Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - Hardcover

Beckwith, Harry

3.94

9,882 ratings by Goodreads

9781587990663: Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1587990660 ISBN 13: 9781587990663

Publisher: Texere, 2001

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(NOT FOR SALE IN US AND CANADA) The essential guide to marketing services, that has become a business classic. Many companies who claim to be selling products are really selling services. What used to be a product-driven economy is now replete with services. But unlike products, you can?t touch services, hear or see them. Services are mainly just promises that somebody will do something. They are invisible. So how do you sell, develop and make them grow? This international bestseller, now in paperback, answers that question with insights on how the markets for services work and how customers think and behave towards your offering. When it comes to marketing and selling, the difference between products and services can be enormous. A treasury of bite-sized, practical and intelligent strategies, based upon the author?s extensive experience, Selling the Invisible will open your eyes to new ideas that will enhance the value and profitability of any company in today?s service market. The book begins with the core problem of services marketing: service quality. It then suggests how to learn what you must improve, with examples of what works. It then moves on to services marketing fundamentals: defining what business you really are in and what people really are buying; positioning your service; understanding customers and buying behaviour; and communicating your service.

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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.

From the Back Cover:

A treasury of hundreds of quick, practical, and easy-to-read strategies - few are more than a page long - Selling the Invisible will open your eyes to new ideas in this crucial branch of marketing including why focus groups, value-price positioning, discount pricing, and being the best usually fail; the critical emotion that most influences your prospects - and how to deal with it; the vital role of vividness, focus, "anchors", and stereotypes; the importance of Halo, Cocktail Party, and Lake Wobegon Effects; marketing lessons from black holes, grocery lists, the Hearsay Rule, and the fame of Pikes Peak; dozens of proven yet consistently over-looked ideas for research, presentations, publicity, advertising, and client retention...and much more.

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