Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

Rating:
Summary: This Book is A Classic
Review: While the book is "Selling to the Invisible", what is very visible is that this book is packed with what works in marketing today. Harry Beckwith masterfully identifies the direction that marketing is going today and to capitalize on it. This book is a timeless marketing treasure. I highly encourage you to purchase a copy today!

Rating:
Summary: A great collection of critical thinking prompts on marketing
Review: This book is not an in depth study of marketing techniques, but rather one of the best collections of engaging questions and critical thinking prompts I have read on the subject of business marketing and focus.

For example, many companies focus on improving what they currently do and by doing so they look at themselves solely. This is not out of ego, but rather simply the way we usually operate. However, the internal focus will often result in another company focusing on not improving the service or product by a small percentage, but coming up with something 100% different. This requires that businesses think outside of the boundaries of their own products, services, or methods. When thinking of focus groups, conventional wisdom fails. Groups don't buy products, individuals do. Focus groups measure group dynamics not individual customer insights. A big miss, and yet another example of the hundreds of topics tackled here.

The insights here are nearly always contrary to conventional wisdom, and thus valuable. Whether it is the fact that "marketing is not a department" but the role of every single employee, or how to "position and focus" your organization on the right aspects of service your clients expect, this book has insights into a number of strategic alternatives. The section on pricing also contains some thought provoking ideas.

The book is laid out in a very quick, sound bite style that is easy to breeze through, or revisit from time to time. Overall, I very much enjoyed the presentation and insights throughout. I have about one of every 5 pages dog eared for future readings, an always reliable sign that the topics and information were worth the effort to read or review.

One quote at the end of the book (Page 245) sums up one of the major themes: "Services are human. Their successes depend on the relationships of people. The more you can see the patterns and better understand people, the more you will succeed - and this book was written with the hope that you will do just that." A very highly recommended book, with enough critical thinking prompts to keep one busy for a while just thinking about how to apply them.


Rating:
Summary: Mixed Review: frequently just scratches the surface
Review: The ideas that the author brings up are good, but too often I felt like I wanted more. The second section was irritating. I got the feeling that the author has extensive experience in advising others, but little experience in personally carrying out - nice stories and good talk, but few real world details. On the other hand, I have been able to apply some of the ideas to my business. Stick it out past the second section and it gets a lot better.

Bottom line: Not the only book you'll need to learn about marketing your service, but a worthwhile investment.