Customer Success

I wrote this book because I believe selling is undergoing its most significant change in more than 30 years. For those who recognize it, there is a "call to arms" that is transforming how sellers must sell, and what it will take to succeed in the future. Those who don't recognize it, or fail to heed it, will be left clinging to outdated assumptions and miscalculations about the centers of influence and the new business metrics that are fast becoming the primary currency in every customer exchange.

What if your customers had a vested interest in guiding your company toward greater success? What if your employees had a personal as well as professional commitment to elevating your organization? Imagine how different your results would be if investors, vendors, and even analysts treasured the relationships they have built with you. Most important...is your company capable of setting aside a bit of its own self-interest to become part of dramatically more rewarding collaborative effort?

Solid profits, a strong brand, steady customers - all of these can vanish when market shifts disrupt business as usual. So how do you keep from losing ground? How do you stay a step ahead of competitors? The solution is surprisingly straightforward: innovate tweak by tweak.

While employees may possess the knowledge and skills to do their jobs, they are unaware of what best-selling customer service author Steve Curtin calls job purpose: how their specific tasks contribute to the organization’s reason for being. They understand what to do and how to do it, but not why they do it. Curtin offers a fresh tool to overcome this challenge. Instead of just having assignments to work on, they now have a purpose to work toward. Service quality goes from transactional to exceptional.

The world of marketing is undergoing major change. Sophisticated algorithms can test billions of marketing messages and measure results, and shift the weight of campaigns - all in real time. What’s next? A complete transformation of marketing as we know it, where machines themselves design and implement customized advertising tactics at virtually every point of digital contact.

What if a company were so treasured and trusted that people literally took to the streets - by the thousands - to save it? That company is Market Basket, a popular New England supermarket chain. After long-time, CEO Arthur T. Demoulas was ousted by his cousin Arthur S. Demoulas, the company's managers and rank-and-file workers struck back. Risking their own livelihoods to restore the job of their beloved boss they walked out, but they didn't walk far. At huge protest rallies, they were joined by loyal customers - leaving stores empty.

When it comes to negotiation, there is an ugly double standard. As women, if we make concessions to further a deal, we're viewed as weak. But if we play hardball, we can be seen as overly aggressive - and the strategy backfires. No wonder most women hate negotiating.

Does your business feel lifeless in today's fast-paced marketplace? Tired of struggling to stand out? Can't seem to clarify your message? You may be a zombie and not even know it. Zombies are confused, haphazard, and indistinguishable. Businesses act like zombies when empty communications alienate customers, supporters, and partners. The Zombie Business Cure gets to the heart of many communication problems: identity.

In Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, marketing gurus Don Peppers and Martha Rogers challenge you to break the rules and propose a whole new way of thinking about how to create real shareholder value in today's competitive environment, operating with today's technologies.

So how do you build a company that matters? Companies and people that matter have successfully become the obvious choices in the hearts and minds of their customers, their employees, and their communities. They elevate themselves by consistently finding ways to solve the most pressing needs their markets face. The result? They create more value year after year and build sustainable, differentiated organizations.

Fred Reichheld's 2006 book The Ultimate Question - that question being, "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" - challenged the conventional wisdom of customer satisfaction programs. It coined the terms "bad profits" and "good profits" and pointed to a faster, much more accurate way of gauging customers' real loyalty to a company. Richard Owen and Laura Brooks are co-developers, along with Reichheld, of the methodology behind answering the question.

You've probably already realized that storytelling is ubiquitous today and that it's hard to imagine marketing without it. In this guide, you will first get an overview of what storytelling actually is and why it is an important part of a successful marketing strategy. In addition, you will learn in the theory section how a classic story is structured, to what extent this structure can be integrated into business practice and what alternatives there are.

Every year, managers at companies large and small are finding it harder to compete with the likes of Google and Amazon, who are stealing their customers and cornering every conceivable market and service. There is, however, a way for companies to survive - and win - in this era of digital behemoths. Choose Your Customer is a powerful customer-targeted guide that can help managers level the playing field against their biggest competitors.

When it comes to strategies, salespeople usually veer toward one of two extremes: operating analytically…or by the seat of their pants. In this groundbreaking audiobook on sales creativity, listeners will learn how to integrate the right-brain aptitude for innovation with the left-brain affinity for logic and process. The result is a fresh, dynamic approach that addresses customers' needs while expanding the salesperson's entire way of thinking.

Relationships hold companies together and fuel future growth. From connecting with customers to forging high-performing teams, success depends on everyone working well together. Yet many leaders prioritize potential relationships and take established ones for granted. They shouldn't. Research reveals that these core relationships are often the weakest...and can prove more vital than missed networking opportunities.

Like the ocean, the marketplace constantly changes and today's cresting reward becomes tomorrow's crashing risk. Before you venture out, take a lesson from the experts: big wave surfers. Like successful entrepreneurs, they rely on preparation, passion, and persistence - and they relish a challenge. So it's no surprise that countless surfers have pioneered products and launched thriving businesses (GoPro cameras, O'Neil, Reef, Quicksilver).

Whether at work or at home, success is something we strive for in all aspects of our lives. And while there are a number of obvious things you should be doing in order to achieve your goals and reach success, there are also some not-so-obvious ones. Entrepreneur Voices on the Science of Success offers data and research-backed tools and tactics for both business and personal achievement from entrepreneurs and small business owners including Tim Ferris, Brian Tracy, and Reid Hoffman.

Negotiation is the middle ground between capitulation and stonewalling, a back and forth between two parties trying to reach agreement. If a price or other term is nonnegotiable, there is no give and take, just "take it or leave it". You may think you are negotiating, but if the other side isn't playing, you aren't either. Regardless of the industry, situation, or product, the two most common mistakes negotiators make are: 1. They give ground too easily, and 2. They get nothing in return.

Customers are speaking loud and clear through a myriad of mediums. Evidence shows that customers will no longer stand for the hurried and complacent service that has become the norm. They are looking for a positive, memorable experience. Organizations that provide that level of service will earn their loyalty. Customers base their decisions on nothing more than a positive or negative review of your product and/or service. Pay Attention! paves the way.

Every day, most working professionals entrust their most important messages to a form of communication that doesn't build trust, provide differentiation, or communicate clearly enough. It's easy to point to the sheer volume of emails, text messages, voicemails, and even social messaging as the problem that reduces our reply rates and diminishes our effectiveness. But the faceless nature of that communication is also to blame.