Customer Reviews

Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations--102 of the Best Marketing Plays to Get Your Sales Team Across the Goal Line

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As its name suggests, John Fox presents each piece of marketing advice as a play, making it ideal for busy marketers with varying budgets. The book succinctly concentrates on maximizing marketing dollars and efforts with real-world applications. It's a beautiful book that's nicely designed and formatted, and a pleasure to read. You simply won't go wrong with the Marketing Playbook.

A common problemhas always been getting Sales and Marketing on the same page. Each side has its own view, agenda and lingo. John Fox recognizes this in his delivery, presenting ideas in a way that both sides can appreciate. We're giving a copy of the book to a select group in the company and asking that each recommend two "first plays."

Whether a company needs to know how to get its news in front of people who care through news distribution, or how to present it in a binder, John Fox's Marketing Playbook lays it out ... plus John gives you the names of sources who will help. It's the kind of book anybody in marketing and sales will keep and refer to often.

This is not a book which you read through over a period of hours. In fact it is quite possible that you will never read all of the book, but yet find it invaluable.

Fox breaks the sales stage down into logical segments and provides good "plays" to make the sales process more productive. Sales segments include: Thinking, Reaching, Engaging, Keeping.

None of the plays are innovative, but they are relevant. He provides the reader with good insight and detail on "plays" such as print advertising, Linkedin, PR, Customer referrals, Customer surveys etc. He also makes an effort to cost out these plays. I did find some of his costings on the high side, but it is up to you "the player" to make sure you get your value for money.

The book is not cheap, but if you want a good reference, idea book at your fingertip, it is good value.

Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations is a compendium of 102 marketing strategies to meet sales goals. A football-style theme and trappings capture the reader's eye, but at its heart Marketing Playbook is all business. Tips, tricks and techniques include the basics for creating a good business card, how to create a series of "thank you" postcards with impact, using web conferencing to give a sales presentation without leaving one's chair, how to break through voicemail, and much more. A surprisingly intense amount of detail on each topic and full-color photographs on every page distinguish Marketing Playbook as a top-quality reference and resource for marketing professionals.

This book is very engaging, in fact, hard to put down. As a seasoned marketing executive, I am often disappointed with marketing books yet this one was a pleasant surprise and loaded with useful information. John's suggestions are easy to implement and focused on helping sales make sales! Too many marketers focus on brand image to the exclusion of lead generation and customer aquisition. What good is a brand if there is no money in the bank! This book will keep new and seasoned marketers in growth companies on track with cost-effective ideas to ring the sales bell. An excellent feature is a list of sample vendors and the approximate cost of various "plays"; this alone will save new marketers research time and money and allow them to maximize tight marketing budgets for maximum results. This book is worth every penny and there is something inside that will work for every type of business.

The value of this book is that it is truly a manual - a resource manual of ideas and carefully selected sources for most of the necessary marketing tools. Great homework done by the author; truly an invaluable product.

I can't think of a business -- large or small -- that couldn't benefit by picking from this assortment of marketing "plays". You can skim it to pick out interesting possibilities, then dig deeper using the coaching points and budget estimates provided with each play. A terrific resource!

This is a very unique marketing book, because it not only gives a very broad perspective (102 specific types of marketing strategems) but it distills each strategy into its essential ingredients with succinct action items.

From trademarks and streaming video to trade show promotions and PR buzz, every single page condenses years of experience into a straightforward set of instructions, with resources and road-tested vendors you can use to execute your plan.

I think this text has real potential to become a classic marketing book. Every marketing, PR or marcom person can get significant value (and fresh ideas) from this in as little as five minutes. This isn't just a re-hash of standard marketing practices, although it's a useful resource for that; many of these tips are new and innovative media approaches that few companies are using. It shouldn't take much effort at all to earn your investment in this book back 10X. I really do like it.

This book has relevant and valuable information for those new to marketing and also for seasoned businessmen. I highly recommend it.

Jeff Pieta
President :: All Information Services, Inc.