Amazon.com
Sometime during the last 30 years, the service economy emerged as the dominant engine of economic activity. At first, critics who were uncomfortable with the intangible nature of services bemoaned the decline of the goods-based economy, which, thanks to many factors, had increasingly become commoditized. Successful companies, such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Saturn, and IBM, discovered that the best way to differentiate one product from another--clothes, food, cars, computers--was to add service.
But, according to Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, the bar of economic offerings is being raised again. In The Experience Economy, the authors argue that the service economy is about to be superseded with something that critics will find even more ephemeral (and controversial) than services ever were: experiences. In part because of technology and the increasing expectations of consumers, services today are starting to look like commodities. The authors write that "Those businesses that relegate themselves to the diminishing world of goods and services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling experience."
Many will find the idea of staging experiences as a requirement for business survival far-fetched. However, the authors make a compelling case, and consider successful companies that are already packaging their offerings as experiences, from Disney to AOL. Far-reaching and thought-provoking, The Experience Economy is for marketing professionals and anyone looking to gain a fresh perspective on what business landscape might look like in the years to come. Recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
You are what you charge for. And if you're competing solely on the basis of price, then you've been commoditized, offering little or no true differentiation. What would your customers really value? Better yet, for what would they pay a premium? Experiences. The curtain is about to rise, say Pine & Gilmore, on the Experience Economy, a new economic era in which every business is a stage, and companies must design memorable events for which they charge admission. With
The Experience Economy, Pine & Gilmore explore how successful companies-using goods as props and services as the stage-create experiences that engage customers in an inherently personal way. Why does a cup of coffee cost more at a trendy cafe than it does at the corner diner or when brewed at home? It's the value that the experience holds for the individual that determines the worth of the offering and the work of the business. From online communities to airport parking, the authors draw from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses in the midst of creating engaging experiences for both consumers and corporate customers.
The Experience Economy marks the debut of an insightful, highly original, and yet eminently practical approach for companies to script and stage compelling experiences. In doing so, all workers become actors, intentionally creating specific effects for their customers. And it's the experiences they stage that create memorable-and lasting-impressions that ultimately create transformations within individuals. Make no mistake, say Pine & Gilmore: goods and services are no longer enough. Experiences are the foundation for future economic growth, and
The Experience Economy is the playbook from which managers can begin to direct new performances.
Download Description
Future economic growth lies in the value of experiences and transformations--good and services are no longer enough. We are on the threshold, say authors Pine and Gilmore, of the Experience Economy, a new economic era in which all businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers. The Experience Economy offers a creative, highly original, and yet eminently practical strategy for companies to script and stage the experiences that will transform the value of what they produce. From America Online to Walt Disney, the authors draw from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses in the midst of creating personal experiences for both consumers and businesses. The authors urge managers to look beyond traditional pricing factors like time and cost, and consider charging for the value of the transformation that an experience offers. Goods and services, say Pine and Gilmore, are no longer enough. Experiences and transformations are the basis for future economic growth, and The Experience Economy is the script from which managers can begin to direct their own transformations.
Customer Reviews:
Secret behind business success.......2007-10-24
A Harvard educated friend of mine told me about this book which created some interest, until I found out the most successful companies in the country were using this technique to rapidly expand their profitability. Then I couldn't wait to order it and find out for myself how these concepts applied to small business.
I wasn't disappointed and have recommended the book for years because even though it's a radical concept, it works. If you have ever wondered if price is the most important element in finding business success, this book will convince you otherwise. It's not about money- it's about the customers experience and when you know how to master this technique you will win customers for life along with word of mouth marketing that will be invaluable for your long term business success.
excellent service.......2007-09-09
This was fast and accurate, and the quality was just what was advertised. Thank you!
too much 'flowers' in conveying the message.......2007-06-20
When I bought this book, I hoped Mr Pine will more describe about the ultimate power of new era, the experience economy, and how that change should be adapted quickly for many variety industries settings to get survive. Meaning, I expect to find a practical guidance to overcome the battle.
I found many ideas poured into this book mostly already existed in some other books (not written by Joseph Pine, for sure), for instance putting the experience as value added in consumer goods to increase consumers' emotional benefits. In doing so, the manufacturer can have premium price to outdo the competition. I've heard of it as many as the idea of how to serve consumers in a new different way by using internet as interactive tool to preserve their satisfactions and to use it as new channel of distribution. I really hope he came up with new striking and distinctive ideas, not those hackneyed ones.
I somewhat think this book a little bit hard to understand. Mr Pine used and picked up some unusual vocabularies to convey his message. I always fall asleep everytime reading it. Surprising that it takes me a week to consume 2-3 pages whilst I spend a week to finish Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire in English version.
However, I thank to Joseph for inspiring me some new vocabs.
Top Notch.......2007-06-01
Rarely do we get a truly new model to work with. This book provides a genuine breakthrough in how our life experience can be designed.
Used for Designers.......2007-03-30
I am a college instructor in Web and Interactive design and development. I have used this book and the audio version as the cornerstone of my opening lectures each semester. All the concepts and tenents put forward apply to user Interface design that I use this book as part of my UX-User Experience driven courses. Understanding how we got here and having an idea of where we are going allows tommorrow's designers to create "experiences" today.
This should be on every design students required reading list....
Customer Reviews:
Helpful Book.......2007-06-27
Helps provide a clear model for analyzing companies and developing corporate strategies. In many ways, it is a more accessible take on Porter's Competitive Strategy.
Key concept, straightforward and short.......2007-06-24
Treacy and Wiersema make the case that the value of a product or service to a customer can be categorized in terms of efficiency (eg. low cost, on-time delivery), innovation (eg. latest technology or fashion) and/or customer intimacy (eg. customized solutions). They go on to argue that delivering each kind of value requires a different organization and culture, and hence the most successful companies are those whose business strategy is focused on delivering a particular kind of value to the customers that appreciate it the most, while remaining competitive in other areas. The analysis is accompanied by case studies of AT&T Universal Card, Intel and Airborne Express. The core idea of the book is valuable and 200 pages is plenty to explore it in detail.
Foundational Approach to Strategy.......2007-06-03
ALthough this book has been in print for over a decade, it is one I constantly come back to when helping clients organize their thinking about how they can compete.
I have been a Michael Porter fan for decades. However, when he describes competing by being a differentiated producer, it often left folks scratching their heads about what that meant. Treacy and Wiersema defing "customer intimacy" in a way that was effective in helping companies define how they could pursue differentiation. I have found that this particular strategy has applied all the way down to 1 to 1 marketing.
So the definitions and examples for three competitive strategies are clearly articulated, but also frameworks for implementing these strategies are provided as well.
All-in-all, a clear, compelling and implementable framework for competitive strategy.
This should be a text book.......2007-02-28
Best Marketing book I have ever read, I will keep this book forever. This is a must read for anyone in the marketing field. This book provides great examples along with real life examples.
Staying focused on core value proposition.......2007-02-26
The book reemphasizes the importance of product or service leadership, customer intimacy, and operational excellence. Organizations willing to be "anything for a buck" will find they loose touch with their customers quickly as they thinly apply talent and resources to serve everyone averagely.
Unity of purpose is also essential; a successful firm must act together to consistently and successfully compete. The book is good reading for managers and marketing professionals that need to review their business focus and the alignment of tasks, processes and competencies supporting that focus. The book offers materials to be used in team exercises.
Book Description
For advanced undergraduate and MBA courses in Supply Chain Management.
This book brings together the strategic role of the supply chain, key strategic drivers of supply chain performance, and the tools and techniques for supply chain analysis. Every chapter gives suggestions that managers can use in practice and all methodologies are illustrated with an application in Excel. Fully updated material keeps the book on the forefront of supply chain management.
Distribution networks (Chapter 4); Sourcing (Chapter 13), discusses different sourcing activities including supplier assessment, supplier contracts, design collaboration, and procurement; Price and revenue management (Chapter 15); Early coverage of designing the supply chain network—after developing a strategic framework, readers can discuss supply chain network design in Chapters 5 and 6 and then move on to demand, supply, inventory, and transportation planning; Information Technology in the Supply Chain (Chapter 17).
For business professionals managing the supply chain.
Customer Reviews:
A good solid supply chain basics book.......2006-05-23
We use this book for supply chain training to new entrants at our firm. It is quite a good supply chain basics book - covering the topic in all its breadth. the coverage is perhaps a slightly less strategic and more technical than our needs - but that is understandable given the background of one of the authors. However, to be fair, it is the best book that we have found on supply chain management to get the people up to speed on the basics.
Price too high.......2004-08-25
What I got was a second Indian Reprint, it costs around $4 in India, but I had to pay around $35 (shippment not inlcuded in this amount)! What an arbitrage!
Good reference material for practitioners.......2003-02-17
I found this book to be a great source of reference for managers. It is not really a good teaching source, as I thought it already starts with a fair amount of assumed previous knowledge and jargon.
The sections that are most well developed are the ones on inventory management and transportation logistics, where I found examples that were directly applicable to situations I encountered in a retail environment. The portion on forecasting was not as useful, and the part on e-business seemed somewhat contrived. Overall, this is the best reference I have found that does not require a heavy amount of mathematical familiarity.
Excellent book overall but..........2003-01-08
I refered and used this book in 2 grad level courses. The first was a business school course on SCM (with an above average quantitative focus for a B-school course) and again for a fully quatitative SC Engineering course. While I was initially very impressed with the book, using this over 2 semesters has raised a few gripes.
For the qualitative issues on SCM {make no mistake, these 'fluff' aspects are very important} there is no other equal. Chopra and Meindl do an outstanding and comprehensive job. They also bring out the importance of using scientific, quantitative techniques for SCM. This however is where my gripes start.
Having brought out the importance of quantitative tools for use in SCM, they do only a moderate job on explaining these tools. For example, the chapter on forecasting (only the most simple and commonly used models are explained) is unnnecessarily complex and confusing. The topics covered are adequete but need revision. Treatment of inventory management also could be more detailed and better explained.
This is an excellent book but for more comprehensive learning (if you want an understanding of the quantitative aspects too), I think this book needs supplementing (say with course notes) or another book like "Modeling the Supply Chain" by Shapiro.
Peter Meindl - The Godfather of modern supply chain mgt.......2001-11-27
Written by one of the leading minds in the field, Peter Meindl of I2 technologies has a lot to teach. This is an excellent text and as a fellow Dallas/Ft. Worth resident, I would enjoy meeting him. If you are an MBA student with a concentration in Operations Management, this text should be required.
Meindl, a management team member of I2, has helped develop I2 into the undisputed champion in enterprise software. While SAP may have the market share with their archaic DOS based application, I2 has windows functionality and everything that matters. They have raised the bar with their supply chain knowledge, leading solutions, and collaborative knowledge in supply chain strategy. This text will give you a big step forward in becoming a Supply Chain leader.
Book Description
With this book your students will learn step-by-step how to develop and implement a successful marketing strategy for health care facilities.
Book Description
Widely practiced by many Fortune 500 companies, global outsourcing has become one of the key strategic imperatives for successful enterprises. Often referred to as offshore outsourcing, services globalization is the next step in the evolution of global trade and capitalism. Top organizations are performing, buying, selling, and transforming services at an incredibly quick pace.
Written by outsourcing and global services experts Atul and Avinash Vashistha, The Offshore Nation presents a comprehensive, balanced view of the rapid growth of outsourcing and its expanding role in corporate strategy, providing a roadmap for business leaders and upper-level managers to plan their own strategies. Drawing upon their vast experience as consultants to Fortune 1000, multinational corporations, the authors help you determine what role offshore services should play in your company, how to integrate the strategy into your overall corporate identity, and successfully manage the initiative on an enterprise-wide level.
This practical, strategy-packed guide outlines the "big picture" of outsourcing, breaking down its different components and examining its impact on world and local economies and employment shifts. Covering outsourcing in many different countries and a variety of services--from IT, telecom, and customer service to accounting--the authors reveal best practices and step-by-step, proven methods for:
- Building a sound globalization strategy
- Identifying the processes that are mature enough to send offshore
- Choosing the right business model for globalizing IT, back office, and other services
- Attracting and retaining customers
- Effectively managing your suppliers
Chock-full of valuable insights and tactical advice, The Offshore Nation is the authoritative primer for global outsourcing, helping companies to minimize the risks and maximize their return on investment.
Customer Reviews:
Highly informative and readable.......2006-07-11
This book provides a great framework for analyzing and determining the why, what, how and where of offshoring. If your organization is considering a shift towards offshoring, then you should find this book very useful in helping you think through the business case. The book does not drown you in details, but still provides a comprehensive overview of the offshoring industry.
Highly recommended.......2006-05-18
"The Offshore Nation - The Rise of Services Globalization" is an excellent guide for companies putting together their offshore strategy, as well as for companies that have already done it but want better results. It beautifully captures the global trends and gives practical yet comprehensive guidelines on how to do offshoring right - things that come out straight from the authors' rich experience in the area. Highly recommended.
Make Sure You're Looking for Info on OFFSHORING - not OUTSOURCING.......2006-05-15
Offshoring and Outsourcing just got jumbled again in the American vocabulary. The Offshore Nation is written by experts on the Indian BPO marketplace. If thats what you're trying to understand, this book is very helpful. If your goal is limited to large corporation, call center projects or transaction processing, this book is very helpful.
For all other areas of Outsourcing, I highly recommend you read any one of the other books who don't confuse offshoring and outsourcing better than Lou Dobbs.
A must read even if you don't outsource or are not in the business of outsourcing.......2006-05-12
Atul's book `The Offshore Nation' offers a very insightful ring-side view of the macro-economic trend towards globalization of services and how organizations and business leaders can effectively leverage this in a global economy for competitive advantage. Atul through his organization, NeoIT, has played a lead role in shaping the sourcing strategies of global organizations and the book is both thought provoking as well as prescriptive. It is a must read even if you don't outsource or are not in the business of outsourcing, for sooner or later, you will be a part of this global economy where work moves to where it gets done best."
A Must Read for Managing Today And Leading Into The Future.......2006-05-08
Speaking as the CEO of Sourcing Interests Group, a major ongoing outsourcing forum, The Offshore Nation hits a homerun in providing practical, immediately useful insight into the many facets and considerations of offshore outsourcing. Clearly this is one of the most important books on outsourcing that has ever been written. I highly recommend it.
Book Description
From a leading expert on nonprofit marketing, the only marketing handbook a nonprofit manager will ever need
No matter what type of nonprofit service you provide and regardless of the size of your organization, you need marketing strategies and techniques to maximize your effectiveness. The right marketing campaign can help you get the word out to those who need your services most, woo donors, and expand your influence in the community. And now, Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations shows you how.
Nonprofit marketing guru Barry J. McLeish shares everything he's learned during more than two decades managing and consulting nonprofits of every shape and size. Skipping all the arcane theory and the business school jargon, he gives you clear, step-by-step advice and guidance and all the tools you need to develop and implement a sophisticated marketing program tailored to your organization's needs and goals. With the help of dozens of anecdotes and real-life case studies, he shows you:
- Techniques for analyzing your market and developing a comprehensive marketing plan
- Marketing strategies that will support fund-raising, promote new services, and enhance your organization's reputation and visibility
- Methods for developing a marketing program that reaches both the consumers of your service and the donors who support your organization
- Examples of how nonprofits across North America have used the strategies described in this book to grow bigger and better than ever
Are you about to launch a new marketing program? Do you need to breathe new life into your existing marketing department? In either case, Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations gives you the tools, the know-how, and the confidence you need to succeed.
Customer Reviews:
Not For Everyday Reading, But Your Bookshelf Better Have One.......2001-10-20
As part of my enriching my knowledge of managing non-profits, I have just finished this book. Not a very exciting read from the entertainment standpoint, but the content, there's the rub. There is so much to absorb from this book, it's exciting to be exposed to all the information. Thus, the need to keep reading it (and the 5 stars).
There will. be no hints to the specific content of this book, you'll get to be surprised when you read it. Contained in this book though are a variety of Marketing Strategies for the non-profit department manager. The Chief Executive should also read this book and be enlightened to the challenges that face a Marketing Department. There are many lessons for all non-profit managers here, and the fact that everyone needs to be a Marketer may be the most important.
The writing style is short, but direct. No florid language, but smooth direction with vital information in each and every paragraph. there are many examples of charts and study questions, facts and figures. It's not the ultimate how-to book on how to run a marketing campaign, but damn near. The materials are thought provoking and clear, challenging and easy to comprehend. When I finished, I felt like I had learnt a lot, and I'm ready to go out a prove it!!
If marketing is somehow in your future, then make this book a #1 of #2 (with the Kotler book) purchase. Read and absorb, or refer to occasionally. Just remember, you better have had exposure to it, because your competitor might have.
Book Description
The first entry in Berrett-Koehler's new Ken Blanchard series of fun and practical business books
Customer Reviews:
I Love Referrals!.......2007-10-19
As a business coach, one of the main concerns of my self employed professional clients have is how to get enough customers to fill their practice. I belong to a referral based business club and recently, I have had an opportunity to see the toll taken by business people who have a "hunt and kill" mentality. The premise of "The Referral of a Lifetime" is that by nurturing a loyal client base in similar and related businesses, more like farming, you are able to build a self sustaining business that will reap rewards years ahead.
Now this is NOT the multi-level marketing model where I get you to produce to my benefit with the only promise is that you get OTHER people to promise benefit to you. (Don't get me started down that road!)
The key here is reciprocity. I give business to you and you will want to give business to me. Templeton talks about building networks of friends and business relationships that will last a lifetime based on excellent customer relations, integrity and generosity. Too often I have seen people in business so desperate to make a living that the wreck havoc where ever they go. I wonder to myself, do they really know that this won't work forever and that their "scorched earth" business plan will ultimately backfire?
I make this book required reading for my serious coaching clients and it is in my top 3 books that I recommend to any business person for long term success.
Simple and Powerfull.......2007-06-15
Tim Templeton offers a fun, crisp read that brings to life a simple but powerfull network marketing system that virtually anyone in business can adapt to their own style.
I have given away several copies to my leads group memebers and have my copy all marked up with highlights.
I's a keeper.
PROMISED MUCH - DELIVERED NOTHING.......2007-06-11
There are very few good books on referrals - This is not one of them
Relationship Marketing.......2007-04-12
Tim Templeton's book is an excellent resource for any one who wants to learn about relationship marketing. This book is a perfect fit with the BNI philosophy of "Givers Gain". Building relationships that last a lifetime will generate more business than just going for the "sale". Reading this book will help you to start building those relationships.
Golden Rule in real life sales.......2007-03-25
This book is a blueprint for putting the Golden Rule into your business. This is just what I have been looking for, validation that you can do the right thing AND make money.
Book Description
In this visionary book, C. K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy explore why, despite unbounded opportunities for innovation, companies still can't satisfy customers and sustain profitable growth. The explanation for this apparent paradox lies in recognizing the structural changes brought about by the convergence of industries and technologies; ubiquitous connectivity and globalization; and, as a consequence, the evolving role of the consumer from passive recipient to active co-creator of value. Managers need a new framework for value creation. This book is about the emerging "next practices" in value creation.
Increasingly, individual customers interact with a network of firms and consumer communities to co-create value. No longer can firms autonomously create value. Neither is value embedded in products and services per se. Products are but an artifact around which compelling individual experiences are created. As a result, the focus of innovation will shift from products and services to experience environments that individuals can interact with to co-construct their own experiences. These personalized co-creation experiences are the source of unique value for consumers and companies alike.
In this emerging opportunity space, companies must build new strategic capital-a new theory on how to compete. This book presents a detailed view of the new functional, organizational, infrastructure, and governance capabilities that will be required for competing on experiences and co-creating unique value. This is the future of competition.
Customer Reviews:
Future of marketing..........2006-06-19
Caveat - I see most things from a marketer's prospective, hence, I read this book in that context. I think the ideas of Prahalad and Ramaswamy are the future of marketing. If you take a look at a few of today's successful companies, including Amazon.com and eBay for instance, you will see that one of the reasons they have been so successful is because they worked with their customers. I think the book should be required reading for anyone going into the marketing field.
Nothing insightful that is worth the onerous read.......2005-06-22
The authors have created a massive text that does not add much to the earlier paper they had published. The book has mainly two messages - maximizing customer experience is the basis of value creation and firms have to be experience-driven rather than product-centric. (BTW, these are the author's buzz words not mine
).
They cite cases that have no hard links to their messages but a tenous connection. There is no proof or metrics to show that this is the way to go.
I am sure the academics have the luxury of writing long books to sustain their tenureship compared to us real-world practioners, where things have to work now or in the next quarter for us to go anywhere in the corporate world. Sorry, academics.
Breakthrough Thinking for higher IQ managers.......2005-04-23
The concepts presented in the book are deceptively easy to gloss over. I do not blame the reviewers at this site who did not 'get it'.
This is not something one can expect to read and understand over a coast-to-coast flight like most of the popular business books one tends to find at the airport book stores.
It is heavily intellectual content and for those who do 'get it', the payoffs can be huge, as have been documented by the real-life examples presented in the book. There are no quick fixes here and no 'if you have problem A, do X' type remedies, nor the 'company A did X and it worked for them' type anecdotal evidence.
Real-life examples have been used to demonstrate the backbone of the theory. This is necessary because there is no evidence of the concept of co-creation present yet in the collective *consciousness* of the managers today (it does happen accidentally, though).
Now you must be wondering how I can be so emphatic about stating my opinion. Well, I have had the fantastic opportunity to do some work on this subject during my MBA program through the B-school class offered by one of the authors at Ross Business School, as well as the opportunity of doing independent research on the subject matter of this book.
I can assure the prospective reader that the material requires serious mental exercise, and the theory and frameworks are not easy to grasp or implement. The reason for this is that the implementation of the concepts being presented requires some serious inside-out redesign of the organization, processes, systems as well as value appropriation contracts..
However, for those interested in finding out about which direction to look to innovate, especially the entrepreneurial types, this is an excellent opportunity to learn something new and apply it to the extent your own organizational processes, systems and capabilities will allow, or create ground-up organizations, processes, systems and capabilities to take advantage of the opportunities to the fullest.
Sunil Chhaya, Ph.D.
Disappointing.......2004-08-01
C.K. Prahalad must be getting a bit long in the tooth. Or perhaps he has had difficulty in recent years finding a co-author as talented as Gary Hamel. Whatever his excuse, his latest book is a disappointing throwback to specious management bestsellers of the 80s and 90s. Prahalad's book is long on clichés and short on insight. The central thesis of the book is a rehash of Kotler's better articulted work on the prosumer. Given all of their emphasis on "value co-creation" the book seems woefully short on profitability and ROI numbers. I couldn't find any case studies that showed the value in value co-creation. At the same time, truly innovative and competitive "value co-creation" businesses - Linux, Apache and the whole open source software movement which Microsoft now finds so threatening - are barely mentioned. Are we just to take the authors' word for it that companies adopting a "C-type" structure are automatically profitable? Hmm. Maybe it depends on whether these firms adopt "X,Y, or Z-type" management. Can lucrative consulting gigs be far behind?
must read for 21st century human.......2004-07-15
Alvin Toffler has indicated customization is future trend. He is(was) right.
The future of competition shows what, why, and how ( sometimes, who) about the future of product and service. What a corporation must do in order to integrate cusomter's experience into their production process and how to organize the company in order to do it. A must read book for 21st century human, why? because any interaction is an experience and if you extend the metaphor of product, any interaction is a 'product'. If you have been of good reputation, you will 'sell' well on whaterver you say or do. Because people 'buy' it.
Book Description
How to capture customers by learning to think the way they do
The most common complaint Bill Stinnett hears from his corporate clients is that would-be vendors and suppliers "just don't understand our business." In Think Like Your Customer, Stinnett explains why the key to landing corporate customers is to learn to think about the things executives and business owners think about and understand how they make complex buying decisions.
Drawing upon his years of experience as a Fortune 500 consultant, he offers sales and marketing professionals a powerful framework for understanding the inner workings of a business; knowing what motivates its executives and influences their buying decisions; identifying a company's organizational structure and decision-making psychology; and using that information to develop a winning strategy for influencing how and why the customer buys.
In addition, you receive:
- Solid marketing insights delivered in a fun, breezy style by a top corporate consultant and seminar leader
- Expert tips on how to maximize the value and profitability of relationships with corporate clients and customers
Customer Reviews:
An Invaluable Resource.......2007-03-11
If you want to improve your sales and connect better with your customers, buy this book! Each chapter is full of "aha!" insights that will enhance your understanding of your customer's needs.
Stinnett is an apostle of the "diagnostic approach" to selling, in which the seller undertakes a process of discovery to identify what results the customer is trying to achieve. The focus is always on the customer--his motive, the urgency of reaching the objective, the consequences of doing nothing and remaining where he is, the expected payback from attaining the objective, the resources the customer has available to devote to the effort, and the risks he will face in moving in a new direction. These "Action Drivers," Stinnett explains, govern and control just about every buying decision. If a sale falls through, chances are that one of these "Action Drivers" was missing.
In the first half of the "Think Like Your Customer," Stinnett analyzes how buyers evaluate their options and assess risk. Weeks after reading the book, I still open it up and turn to the chart on page 49, where Stinnett lists the eight major types of value your customer may be attempting to derive from a relationship with you and your company. They are:
Economic Value (increasing revenue, reducing costs, better utilization of assets)
Emotional Value (need for recognition and security)
Simplicity Value (making the easy choice and reducing headaches)
Relational Value (repaying loyalty and commitment; avoiding potential conflict)
Political and Image Value (looking good to others)
Guidance or Advice Value (access to expert advice)
Quality Value (reducing product defects; better service)
Time Value (shorten time to market; free up time for other things)
Stinnett points out for each of these denominations of value, there is a corresponding denomination of risk. Since value and risk are two sides of the same coin, a seller can increase the perceived value of his offering--and overcome prospects' perennial objections about price, by focusing carefully on the customer's concerns and reducing risk in the areas of value that are important to that particular customer.
In the second half of the book, Stinnett dissects the anatomy of the customer's buying process. Instead of focusing our attention on how we sell, Stinnett says we should concentrate on how the customer buys and--more importantly--what affirmative steps we can take to help the buyer move through each stage of the buying process that the buyer needs to traverse in order to buy from us.
Nothing in "Think Like Your Customer" is startlingly new; rather, Stinnett teaches how we can turn our thinking inside out and look at a transaction from the perspective of the buyer.
This book is well organized and highly readable; the reasoning is persuasive, and the advice is immensely practical. Immediately after reading "Think Like Your Customer," I began to conduct conversations with my clients using the tools and skills Stinnett provides. The difference in the quality of the communication was nothing short of amazing. Buy this book and profit from its wisdom!
How to understand the high-probability customer's purchase process .......2007-01-31
Bill Stinnett concludes the Introduction to this book with a remarkable statement: "Now let me be clear: I don't take credit for any of these truths [culled from a variety of other sources]. I didn't make them up. They have been there all along, waiting to be observed. My life's work has been to recognize them and organize them in an effort to advance my own career and yours." Stinnett refers to popular sales methodologies which include Strategic Selling®, Solution Selling®, and SPIN Selling®. Whatever the given methodology, its ultimate outcome is an increase in revenue which, Stinnett duly acknowledges, can be accomplished in three ways: maximizing sales velocity, increasing average "deal size" or the "wallet" share, and increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Throughout Stinnett's narrative, his emphasis is on presenting and then explaining "a winning strategy" (actually an aggregate of several strategies) to increase his reader's understanding of how and why customers buy. The chapter titles for Part 1, "Why Customers Buy," correctly indicate how practical his approach is: What Customers Think About, What Customers Really Want, How Customers Perceive Value and Risk, The Cause and Effect of Business Value, and The Value of Customer Relationships. It should be noted that, along the way, Stinnett also offers excellent advice with regard to all manner of "how not to's" and "why nots" when formulating and then implementing what should be a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective game plan to increase revenue.
To me, some of the most valuable material in the book is presented in Chapter 8 as Stinnett explains how to reverse-engineer the buying process. That is, in Stephen Covey's words, "begin with the end in mind." This is a process by which to identify what must happen before a given customer is ready to buy. Previously in Chapter 2, Stinnett introduced what he calls his "Customer Results Model" which involves a process that begins with fully understanding the prospective buyer's current situation. I agree with Stinnett that there is no inherent value (as perceived by customers) in the solution offered by a given product or service unless it will achieve the prospective buyer's desired outcomes or results. As the former CEO of Home Depot once observed, people don't buy a quarter-inch drill; they buy quarter-inch holes. In this context, the quarter-inch drill fills a gap between a current, often an urgent need and filling it.
One of this book's several reader-friendly devices is the isolation of key points presented in bold face. This facilitates and accelerates frequent review of those points later. For example:
"It's a lot easier to sell somebody something if it's positioned as a way to help them achieve a goal or an objective that they already want to achieve." (Page 15)
" Far more critical than what is valuable and important to your customer is why it is valuable and important to them." (Page 65)
"A deep, meaningful, high-trust relationship with a client who has no business disparity [i.e. compelling need], no motive to take action, or no means to take action even if they did have a motive, equals no sale. It's just a relationship." (Page 105)
"It's not what we do in our sales process, but what the customer does in their buying process, that really matters." (Page 135)
"We should spend 80 percent of our time and effort on the 20 percent of our opportunities that carry a strong urgency, motive, and consequence, because these are the deals that can close." (Page 179)
None of Stinnett's key points is a head-snappy revelation, nor does he make that claim. However, all of them - preferably reviewed in the sequence in which they are presented - offer valuable reminders of where the proper focus and emphasis should be during a high-probability customer's purchase process.
There are dozens of excellent books on the art and science of sales, and this is one of the best.
Well-done!
Valuable tools to use right away.......2006-04-02
When I read books on persuasion, I'm looking for effective tools. One of the reasons I like this book is that it has valuable information I don't remember seeing elsewhere.
The chapter on what customers really want is worth far more than the price of the book. It identifies the factors that must exist for a customer to buy from us. And it teaches how to weave key questions about these factors into our informal conversation with the customer.
Another example: The book teaches how to learn what specific results a customer really wants and how to tie that to our product or service. The specific "result" a customer wants may differ greatly from the generic benefits we assume our product or service's features provide.
I've found that using Stinnett's tools to focus even more on how the customer thinks increases sales and the number of satisfied customers.
Pack the sales punches.......2005-12-19
This is one of the best books on selling I'd read in years. In the software world, hard-sell is dead. Try consultative selling the Bill Stinnet way. I used some of the ideas in the book eg., mapping out the buying process and offering it as as part of an important visual information to the gatekeeper to reach the decision maker - and it works! I have used the concept of getting the buyer to think about destination "C" with us rather than trying to be too focused on the offer in "B". There is also a section on how to qualify a prospect with ideas that are worth committing to memory. A combination of Bill's ideas and my experience has turned many of my well qualified prospects into paying customers today.
If you are a career saleperson then this one is definitely for you.
"Think Like Your Customer" by Bill Stinnett.......2005-03-08
Mr. Stinnett offers a revolutionary new approach to sales. This book offers many practical ideas and concepts that breathe new life into the sales process and help you better understand the issues that ultimately drive the customers decision making process. A must read for any serious sales professional.
Book Description
Driven by rapidly changing business environments and increasingly demanding consumers, many organizations are searching for new ways to achieve and retain a competitive advantage via customer intimacy and CRM. In this context, new strategic frameworks and cooperation with everybody along the whole value chain are needed to allow managers to deal with the changes in shopping patterns of consumers. This book presents a new strategic framework that has been tested successfully with various global companies. New management concepts such as Collaborative Forecasting and Replenishment, CRM, Category Management, and Mass Customization are integrated into one holistic approach with a view to jointly develop customer bonding and loyalty. Experts from companies like McKinsey, Procter&Gamble, Accenture, and AC Nielsen, as well as authors from renowned academic institutions, offer valuable insights on how to redesign organizations for the future.
Customer Reviews:
A must read!!!.......2004-02-27
Read this book if you wish to know how collaboration based partnership concepts like CPFR, ECR, CCRM etc will rule management approaches. This is the way forward....
Harvard Editors Are Taking CRM To a New Level.......2003-11-04
Great Book, great value. It really seems Harvard is catching up with Wharton, Kellog and other marketing champions in the academic area. This book is outstanding; it links theory and business life nicely - the case studies do their work...You can read about the newest developments in the CRM field (mass customization, collaborative customer relationship management and category management, VMI and CPFR) and you understand how to boost your business. Just do the things the other companies displayed in the book did...
I really recommend this book!
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Strategy & Competition
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Field Guide for the Experience Economy
Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate
Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers into Advocates
Customer Experience Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Connecting with Your Customers
Welcome to the Experience Economy
