Most small business owners run a service business. Most marketing books target companies that sell a product. The Invisible Touch by Harry Beckwith is a book for any small business owner that operates a service business. Tired of those marketing books that merely focus on how the Diffusion of Innovation spreads for new products? Then read pp 57-59 and learn Harry Beckwiths slant on how its different for a service business and youll realize youre not alone in your frustrations, after all. This is Beckwiths second book devoted to service businesses. The first, Selling the Invisible, has a greater emphasis on selling, while this second work focuses on marketing. We actually recommend both. We find the ideas in the second half of The Invisible Touch so compelling that we urgently recommend an evening or two with Beckwith to anybody involved in running or selling for a service business. Yes, we definitely mean you folks in sales. See, here--at last--is a book on marketing that is written with the smaller companies in mind. If you are a salesperson looking to increase your sales by selling smarter, please read this book on marketing. It wont teach you how to close, and there are no case studies on how to get in front of the customer. It is, however, about getting an edge on your competition in some of the dozen or so ways that Beckwith outlines. The first half of the book is valuable, but the second half really speaks to whats important for a service business. He outlines four Keys to Modern Marketing: - Price
- Brand
- Packaging
- Relationships
The chapter on Relationships also clues us in on eight profitable tips on how to build them. The Invisible Touch can be read in a couple evenings. Make sure you pencil in some notes on the inside back cover that refer back to passages that strike a chord with you and your small business situation. If you can integrate even two of his ideas into your business during the course of a year, itll be worth your money and worth those evenings you spent reading it. 2006 Marketing Hawks |
