making the best decisions. Any building, such as where your organisation currently operates, is made up of thousands of tiny bricks that all fit together. A few of them out of place cause cracks in the structure, eventually causing the building to collapse. Fixing minor issues now can save you big money later. The same applies in communications, marketing, and an array of other fields that have to do with human beings. -
Many trite aphorisms... yes, service should be improved as much as possible, but that is not really the job of marketing, either. Marketing can make suggestions, but ultimately those other departments need to implement such improvements. Beckwith "oversells" the job of marketing a bit. The aphoristic writing style makes for easy reading, but also comes across as a little too simplistic and "dumbed down".
2nd section some good advice to not ask customers "What don't you like"... but also some outmoded advice re: phone surveys apparently being better than written or electronic. Doubt that is still true today and the additional resources/effort involved in doing surveys by phone, then transcribing data... doesn't seem worth it.
Planning section is more useful. Good advice overall that the end product of planning isn't so important. Needs to be flexible. It's the thinking that counts. But Beckwith bizarrely uses Burger King's "flame broiled" differentiation as an example of ineffective marketing concepts -- this is weak, as BK has been plenty successful and I would argue this differentiation has worked well enough.
Positioning chapter is fine as an intro to the concept, but better off reading the titular book that it references. Also some unfortunately outdated examples here, using Sears as an example of seemingly effective positioning. That hasn't worked out so well, with Sears barely surviving now.
Beckwith recommends Levitt's "Marketing Imagination", a better written and more thought provoking book overall. There are some brilliant chapters in that book (e.g., Marketing Tangibles vs. Intangibles, Marketing Myopia, the titular chapter) that cover many of the same ideas presented here, but better. -
A person has spent most of their life believing that reading business/marketing books is a waste of time because the ones they came in contact with were full of fluff, pep talk and the usual myriad of seemingly obvious information that everyone should already be familiar with.
That person is me, and this is not that type of book.
Since your time is valuable, i will not bore with an unnecessarily long review, instead i will list a few ideas mentioned within the book: -
If you want to gain a better understanding of service marketing, the book provides that. Are there better books out there on the subject? I don't know, but my guess would be yes.
What the book does do is cover some ideas on a surface level, occasionally backing them up with case studies. What it doesn't do is provide depth. If you're looking for something that explores nuances, then this book will leave you disappointed.
The 'planning - the 18 fallacies' part was probably the most useful and generally-relevant section of the book given that we all plan and are pretty bad at it. The linking of other behavioral ideas to marketing, such as the anchoring principle and the halo effect, were also great inclusions. Plus, the advice on positioning & focus was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end.
The downside to the book was that it was somewhat repetitive (as these types of books tend to be these days), and the fact that there simply wasn't much to get excited over. Don't expect paradigm-shifting ideas/action plans.
All in all, I'd recommend it to anyone completely clueless about marketing just because of its brevity. It's a short read but, IMO, one that's worthwhile. I don't think you need to be a marketer/business owner to gain from it - many of the ideas are about understanding people and are thus widely-applicable.
