Hello everyone,

I have been busy yet still keeping up with my reading now that I am back from holidays. It is just not as easy to make the time to read when I am home. This week’s review is a book “Selling The Invisible - A Field Guide to Modern Marketing” by Harry Beckwith. Now the title sounds a little dour, but I have to say that this is a very quick read and very enjoyable. It was described in the book cover as: “a treasure of hundreds of quick, practical, and easy-to-read strategies – few more than one page long. Selling the Invisible will open your eyes to new ideas. It has dozens of proven yet overlooked ideas for research, presentations, publicity, advertising and client retention”.

The reasons I found this book on service businesses and how to manage service relationships really enjoyable were…

Ø The easy writing style and large type

Ø The fun real life case studies

Ø The short length of the many subjects that Harry was trying to explain and address

Ø The clarity with which Harry made his case on the subjects he was addressing

Ø The emphasis on the book being “don’t think better, think different”. Different ways of approaching marketing challenges are presented. It is now up to the reader to use the ideas and adapt them to his or her industry. There were numerous examples and all very relatable.

Ø The solution to servicing well, is really not that hard and not something you have to be trained to do. We have just forgotten to ask people what they want and give it to them the way they need. Sometimes it is as simple as a thank you note. Harry recommends you consider how many thank you notes you wrote last year and then this year you need to double the number. See where it gets you and your business.

Selling the Invisible will help anyone that markets a product, service or career. It is on the top of my list of recommended books to read.

Enjoy and have a prosperous week.

Tricia Ryan
Principal The Marketing Chefs