Book Review - 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall, 2013
READ: 5 mins
REVIEWER: Robert Craven
This is one of those pivotal, marmite-type books. You love or hate Perry; you have or haven’t read the book three times.
Whatever your view of Perry Marshall, he does challenge you and make you think about your entire approach to marketing.
Personally, I think it should be compulsory reading for anyone selling anything. You don’t have to agree with him. You don’t need to like his emphasis on high-spenders or his focus on excessively pain-focused selling or his own sales machine which never seems to let go of you… but his point of view is robust and does work (for him).
The quickest way to review the book is to focus on the key bits of content, some of which will change the way you look at the whole marketing process. I will name a few of his pivotal thinking points.
80/20 applies to everything.
Your #1 job is to transfer your resources from the left-hand side of the power curve to the right (The ‘bell curve’ measures numbers of buyers but the ‘power curve’ measures the value of the individuals and a few contribute loads… and they are on the right-hand side of a power curve distribution).
You can eliminate the bottom 80% and apply 80/20 to the remainder, again and again – 22% of customers will spend 4x the money…. 1% of customers will spend 50x the money.
‘Rack the shotgun’ – send out messages to attract the sort of people who are interested… then ignore the rest! So, send a signal and focus on those that respond.
There is a power triangle of marketing: Traffic, Conversion, Economics.
There are five power disqualifiers
Do they have the money?
Do they have a bleeding neck?
Do they buy into your USP?
Do they have the ability to say ‘yes’?
Do you fit their overall plans?
The best sales formula is problem-agitate-solve.
Out of thousands of things you can obsess about, only 3-4 matter right now.
To be honest, I had forgotten that I read it way back when. You can get copies as part of a free lead magnet… or buy it from Amazon. I think you must read it.
More importantly, your team have to read it if only to understand how 80/20 is everywhere: it is in sales, your work effort, you sales team and even in your love life. A penny drops when you get that 20% of all inputs generate 80% of all outputs. And that 80/20 applies to that remaining 20% and so on…
Read it and it will haunt you. And hopefully drive you to take action.
FROM THE BOOK:
From the Inside Flap
Guided by famed marketing consultant and bestselling author Perry Marshall, learn how to save 80% of your time and money by zeroing in on the right 20% of your market —then apply 80/202 and 80/203 to gain 10X, even 100X the success. With exclusive online tools, the 80/20 Power Curve and Marketing DNA Test, you possess the power to identify untapped markets, slash waste, and target high-profit opportunities, gaining you time and exponentially greater profits.
You’re in for one of those explosive moments when an interesting notion becomes a momentous epiphany… because Perry Marshall is about to blow your mind! Read slowly. Put down often. Do what Perry says. Then we can all go out to lunch and celebrate!
– Michael E. Gerber, Author, The E-Myth
If you don’t know who Perry Marshall is — unforgivable.
– Dan Kennedy, Author, The Ultimate Marketing Plan
About Perry Marshall
Perry Marshall the number-one author and world’s most-quoted consultant on Google advertising. He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in “AdWords stupidity tax.” His Chicago company, Perry S. Marshall & Associates, consults both online and brick-and-mortar companies on generating sales leads, web traffic, and maximizing advertising results. He’s been featured at conferences in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, Israel and Australia. He’s shared the stage with Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham, Gary Halbert, Harvey Mackay and Les Brown. He’s consulted in over 200 industries, from computer hardware and software to high-end consulting, from health & fitness to corporate finance.