Book Report: Selling the Invisible

I have read and re-read Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith at least once a year since 1997. Among all the marketing books I've read, this one little book has been by far the most insightful, helpful, idea provoking, and course-setting book I've found. He makes a huge deal about the distinctions between selling a product that can be seen and touched, and a selling a service that is bought "touch, taste, feel, smell, and sight unseen." Coming to understanding the subtle dynamics of how a person buys a service can be a stunning reality check for those who provide (sell) services. This book helps me to enter my prospect's mind and examine what I say to them from their perspective. Looking at the process of buying a service from the prospect's perspective can make you realize how incredibly hard it is to sell a service, and how scary it is to buy one.

One practical example of how products and services differ is to consider what happens when a product fails verses what happens when a service fails. Beckwith points out that it's obvious when a product fails - it stops working; when it's plugged in nothing happens; when you try them on you find a tear. The remedy for such occurrences is predictable. You return it or exercise your warrantee options. But what happens when a services fails? How do you even know if it has?

In web development this happens all the time. A customer calls and says "our site is broken," meaning that someone emailed them saying that it does work for them. Did we fail and not code the page properly? Perhaps. Did this customer have an outdated or unusual computer or do they have some strange settings that are causing the error? If we tell our client that such an occurrence is a highly unusual anomaly but that the page is properly coded, what do they do? Whom do they believe? There are thousands of such scenarios that can make selling and buying a service extremely challenging.

This book, while short and easy to read, is chock full of such insights that can help to understand what it means to sell an invisible service. I've limited myself to just four quotes from the book that highlight four principles that have been most foundational to me and my company.