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Anthony’s NotesA personal field guide
From the notebook

Selling the Invisible

Harry Beckwith

Book Cover

My Summary

Main Ideas, Takeaways & Similarities

Questions

I. What is the problem?
A. How is this problem formulated?
B. Why is this problem important?
C. What is the history of this problem?
D. Which prominent personalities have been interested in this problem?

II. What solutions to the problem are there?
A. What are the conclusions reached?
B. By what argument(s) is the conclusion reached?
C. What facts or assumptions serve as premises?
D. When a prominent personality offers a solution, does he also argue for or against other prominent personalities? Does he raise objections to alternative solutions? Does he consider objections to his own solutions?

III. Evaluation
A. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative formulations to the problem?
B. Has the importance or history of the problem ever been misrepresented?
C. Are the solutions logically related to the premises?
D. Are the facts true? Are the assumptions acceptable? Are the objections answerable?

AI Summary

Highlights

Nike, presumably a running shoe manufacturer, does not make shoes. It only designs, distributes, and markets them. Nike is primarily a service company. (Location 22)

In most cases, you buy a service touch, taste, feel, smell, and sight unseen. (Location 33)

you buy a service with no guarantees—and even more uncertainty. (Location 42)

That is where your marketing must start: with a clear understanding of that worried soul. (Location 55)

The new marketing is more than a way of doing; it is a way of thinking. It begins with an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of services—their invisibility and intangibility—and of the unique nature of service prospects and users—their fear, their limited time, their sometimes illogical ways of making decisions, and their most important drives and needs. (Location 79)

the first rule of service marketing: The core of service marketing is the service itself. (Location 92)

We think we’re better than we are. (Location 117)

Lake Wobegon Effect, (Location 120)

Being human, everyone in your company suffers from the Lake Wobegon effect, too. You think you are better than you are—and that your service is better than it is. (Location 122)

Assume your service is bad. It can’t hurt, and it will force you to improve. (Location 125)

If you decide that you cannot offer quality, speed, and price, you’re not trying hard enough. (Location 130)

Ask: Who is setting your standards—your industry, your ego, or your clients? (Location 141)

A service that does not jump to meet these rising expectations will have a small revolution and a customer exodus on its hands. Ignore your industry’s benchmarks, and copy Disney’s. (Location 156)

Remember the Butterfly Effect. Tiny cause, huge effect. (Location 168)

What do you do after you err? Do you pass the buck or talk fast—both of which fool almost no one and make matters worse? Or do you take the hit and fix the problem in a way that says, “You really matter to us, and we will get this right for you”? (Location 192)

Big mistakes are big opportunities. (Location 194)

“If it’s this hard to write the ad, the product is flawed.” (Location 200)

Write an ad for your service. If after a week your best ad is weak, stop working on the ad and start working on your service. (Location 202)

Marketing is the brains of service marketing. If the brain fails, the heart soon will fail. (Location 219)

Don’t just think better. Think different. (Location 244)

Create the possible service; don’t just create what (Location 276)

the market needs or wants. Create what it would love. (Location 276)

Have a third party do your surveys. (Location 301)

Survey, survey, survey. (Location 311)

Unless you are confident that you can interpret them, Beware of written surveys. (Location 333)

For a dozen reasons, conduct oral surveys, not written ones. (Location 359)

Never ask “What don’t you like?” (Location 363)

Marketing is not a department. It is your business. (Location 386)

It’s hard to see the real scope of your business. Ask for help. (Location 399)

Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing person. (Location 411)

In planning your marketing, don’t just think of your business. Think of your skills. (Location 436)

Find out what clients are really buying. (Location 444)

If you’re selling a service, you’re selling a relationship. (Location 452)

Before you try to satisfy “the client,” understand and satisfy the person. (Location 460)

Your real competitor often is sitting across the table. Plan accordingly. (Location 482)

Go where others aren’t. (Location 506)

Make technology a key part of every marketing plan. (Location 536)

Study each point of contact. Then improve each one—significantly. (Location 546)

In large part, service marketing is a popularity contest. (Location 560)

Be professional—but, more importantly, be personable. (Location 575)

You never know. So don’t assume that you should. Plan for several possible futures. (Location 606)

Kawasaki expresses it, “Lead, take a shot, listen, respond, lead again.” (Location 634)

Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally. (Location 649)

Do it now. The business obituary pages are filled with planners who waited. (Location 667)

Don’t let perfect ruin good. (Location 791)

Start failing so you can start succeeding. (Location 803)

Don’t look to experts for all your answers. There are no answers, only informed opinions. (Location 813)

Appeal only to a prospect’s reason, and you may have no appeal at all. (Location 885)

Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can. (Location 901)

Take advantage of the Recency Effect. Follow up brilliantly. (Location 915)

People do not look to make the superior choice; they want to avoid making a bad choice. (Location 921)

Forget looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice. Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice. (Location 936)

Identify and polish your anchors. (Location 956)

Each impression you make will—temporarily, at least—be your last. So make it strong. (Location 971)

They were not looking for the service they wanted most but the one they feared the least. They did not choose a good experience; they chose to minimize the risk of a bad experience. (Location 978)

Yes, build the quality into your service—but make it less risky, too. (Location 982)

The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate her fear. Offer a trial period or a test project. (Location 994)

Tell the truth. Even if it hurts, it will help. (Location 1007)

You must position yourself in your prospect’s mind. Your position should be singular: one simple message. Your position must set you apart from your competitors. You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people; you must focus on one thing. (Location 1025)

Stand for one distinctive thing that will give you a competitive advantage. (Location 1033)

To broaden your appeal, narrow your position. (Location 1055)

What special skill could your business develop and communicate that would, by lesser logic, position you strongly in other areas? What is the big skill you could develop and market that clearly implies other valuable skills? In your service, what’s the hardest task? Position yourself as the expert at this task, and you’ll have lesser logic in your corner. (Location 1074)

Say one positive thing, and you will become associated with many. (Location 1091)

Every service is different. Identifying and communicating those differences and creating new ones are central to successful service marketing. If you cannot see the differences in your service, look harder. (Location 1107)

Don’t start by positioning your service. Instead, leverage the position you have. (Location 1132)

A position (or statement of position) is a cold-hearted, no-nonsense statement of how you are perceived in the minds of prospects. It is your position. A positioning statement, by contrast, states how you wish to be perceived. It is the core message you want to deliver in every medium, including elevators and airport waiting areas, to influence the perceptions of your service. (Location 1135)

Who: Who are you? What: What business are you in? For whom: What people do you serve? What need: What are the special needs of the people you serve? Against whom: With whom are you competing? (Location 1139)

What’s different: What makes you different from those competitors? So: What’s the benefit? What unique benefit does a client derive from your service? (Location 1142)

Your position is all in people’s minds. Find out what that position is.* (Location 1163)

Ask yourself: Given our position, will people believe our positioning statement? (Location 1168)

If the gap between your position and your (Location 1181)

positioning statement is too big, your customers won’t make the leap. Keep your steps small. (Location 1181)

Craft bold dreams and realistic positioning (Location 1190)

statements. (Location 1190)

The country’s top architects know how to design a position. They develop a style and then stand for it. They don’t do some of this and some of that. If you want avant-garde, you call Frank Gehry. If you want postmodern wit, you call Michael Graves. If you want very corporate late modern, you call I. M. Pei. (Location 1192)

Choose a position that will reposition your competitors; then move a step back towa rd the middle to cinch the sale. (Location 1206)

In positioning, don’t try to hide your small size. Make it work by stressing its advantages, such as responsiveness and individual attention. (Location 1218)

If you think you can afford not to focus, think of Sears. (Location 1245)

Focus. In everything from campaigns for peanuts to campaigns for president, focus wins. (Location 1257)

No matter how skilled you are, you must focus your skills. (Location 1270)

People exposed to your message will see a common face and hear a common tune. They will learn exactly who you are. (Location 1282)

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. (Location 1301)

If no one complains about your price, it’s too low. If almost everyone complains, it’s too high. (Location 1305)

How much resistance tells you that your price is right? Fifteen to 20 percent. And there is one simple reason why: Close to 10 percent of people will complain about any price. (Location 1307)

Problem of the Deadly Middle. If you are the high-priced provider, most people assume you offer the best quality—a desirable position. If you are the low-cost provider, most people assume you deliver an acceptable product at the lowest cost—also a desirable position. But if you price in the middle, what you are saying—again—is: “We’re not the best, and neither is our price, but both our service and price are pretty good.” Not a very compelling message. (Location 1319)

People almost always can find a cheaper way to get your service—and few efforts are less rewarding than trying to compete with those cheaper ways. Beware of the rock bottom. (Location 1348)

A woman was strolling along a street in Paris when she spotted Picasso sketching at a sidewalk café. Not so thrilled that she could not be slightly presumptuous, the woman asked Picasso if he might sketch her, and charge accordingly. Picasso obliged. In just minutes, there she was: an original Picasso. “And what do I owe you?” she asked. “Five thousand francs,” he answered. “But it only took you three minutes,” she politely reminded him. “No,” Picasso said. “It took me all my life.” (Location 1358)

Don’t charge by the hour. Charge by the years. (Location 1363)

A man was suffering a persistent problem with his house. The floor squeaked. No matter what he tried, nothing worked. Finally, he called a carpenter who friends said was a true craftsman. The craftsman walked into the room and heard the squeak. He set down his toolbox, pulled out a hammer and nail, and pounded the nail into the floor with three blows. The squeak was gone forever. The carpenter pulled out an invoice slip, on which he wrote the total of $45. Above that total were two line items: Hammering, $2. Knowing where to hammer, $43. Charge for knowing where. (Location 1365)

Value is not a competitive position. Value is what every service promises, implicitly or explicitly. It is fundamental to survival. A service’s price must fairly reflect its value to the customer, or the service eventually will fail. (Location 1373)

If good value is the first thing you communicate, you won’t be effective. If good value is your best position, improve your service. (Location 1378)

Don’t get funny with your name. (Location 1398)

Generic names encourage generic business. (Location 1408)

Never choose a name that describes something that everyone expects from the service. The name will be generic, forgettable, and meaningless. (Location 1413)

Be distinctive—and sound it. (Location 1425)

If you need a name for your service, start with your own. (Location 1431)

In service marketing, almost nothing beats a brand. (Location 1475)

Brands are alive—and (Location 1491)

a brand is a warranty. It is a promise that the service carrying that brand will live up to its name, and perform. (Location 1493)

Invest in and religiously preach integrity. It is the heart of your brand. (Location 1513)

Brand-name services can spend less time and money to get more business. This gives them greater profits to reinvest to make their company even more productive—and widen the gulf between them and their nonbranded competitors. (Location 1525)

Never underestimate the value of your brand or the difficulty in creating a new one. (Location 1545)

A brand is money. (Location 1563)

To speed up the building of your brand, choose an unconfusable name. (Location 1600)

Building your brand doesn’t take millions. It takes imagination. (Location 1619)

“People don’t want to hear from you—so what makes you think they want to hear from your shirt?”) (Location 1646)

People are interested in themselves. Until you realize that, you will be beaten badly by your toughest competitor: indifference. (Location 1646)

If you deliver two messages, most people will process just one of them—if that. (Location 1653)

Say one thing. (Location 1654)

Saying many things usually communicates nothing. (Location 1669)

A savvy salesman will show you one nice shirt, which you probably will buy. But if he isn’t that smart and shows you three shirts, there is an excellent chance you won’t buy any shirt. The salesperson has complicated your decision and confused you with choices. And it is very hard to sell to a confused person. (Location 1676)

Meet your market’s very first need: Give it one good (Location 1679)

reason. (Location 1679)

After you say one thing, repeat it again and again. (Location 1690)

Like clever journalists and great lawyers, marketers who tell true stories make their presentations more interesting, more personal, more credible, and more felt—and more persuasive. Don’t use adjectives. Use stories. (Location 1700)

Attack your first weakness: the stereotype the prospect has about you. (Location 1707)

Create the evidence of your service quality. Then communicate it. (Location 1727)

false consensus effect; we imagine that people agree with us even though they do not.) (Location 1741)

If you think your promotional idea might seem silly or unprofessional, it is. (Location 1744)

Prospects do not buy how good you are at what you do. They buy how good you are at who you are. (Location 1765)

very best is a necessary marketing position, much less a uniquely powerful one, is refuted by experience: your own. (Location 1783)

Convey that you are “positively good.” (Location 1784)

Far better to say too little than too much. (Location 1795)

But the people watching the commercial didn’t hear the words. They saw the pictures, most of which showed the attorney practicing rock climbing. From those pictures, those people decided that First Banks was saying it was strong and solid, like the man and mountain, apparently—a message totally unintended by the people who created the commercial. (Location 1800)

People will trust their eyes far before they will ever trust your word s. Look at your business card. Your lobby. Your shoes. What do your visibles say about the invisible thing you are trying to sell? Watch what you show. (Location 1807)

Seeing is believing. (Location 1840)

Watch—and perfect—the visual clues you send. (Location 1857)

Repeat yourself visually, too. It makes you look more organized and professional, and easier to remember. (Location 1865)

Good salespeople know better. They know that if a prospect declines a face-to-face meeting but requests “some information about your company,” they rarely will make the sale. They know the prospect must see them to believe them, and buy. (Location 1878)

Give your marketing a human face. (Location 1881)

If you are selling something complex, simplify it with a metaphor. (Location 1893)

You don’t listen to clichés. Your clients won’t either. (Location 1926)

Get to the point or you will never get to the close. (Location 1935)

Tell people—in a single compelling sentence—why they should buy from you instead of someone else. (Location 1941)

Sentences free of clichés and other tired words arouse and keep people’s curiosity and attention. And fresh words sound sincere, like the real thoughts of the speaker rather than the meaningless recitation of something the speaker read or heard somewhere else, many times before. (Location 1965)

William F. Buckley gave another meaning to this when someone asked him about his interviews on Firing Line. “What happens,” the person asked Buckley, “when you get a guest who is not interesting?” “That never happens,” Buckley answered. “If you look deeply enough, ninety-nine out of a hundred people are interesting—and the one hundredth person is interesting (Location 2018)

because he isn’t.” Look harder. The interest—and the story—are there. (Location 2021)

Some marketing experts recommend that in creating a direct mail program, you should devote half your time to creating the reply form. (Location 2023)

Make your service easy to buy. (Location 2032)

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.” (Location 2034)

Don’t sell your service. Sell your prospect. (Location 2039)

You know why his pitch failed. Because the person did not talk about you. His entire pitch was about him and what he had, not about you and what you need. (Location 2043)

Dick cares. He believes in what he is saying, and he cares—about doing wonderful commercials that will help Musicland sell millions of records. And in an industry known for slickness, Dick is just Dick. Nothing is planned—how (Location 2056)

He shattered the stereotype. He never pretended. He risked showing his true self. And he cared passionately—and showed clients how much he cared. (Location 2061)

Draw a clear map. And after every mission statement, add an objectives statement. (Location 2077)

Above all, sell hope. (Location 2099)

Watch your relationship balance sheet; assume it is worse than it appears, and fix it. (Location 2129)

Don’t raise expectations you cannot meet. (Location 2143)

To manage satisfaction, you must carefully manage your customer’s expectations. (Location 2158)

Given that failures are obvious but most successes are invisible, what must you do? Advertise your successes. Show your client what you have done. If you beat the deadline by two days (a good idea), make sure the client knows. If you came under the estimate by 7 percent (an even better idea), make sure the client knows. If you are especially proud of something you did, make sure the client knows. 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. (Location 2202)

Sweat the smallest stuff. (Location 2245)

Be fast. Then get faster. (Location 2265)

Say P.M., deliver A.M. (Location 2269)

Make every client very happy every day. (Location 2272)

To fix your messengers, fix your message. (Location 2292)

Taking risks doesn’t always mean risking your money. Sometimes, it just means risking yourself. Risk yourself. (Location 2305)

Get out there. Almost anywhere. Let opportunity hit you. (Location 2317)