• Goodreads: https://goo.gl/YtZ4NS
• Audio book

My Notes

—Preface, Intro & Getting Started—

Services are just promises that somebody will do something.

Core problem of services marketing: service quality.

Services are not products, and service marketing is not product marketing.

“Product” marketers typically have two choices: reduce cost or add value.

Recognize the powerful influence of perceptions.

Nothing works more powerfully than simplicity.

The core of service marketing is the service itself.

First, before you write an ad, rent a list, dash off a press release - fix your service!

The average American this he isn’t.

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

Remember the Butterfly Effect. Tiny cause, huge effect.

To err is an opportunity. Outstanding service does not mean zero defects. 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.”

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—Surviving and Research—

People won’t tell you what you’re doing wrong. Your prospects won’t tell you. Your clients won’t tell you. Sometimes, even your spouse won’t tell you. So what do you do to improve your service? Ask.

Even your best friends won’t tell you. But they will talk about you behind your back.

Have a third party do your surveys. Have you clients send their completed surveys to a third party. Have the third party assure your clients that they can leave their names out, and that their names won’t be revealed. Your clients will give you far more candid answers. Your customers will appreciate it.

Marketing is not a department. It IS your business.

Don’t open a shop unless you know how to smile.

Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing person.

McDonald’s figured out that people weren’t buying hamburgers. People were buying an experience. Find out what your clients are really buying.

If you are selling a service, you’re selling a relationship.

Experts think that their clients are buying expertise. But most prospects for these complex services cannot evaluate expertise; they cannot tell a really good tax return, a clever motion, or a perceptive diagnosis. But they can tell if the relationship is good and if phone calls are returned. Clients are experts at knowing if they feel valued.

In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise - because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are selling a relationship. And in most cases, that is where you need the most work.

Before you try to satisfy “the client”, understand and satisfy the person.

In the service industry technology creates the adapter’s edge. The adapters become more proficient sooner, work out the bugs, and quickly recognize the benefits of the technology. The adapters learn and turn that learning into a great competitive advantage. Make technology a key part of every marketing plan.

Study every point at which your company makes contact with a prospect. What are we doing to make a phenomenal impression at every point?

The competent and likable solo consultant will attract far more business than the brilliant but socially deficient expert. In large part, marketing is a popularity contest.

Winning is a matter of feelings, and feelings are about personalities.

Be professional, but more importantly, be personable.

18 Fallacies

#1 Fallacy: You can know what’s ahead. You never know. So don’t assume that you should. Plan for several possible future.

#2 Fallacy: You can know what you want. Accept the limitations of planning. The greatest value of the plan is the process, the thinking that went into it. Don’t plan your future, plan your people.

#3 Fallacy: Strategy is king. Ready, fire, aim. Lead, take a shot, listen, respond, lead again. Do anything.

#4 Fallacy: Build a better mousetrap. Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally.

#5 Fallacy: There’ll be a perfect time. Do it NOW.

#6 Fallacy: Patience is a virtue. Moving organizations tend to keep moving. Dormant ones tend to run out of air and die. Not-moving begets more not-moving. Act like a shark, keep moving.

#7 Fallacy: Think smart. Highly intelligent people are the world’s foremost experts at squashing good ideas. Think dumb.

#8 Fallacy: Fallacy of Science and data. Don’t approach planning as a precise science. Planning is an imprecise art.

#9 Fallacy: Focus groups Beware of focus groups, they focus only on today. Planning is about tomorrow.

#10 Fallacy: Memory Beware of what you think you remember.

#11 Fallacy: Experience When we infer things we tend to overgeneralize. Have a healthy distrust of what experience has taught you.

#12 Fallacy: Confidence Careful to leap on any evidence that supports your opinion and ignoring all contrary evidence. We are wrong far more often that we know. Do not be overwhelmed by other people’s total confidence. Beware of the overconfidence bias.

#13 Fallacy: Perfection is perfection. Getting to best usually gets complicated. Will all that excellence really benefit the person for whom it is intended? Will the prospects care? Will it be worth the cost? The planning process tends to attract perfection. Don’t let perfect ruin good.

#14 Fallacy: Failure is failure. Any idea might fail. Start failing so you can start succeeding.

#15 Fallacy: Expertise. Don’t look to experts for all your answers. There are no answers, only informed opinions.

#16 Fallacy: Authority. Question authority.

#17 Fallacy: Common sense. Common sense will only get you so far. For inspiring results, you’ll need inspiration.

#18 Fallacy: Fate You gotta believe.

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

We tend to choose the one we hear the most about. You need to make yourself familiar to your prospects. You need to get out there. Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can.

Do everything possible to be the last company to present. The essential point is that you should always take advantage of this effect, with a follow-up that is as well conceived and powerful as anything in your presentation. Take advantage of the recency effect. Follow up brilliantly.

People do not look to make the superior choice, they want to avoid making a bad choice. Forget looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice. Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice.

People do not simply form impressions. They get anchored to them. They are more apt to make first impressions as snap judgments, and then base all their later decisions on them. First impressions have never been more critical - they take hold very quickly, and they become the anchors to which you and your success are tied. Identify and polish your anchors. They remember the first and the last items but forget the middle.

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. Yes, build quality into your service - but make it less risky, too.

Instead of asking for the business, ask for a project. One free review of their retirement plan. If it is a big account, ask for a tiny slice. The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate her fear. Offer a trial period or a test project.

Research concluded that the criticism of a person made the praises seem more believable; and that makes the person look like a stronger candidate. Showing a person’s warts actually helps. Rather than hide your weaknesses, admit them. Tell the truth. Even if it hurts, it will help.

With meaningful differences to find, prospects look for signals in seemingly trivial differences: the decor of the lobby, the color of the business card, the heft of the brochure, even the smell of the salesperson’s cologne. Accentuate the trivial.

Fanatical Focus

1. You must position yourself in your prospect’s mind.

2. Your position should be singular: one simple message.

3. Your position must set you apart from your competitors.

4. You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people; you must focus on one thing.

Stand for one distinctive thing that will give you a competitive advantage.

To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.

Say one positive thing, and you will become associated with many.

Every service is different, and creating and communicating differences is central to effective marketing.

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

Invest in and religiously preach integrity. It is the heart of your brand.

Make the service visible.

Your first competitor is indifference.

People cannot process two conversations at once. Say one thing. Saying many things usually communicates nothing.

What makes you so different that I should do business with you? Give me one good reason why?

After you say one thing, repeat it again and again.

One story beats a dozen adjectives. Most nonfiction writers begin their articles with an illustrative story. Our primary form of entertainment is still the dramatic narrative- the story.

Attack your first weakness: the stereotype the prospect has about you.

If you think your promotional idea might seem silly or unprofessional, it is.

Marketers are are wrong to emphasize superiority. You can accomplish just as much by convincing a prospect that your service is “positively good”.

It is far better to say too little than too much.

People will trust their eyes far before they will ever trust your words Look at your business card. Your lobby. Your shoes. What do your visibles say about the invisible thing you are try to sell? Watch what you show.

Potential buyers are hesitant to consider things they cannot see. So they emphasize what they can see. Watch, and perfect, the visual clues you send.

Give your marketing a human face.

If you’re selling something complex, simplify it with a metaphor.

Tell people - in a single compelling sentence - why they should buy from you instead of someone else.

If you want more publicity, do more advertising.

Above all, sell hope.

Don’t raise expectations you cannot meet.

A customer’s satisfaction is the gap between what the customer expects and what she gets.

Few things feel more gratifying than gratitude. Send twice as many thank you notes this year. Keep thanking.

Stay present. Advertising and publicity reminds clients of your service and assures them that you are around , viable and successful. Communicate your successes. Out of sight is out of mind.

Say P.M. Deliver A.M.

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