Selling the Invisible - A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
Harry Beckwith, 1997

Getting Started

• The first step in service marketing is your service.
• First, before you write an ad, rent a list, dash off a press release - fix your service.
• assume your service is bad. It can't hurt, and it will force you to improve.
• Forget the excuses [if they have to decide, they're not coming back].
• Ask: Who is setting your standards - your industry, your ego, or your clients?
• Ignore your industry's benchmarks [a service that does not jump to meet rising expectations will have a customer exodus on its hands].
• Remember the Butterfly Effect. Tiny cause, huge effect.
• Flap your wings [go so far out of your way that the customer now feels indebted to you].
• Big mistakes are big opportunities.
• Write an ad for you service. If after a week your best ad is weak, stop working on the ad and start working on your service.
• Marketing is the grains of service marketing. If the brain fails, the heart soon will fail.
• Don't just think better. Think different.
• Always start at zero [ask, "Is this viable anymore? Is this what the world wants?"]
• Create the possible service; don't just create what the market needs ore wants. Create what it would love.

Surveying and Research: Even Your Best Friends Won't Tell You

• Ask [People won't tell you what you're doing wrong.]
• Have a third party do your surveys. [Make it so you clients can talk behind your back and that you can learn what they're saying.]
• Survey, survey, survey. [It tells you what business you are in, and what people really are buying.]
• Unless you are confident that you can interpret them, beware of written surveys. [When you conduct oral surveys, you can clarify your questions and ask people to clarify their answers.]
• For a dozen reason, conduct oral surveys, not written ones.
• Never ask "What don't you like?" [Don't ask someone to admit they made a bad decision choosing a company.]
• You're selling individuals. Talk to individuals. [Focus groups tell more about group dynamics than about market dynamics.]

Marketing Is Not a Department

• Marketing is not a department. It is your business.
• It's hard to see the real scope of your business. Ask for help.
• Get out, climb out, have someone pull you out of the tunnel.
• Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing person.
• In planning your marketing, don't just think of your business. Think of your skills.
• Find out what clients are really buying.
• If you're selling a service, you're selling a relationship.
• Before you try to satisfy "the client," understand and satisfy the person.
• Your real competitor often is sitting across the table. Plan accordingly. [Your biggest competitors are not your competitors. They are your prospects.]
• Go where others aren't.
• Make technology a key part of every marketing plan.
• Study each point of contact. Then improve each one - significantly.
• In large part, service marketing is a popularity contest.
• Be professional - but, more importantly, be personable.

Planning: The Eighteen Fallacies

• You never know. So don't assume that you should. Plan for several possible futures.
• 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 you future. Plan your people. [Outstanding people who fit your basic broad vision will tend to make the right decisions along the way, not by following a plan, but by using their skill.]
• Fallacy: Strategy Is King [Tactics don't complete a process; they continue to shape one. Do Anything]
• Fallacy: Build a Better Mousetrap [Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally.]
• Fallacy: There'll Be a Perfect Time [Do it now. The business obituary pages are filled with planners who waited.]
• Fallacy: Patience Is a Virtue [Keep moving.]
• Fallacy: Think Smart [Highly intelligent people are the world's foremost experts at squashing good ideas. Think dumb.]
• The Fallacy of Science and Data [Mistrust "facts." And don't approach planning as a precise science. Planning is an imprecise art.]
• The Fallacy of Focus Groups [Beware of focus groups; they focus only on today. And planning is about tomorrow.]
• The Fallacy of Memory [In planning, beware of what you think you remember.]
• The Fallacy of Experience [Have a healthy distrust of what experience has taught you.]
• The Fallacy of Confidence [Beware of the overconfidence bias. Maybe he's right.]
• Fallacy: Perfection Is Perfection [Don't let perfect ruin good.]
• Fallacy: Failure is Failure [Start failing so you can start succeeding.]
• The Fallacy of Expertise [Don't look to experts for all your answers. There are no answers, only informed opinion.]
• The Fallacy of Authority [The bumper stickers are right: Question Authority. Question alphas. If you're an alpha, learn to shut up.]
• The Fallacy of Common Sense [Common sense will only get you so far. For inspiration, you'll need inspiration.]
• The Fallacy of Fate [You gotta believe.]

Anchors, Warts, and American Express: How Prospects Think

• Yeah, but I Like It [Appeal only to a prospect's reason, and you may have no appeal at all.]
• Choosing the Familiar [Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can.]
• Using the Most Recent Data [Be the last company to present. Recent information makes it easier for people to decide. Have a follow-up that is as well conceived and powerful as anything in your presentation.
• Choosing "Good Enough" [Forget looking for the superior chose. Make yourself an excellent choice. Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice.]
• The Anchoring Principle [People with little time - almost all people today - are more apt to make first impressions as snap judgments, and then base all their later decisions on them. Identify and polish your anchors.]
• Last Impressions Lat [Each impression you make will - temporarily at least - be your last. So make it strong]
• Risky Business [Yes, build the quality into your service - but make it less risky, too.]
• You Have Nothing to Fear but Your Client's Fear Itself [The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate her fear. Offer a trial period or a test project.]
• Show Your Warts [Tell the truth. Even if it hurt, it will help.]
• Business Is in the Details [Accentuate the trivial.]

The More You Say, the Less People Hear: Positioning and Focus

• Fanatical focus [Stand for one distinctive thing that will give you a competitive advantage.]
• The Fear of Positioning [To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.]
• Lesser Logic [In your service, what's the hardest task? What is the big skill you could develop and market that clearly implies other valuable skills in less complex areas? Position yourself as the expert at this task, and you'll have lesser logic in your corner.]
• Halo Effects [Say one positive thing, and you will become associated with many.]
• No Two Services Are the same [If you cannot see the differences in your service, look harder.]
• Position Is a Passive Noun, Not an Active Verb [Don't start by positioning your service. Instead, leverage the position you have.]
• Positioning Statement: How you wish to be perceived [Ask yourself these seven questions - and have seven clear answers: Who are you?, What business are you in? What people do you serve? What are the special needs of the people you serve? With whom are you competing? What makes you different from those competitors? What unique benefit does a client derive from your service?]
• Position Statement: The truth [Your position is all in people's minds. Find out what that position is.]
• How to Narrow the Gap between Your Position and Your Positioning Statement [If the gap is too big, your customers won't make the leap. Keep the steps small.]
• If That Isn't Our Positioning Statement, What Is It? [Craft bold dreams and realistic positioning statements.]
• Repositioning Your Competitors [Choose a position that will reposition  your competitors, then move a step back toward the middle to cinch the sale.]
• Positioning a Small Service [In positioning, don't try to hide your small size. Make it work by stressing the advantages, such as responsiveness and individual attention.]
• Focus [If you do not have a focus, you soon might not have a business.]
• Focus [In all campaigns, focus wins]
• Focus [No matter how skilled you are, you must focus your skills]
• What Else Positions and Focus Can Do for You [They will make your word of mouth more effective. They will make your "word of elevator" more effective. They can rally your troops. They will get your marketing communications - and the people who create them - working as one.]

Pricing

• The Sheer Illogic of Pricing [Don't assume that logical pricing is smart pricing. Maybe your price which makes you look like a good value, actually makes you look second-rate.]
• The Resistance Principle [Setting your price is like setting a screw. A little resistance is a good sign.]
• Avoiding the Deadly Middle [The premium service and the low-cost provider occupy nice niches all by themselves. If you are priced in between, however, you are competing with almost everyone.]
• The Low-Cost Trap [Most service prospects can find an even lower cost option than yours. "There is nothing unique about pricing."]
• A Lesson From Picasso [What is talent and thought worth - and why is some worth so much? Don't charge by the hour. Charge by the years.
• The Carpenter Corollary [Charge for knowing where.]
• Value Is Not a Position [In services, value is a given. And givens are not viable competitive positions. If good value is your best position, improve your service.]

Naming and Branding

• Monogram Your Shirts, Not Your Company [Give your service a name, not initials.]
• Don't Make Me Laugh [Don't get funny with your name.]
• To Stand Out, Stand Out [Generic names encourage generic business.]
• Tell Me Something I Don't Know [Never choose a name that describes something that everyone expects from the service. The name will be generic, forgettable, and meaningless.]
• Distinctive Position, Distinctive Name [Be distinctive - and sound it.]
• What's in a Name? [If you need a name for your service, start with your own.]
• Names: The Information-per-Inch Test [Names make a company's first impression. First impressions count. How much valuable information per inch does your name imply?]
• The Cleverness of Federal Express [How much does your name communicate, how fast? Are you using color effectively? Is it conveying the same message as your name?]
• The Brand Rush [In service marketing, almost nothing beats a brand.]
• Aren't Brands Dying? [Brands are alive - and you could use one.]
• The Warranty of a Brand [A brand is more than a symbol. In the public's eye a brand is a warranty. It is a promise that the service carrying the brand will live up to its name, and perform. Depending on brands is just what service clients do. A service is a promise, and building a brand builds your promise.]
• The Heart of a Brand [Invest in and religiously preach integrity. It is the heart of your brand.]
• What Brands Do for Sales [Word of mouth for a branded service spreads easier and farther, producing more inquiries. For the same amount of selling effort, a branded service makes more sales than a nonbranded service. Prospects routinely choose brand-name services virtually sign unseen. Make selling easier, faster, and cheaper. Build a brand.]
• Stand by Your Brand [Never underestimate the value of your brand or the difficulty in creating a new one.]
• The Four-Hundred-Grand Brand [A brand is money.]
• Brands in a Microwave World [Give your prospects a shortcut. Give them a brand.]
• Brands and the Power of the Unusual [To speed up the building of your brand, choose an unconfusable name.]
• Brands and the Baby-sitter [Building your brand doesn't take millions. It takes imagination.]

Communicating and Selling

• Communications make services more tangible, and give prospects something firm to evaluate. [Make the service visible, and make the prospect comfortable.]
• Your Greatest Competitor [Your first competitor is indifference.]
• The Cocktail Party Phenomenon [People cannot process two conversations at once. If you deliver two messages, most people will process just one of them - if that. Say one thing.]
• The Grocery List Problem [Saying many things usually communicates nothing.]
• Give Me One Good Reason [What makes you so different that I should do business with you? Meet your market's very first need: Give it one good reason.]
• Your Favorite Songs [After you say one thing, repeat it again and again.]
• One Story Beats a Dozen Adjectives [People are interested in other people, and stories are about other people. Don't use adjectives, use stories.]
• Attack the Stereotype [The stereotype of your service is the first thing that a prospect thinks about. It is the first hurdle you must jump, and the first one over usually wins. Attack your first weakness: the stereotype the prospect has about you.]
• Don't Say It, Prove It [Be specific, not general. Be concrete, not abstract. Use vivid and familiar examples to make your points. Have the last sentence of each paragraph entice you to read the first sentence of the next. Never use two words when one will do. Good basic communicating is good basic marketing.]
• Build Your Case [Create the evidence of your service quality. Then communicate it.]
• Tricks Are for Kids [What you really are selling is your honesty. Tricks and gimmicks aren't honest. No tricks.]
• The Joke's on You [If you think your promotional idea might seem silly or unprofessional, it is.]
• Being Great vs. Being Good [Superior performance is not critical to success in services. Prospects do not buy how good you are at what you do. They buy how good you are at who you are.]
• Superiority [The assumption that being the very best is a necessary marketing position, much less a uniquely powerful one, is refuted by experience: your own. Convey that you are "positively good."
• The Clout of Reverse Hype [Far better to say too little than too much.]
• People Hear What They See [People will trust their eyes 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 trying to sell? What you show.]
• Make the Invisible Visible [Prospects look for visual clues about a service. If they find none, they often look to services that do have them. So provide clues. Make sure people see who you are.]
• The Orange Test [Not knowing what's really inside the service, people look to the outside. Unable to see the service, they choose it based solely on the things they can see - in many cases, even when they know better. Seeing is believing. So check your peel.]
• Our Eyes Have It: The Lessons of Chicago's Restaurants [Restaurants are in the entertainment business. People to restaurants for the experience. Our perceptions are very vulnerable to influence. Like good restaurateurs, service marketers must create the visual surroundings that will enhance the client's perception of quality. Watch - and perfect - the visual clues you send.
• How to Save Half a Million [Show a common face in sales brochures. Repeat yourself visually, too. It makes you look more organized and professional, and easier to remember.]
• The Hearsay Rule [To evaluate what someone says, a person needs to see the speaker. People must see who is saying something to decide whether they will buy it. Give your marketing a human face.]
• Metaphorically Speaking: The Black Hole Phenomenon [If you are selling something complex, simplify it with a metaphor.]
• The Generative Power of Words: The Gettysburg Address [In the invisible world of services, where precious little can be shown and everything must be described, words are the ultimate weapons. Hollow and lazy words generate hollow and lazy responses - if any. Active, fresh, powerful words can do more than merely describe reality. Words and change, shape, and even create reality. Use the generative power of words.]
• A Robe Is Not a Robe [Sometimes, it's all in how you say it.]
• Balderdash [You don't listen to clichés. Your clients won't either]
• Improve the Silence [Get to the point or you will never get to the close.]
• What's Your Point? [Tell people - in a single compelling sentence - why they should buy from you instead of someone else.]
• The Vividness Effect [In your words and pictures, make yourself vivid.]
• Vivid Words ["You cannot bore someone into buying your product."]
• The Value of Publicity [There are six peaks in Europe higher than the Matterhorn. Name on. Get ink.]
• Advertising Is Publicity [If you want publicity, advertise]
• Advertising Begets Publicity [If you want more publicity, do more advertising.]
• The Essence of Publicity [If you want editors to help you, help them. Give them something interesting. Give them a story.]
• Inspiration ["If you look deeply enough, ninety-nine out of a hundred people are interesting - and the one hundredth person is interesting because he isn't." Look harder. The interest - and the story - are there.]
• Focus on Buying, Not Selling [How clear is your offer? Can the prospects sample the service, thereby reducing their risk? How clear is the price? How easy is it to buy? Make your service easy to buy.]
• The Most Compelling Selling Message [The most compelling selling message you can deliver in any medium is not that you have something wonderful to sell. It is: "I understand what you need." Find out what they want. Find out what they need. Find out who they are. It will take extra time, but it can make the sale. Don't sell your service. Sell your prospect.]
• What Blank Eyes Mean [Talk about him, not about you.]
• Presenting's First Rule [Show true self. Care passionately - and show clients how much you care.]
• Mission Statements [A good mission statement tells where you are going. It describes the future, not the present. Write a mission statement, but keep it private. Never alert your competitors to where you are going. And prospects want to know who you are right now.]
• What a Mission Statement Must Be - and Must Have [Follow every mission statement with a concrete statement of measurable objectives. Give people a clear target so they can see how achieving those immediate objectives will help them achieve the mission.]
• When to Can a Mission Statement [The test of a mission statement is simple. A mission statement must cause change; it much change how people in your company act. If your mission statement isn't productive, fire it.]
• What Really Sells [Read through everything you send to clients and prospects. How does it feel. Does it sell happiness, or the hope of it? Above all, sell hope.]

Nurturing and Keeping Clients

• Relationship Accounting [Service providers always owe their clients. Watch your relationship balance sheet; assume it is worse than it appears, and fix it.]
• The Day After - Why Getting the Business Can Be the First Step in Losing It [Don't raise expectations you cannot meet.]
• Expectations, Satisfaction, and the Perils of Hype [A customer's satisfaction is the gap between what the customer expects and what she gets. To manage satisfaction, you must carefully manage your customer's expectations.]
• Your Patrons Are Saints [Your parents were right. Say thank you. Often.]
• Thanks [Keep thanking.]
• Where Have You Gone, Emily Post? [Do you thank people enough? Are you sure?]
• Poised for a Fall [It is much easier to fail in a service than to succeed. Advertise your successes. Show your client what you have done. Don't expect the client to see how hard you have worked, how much you have cared, and how well you have performed. So often, the client is the last to know. Make sure the client knows.]
• Satisfaction and Services [After you buy a product, it constantly reinforces your satisfaction. The services you use come, then go. Advertising and publicity reminds clients and former clients of the satisfying services that you once provided, and assures them that you still are around, viable, and successful. A product continually reminds its buyers that it is good. With appropriate modesty, you must, too. Out of sight is out of mind.]

Quick Fixes

• Manage the Tiny Things [Sweat the smallest stuff.]
• One Ring [Your business starts with the first call. How good is yours?]
• Speed [There is no point in arguing: speed is where the world is going. Be fast. Then get faster.]
• Say P.M., Deliver A.M. [The first time you have something to deliver for a client, try this: Say you'll have it to him at 1 P.M. Then deliver it at 11 A.M. Do it the next time, too. Now you have money in the bank. You may need it. And you'll be glad you had it.]
• Note to Myself [Make every client happy every day. Do something corny. Put that note up by your phone.]
• Shoot the Message, Not the Messenger: The Fastest Way to Improve Your Sales Force [To fix your messengers, fix your message.]
• Personal Investment [Risk yourself]
• The Collision Principle [Get out there. Almost anywhere. Let opportunity hit you.]

Summing Up

• More and better marketing is not the answer to every business question.
• To succeed spectacularly in a service business, you must get all your ducks in a row. Marketing is just one duck. But it is one very big duck.
• Improve your service quality. But never forget that the prospect and client must perceive that quality. It is not the hotel's service quality that wins us; it is the hotel's merchandising of its quality
• The more you can see the patterns and understand people, the more you will succeed.