Selling the Invisible

HARRY BECKWITH

Reviewed by Jack

Harry Beckwith’s contention is that it takes a completely different skill set to market a service versus a physical product. In his introduction, Beckwith talks about going through the Harvard Business School’s catalog of marketing case studies and finding that, in 1997 when the book was written, one out of four case studies involved a service company. Looking at the Fortune 500 that included service companies, he discovered that three out of four Americans work in service companies. “In short, America is a service economy with a product marketing model. But services are not products, and service marketing is not product marketing.”

With this thesis, Beckwith explains that Selling the Invisible is “not a how-to book, although it contains many concrete suggestions. Instead, this is a how-to-think-about book.” He asserts that the key to service marketing is the quality of the service being provided, despite people’s wrong assumption that marketing is what is said about a service. In fact, Beckwith concludes that you may not have to say anything about your service if the quality really shines. With this focus on quality in mind, Beckwith recommends taking the following fundamental steps: “defining what business you really are in and what people really are buying, positioning your service, understanding prospects and buying behavior, and communicating.”

Pretty straightforward stuff, but the delivery is refreshing. His chapters are like bright flashes, some less than a page in length. In the “Getting Started” section is a chapter called “The Lake Wobegon Effect: Overestimating Yourself.” Beckwith points out that we Americans have an inflated view of ourselves and, in turn, our businesses—much like in radio-host Garrison Keillor’s fictitious Lake Wobegon, “‘where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.’” This type of inflated opinion does not lead to self-examination, and, as a result, the odds are that our service is, at best, average. We should assume that our service is poor, which will force us to improve.

In the “Quick Fixes” section comes the chapter “Shoot the Message, Not the Messenger: The Fastest Way to Improve Your Sales Force.” Beckwith tells the story of three top-notch salespeople who are capable of selling refrigerators to Eskimos, but they are struggling at a brokerage company. Beckwith explains that the company’s selling problem is in fact a marketing problem. “The company has failed to create or identify the distinction that makes a selling message powerful, and that makes the salespeople true believers.” Imagine a crack sales force struggling to sell something as nebulous as “good service.” This is something our book company tried to do in countering Amazon’s more concrete approach of promoting their ability to discount individual books. When prospective customers would call and ask, in not so many words, “Why should we use you?” we didn’t have that powerful selling message. Not until we found a distinct advantage—our ability to customize any order—did “good service” become concrete for our consumers. Only then did we have a chance to turn a consumer into a customer. To successfully market a service business, you have to clearly identify the distinction of your offering because your service isn’t intuitive to the customer.

In the section entitled “Anchors, Warts, and American Express” is a chapter called “Last Impressions Last.” In it is an example: Charlie Brown noticed that Linus’s shoes were nicely polished on the toes but the backs were all scuffed. After Charlie told Linus about this, Linus said he cared about what people thought about him when he entered a room but didn’t care what they thought when he was leaving. Beckwith says that this is wrong. Many studies have pointed out that people remember the beginning and the end of an encounter and often forget the middle. If you want to make an impression concentrate as always on the first impression, but don’t overlook your last.

The “Marketing Is Not a Department” section contains a chapter called “What Color Is Your Company’s Parachute?” From the classic career book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Boles comes the question “What am I good at?”—a question you need to ask yourself when looking for a new career. Beckwith thinks that when businesses ask themselves that same question, however, they often paint themselves into the corner of “We are an architectural firm.” That general definition statement only results in a comparison between your business and all the other similar firms, and does not allow you to look for ways to differentiate your business. Often the areas of growth are outside your current industry description. “In planning your marketing, don’t just think of your business. Think of your skills.”

“The central fact of service marketing is this frustrating one: It is much easier to fail in a service than to succeed.”

Harry Beckwith has done what many authors have tried to do but failed. He has found a patch of blue water—a place without a lot of competing products—and he has claimed it for his own. The book explains simply and understandably what you need to do to survive and thrive when marketing a service. Whether you are a lawyer or an accountant or a dry cleaner, this book will certainly change what you think about, just as Beckwith promises. JC

Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, Business Plus, Hardcover First Edition 1997, ISBN 9780446520942

WHERE TO NEXT? Here for companies with service at their core Here for starting a service-based business Here for a story of a service-based business | EVEN MORE: Ted Levitt on Marketing by Ted Levitt; Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham; The Invisible Touch by Harry Beckwith