This book does not offer a particularly structured approach, and it's certainly not an academic marketing planning text book. It offers a rich and entertaining wealth of insights into selling, written for an age when most of us are no longer selling tangible products.

Here's a summary of the chapter headings:

• Getting Started • Surveying And Research • Marketing Is Not A Department • Planning: The Eighteen Fallacies • Anchors, Warts and American Express: How Prospects Think • The More You Say The Less People Hear: Positioning And Focus • Ugly Cats, Boat Shoes, And Overpriced Jewelry: Pricing • Monogram Your Shirts, Not Your Company: Naming And Branding • How To Save $500,000: Communicating And Selling • Holding On To What You've Got: Nurturing And Keeping Clients • Quick Fixes • Summing Up

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Each of these topic areas is made up of half-page or one-page 'snippets'. Under headings such as 'Start with You and Your Employees', he first reminds us of an old Jewish proverb ('Don't open a shop unless you know how to smile') and concludes with: Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing employee. All done in half a page, before moving on again.

It's an entertaining read, full of insight, and comes highly recommended. And not just by us:

A must-read book for anyone in a service business - which is everyone in business
Roger Dow, Vice President and General Sales Manager
Marriott International