800-CEO-READ Blog

A Playbook for Marketing

I wanted to second Rob's approval for Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations by John Fox.

The Playbook comes in an 8-1/2" x 11" softcover format. It is completely done in full color, which is something you don't see often in business books. Each page in the book is a "play" you can run to help with your sales and marketing. The book is meant as a starting point to bring those two groups closer together.

The things I like most about the book are:

1. Each play describes exactly what needs to be done by whom.
2. Each play gives the approximate costs of running it. I think that is awesome. Chances are you have not used all of these plays in your own work, and you may be surprised how affordable some of them are.
3. On quite a few plays, Fox lists vendors he recommends for help in executing the plays. I think this is again a great starting point as you look at new options the book presents.

This book is a little pricey at $39.95, but I still recommend it. Think of the time you save by having all of this information in one spot.