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Most small business owners are in the service business. Well, unlike many of the marketing books aimed at product marketers, Harry Beckwith writes immensely powerful guide books for people who need to market their service business.

In an earlier article we reviewed Beckwiths second book: The Invisible Touch. This first book, Selling the Invisible, is sub-titled: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing. Sound practical? Sort of like a book you would toss in your rucksack before you go out on a long hike in unfamiliar territory? Thats exactly the type of book this is.

This is a great read to stick in your car or briefcase for the next few weeks and read in ten minute bursts. If you are out shopping and find yourself logjammed in a long queue at the return counter or stuck in a parking lot of the mall pull out Beckwith and get re-energized as a marketer or a small business owner. You wont feel quite so alone. Harry gives us the feeling hes been there with us before, selling in the trenches.

Again, Beckwith focuses on those of us who sell Services, rather than Products. Most of us in small business are in the Service business. Our deliverable to the customer is, in effect, invisible. This is the theme running throughout Beckwiths book. The challenge, then, is to make the invisible visible, and he has several different clues and ideas on what to look for. His 45 page section on Communicating and Selling alone is worth the price of the book.

Also, please dont let the title throw you off; this is a great book for both marketers and for salespeople. And yes, we realize that in small business we often are required to be both. One thing we really like about Mr. Beckwith; he understands how hard it is to sell the intangibility of a service. As he points out--often customers only see the results of a service decision when something goofs up.

This book is just over 200 pages, but it is a quick 200+ pages that allows for todays busy marketer to quickly devour some needed information. If you are like us, you will absolutely catch yourself shaking your head and saying: Yep, Im doing just that in my business now and Ive got to change it.

Now, you can. We strongly recommend reading Beckwiths Selling the Invisible so you can find out where you are going wrong and what you can do to correct it. This will give your business a burst to propel yourself forward even more.

Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.

2006 Marketing Hawks

Craig Lutz-Priefert is President of Marketing Hawks, a firm providing essential marketing vision for small business. Marketing Hawks also provides expert sales presentation review at their VideoMyPitch website.