Selling The Invisible is packed with tips and insights on how to market your business services. Harry Beckwith claims that most marketing advice is based on a product marketing model, most of which doesn’t apply to service businesses.

He makes each point in just a few paragraphs, which makes this book easy to grab when you only have a few minutes for marketing inspiration.

His key points include:

• Before marketing your service, make it great.
• Don’t just create what the market needs or wants. Create what it would love.
• Survey people by phone.
• Don’t do focus groups.
• Marketing is not a department. It’s your business.
• Every act is a marketing act. Make every person a marketing person.
• If you’re selling a service, you’re selling a relationship.
• Your real competitor is often your customer (either they do it themself or they don’t believe anyone can do it).
• Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally.
• Think dumb. Smart people are experts at squashing good ideas.
• Take advantage of the Recency Effect. Follow up brilliantly.
• Forget looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice. Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice.
• To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.
• Choose a position that will reposition your competitors; then move back toward the middle to cinch the sale.
• Generic names encourage generic business.
• Your first competitor is indifference.
• Saying many things usually communicates nothing.
• After you say one thing, repeat it again and again.