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Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

Author: Harry Beckwith
Publisher: Warner Books
Category: Book

Buy New: $29.47

New (1) Used (3) from $18.99

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

141 reviews
Sales Rank: 967622

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272

ISBN: 0446672319
Dewey Decimal Number: 380
EAN: 9780446672313
ASIN: 0446672319

Publication Date: March 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New, great condition

Also Available In:

•	Audio Cassette - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Hardcover - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Hardcover - Selling the Invisible a Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Unbound - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Hardcover - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Hardcover - Selling the Invisible a Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Hardcover - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Audio CD - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Audio Download - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
•	Audio Download - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

Similar Items:

•	What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business
•	You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself
•	The Invisible Touch: The Four Keys to Modern Marketing
•	How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients
•	The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!

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.

Customer Reviews: Read 136 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

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.

4 out of 5 stars

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.

5 out of 5 stars

A Great Book. September 2, 2008
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!

4 out of 5 stars

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."

5 out of 5 stars

learning that YOU are your best resource! August 22, 2008
This is not about tricking people... It's about the idea that your very best resource is YOU, and how to sell THAT. It's intangible, so it feels like you can be "selling the invisible."

Excellent book in helping you to find your confidence in business or other.

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