EMPTY CALORIES

Great Words That Say Nothing

THE INVISIBLE TOUCH, by Harry Beckwith. Warner Books, NY. 232 pp.

            There is a current fad in books that purport to inform you, but end up with only superficial aphorisms. It’s a kind of superficial wisdom that sounds great at first hearing, but an hour later you’re hungry for an idea. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a daily poem in the tabloid press by a poet named Tony Wons. One of his great lines was (if I remember correctly) “It takes a heap of living to make a house a home.” Deep. But after a few moments of reflection, it emerges as sentimental shallow nonsense.

              Unfortunately, that’s mostly what this book is. It is well written. It’s charming. It’s shallow nonsense, written by someone who purports to be an expert in professional services marketing He may well be, but this book displays virtually no understanding of the differences between marketing a service and marketing a product. Imagine a serious marketer who says , “Research supports mediocre ideas, and kills great ones.”  And how about, “Find your specialty – no matter how narrow it is – and communicate it convincingly.”  Good Lord – you can go all the way from A to B on that one.

              This charming little book does it all with anecdotal material that leads to each of these points. A typical story tries to make the point that…”People don’t lead. Purposes do.” Death by homily.

              The real problem with a book like this is that it comes in serious covers, leading you to expect that it is ready to impart wisdom that will elevate you from the mediocre to the great. In reality, it reinforces mediocrity. It implies that if you follow the rules in this book, you’ll succeed mightily.

              If this sound resentful, it is. There are a lot of serious people in the field of marketing professional services. They labor in a vineyard that’s distinguished by the fact that there is no long-standing tradition of marketing in the professions. Getting law or accounting firms to sing in four part harmony on the subject is arduous, and calls for skills beyond marketing. Any lawyer or accountant who reads this book as some kind of marketing gospel will be led so far down the garden path that that it will take a team of marketing-wise horses to bring them back to the starting gate. As the old song goes, the bear chased him up a tree, and then climbed an adjacent one. As the bear seemed about to make the lap, the man sung out, “Lord, if you can’t help me, please don’t help the bear.”

            Looking at the author’s background, there’s reason to believe he’s a knowledgeable marketing professional. Maybe for products, which is a very different world. But when it comes to marketing for professionals, he’s out of line. He should know better.

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