Book Description
Strategies and tools that guarantee big-ticket sales!
Neil Rackham's national bestseller SPIN Selling revolutionized high-end selling. Now, The SPIN Selling Fieldbook shows you how to actually put into practice the proven tools and techniques outlined in that cutting-edge guide. After a review of the SPIN method of selling, Neil Rackham zeroes in on the critical SPIN® questioning behaviors. He shows you how to apply the tools and techniques to your own selling situation, using practical, skill-building exercises incorporated into each chapter. Addressing the sales of services as well as capital goods, the Fieldbook provides you with a hands-on implementation guide for applying SPIN in a wide range of businesses from localized companies to large multinationals. Real-life case studies of sales forces at leading-edge companies such as Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, and AT&T help you explore additional techniques that go beyond the basics to boost sales with even the toughest customers and clients.
Customer Reviews:
The Ultimate Step-by-Step Selling Guide.......2007-06-25
I speak around the world on lead generation and marketing strategy. Neil did an outstanding job crafting "The SPIN Selling Fieldbook" to give you a roadmap on how to master complex sales strategy.
There is no other resource I can think of where you can "easily perfect" your approach and positioning sales strategy.
Neil gives you step-by-step plan that anyone can follow in their quest to excel at marketing their products or services.
The SPIN Selling Fieldbook gives you valuable "hands on" tools. I recommend the "SPIN Selling Fieldbook."
It is an invaluable resource that any salesperson or sales executive should have in their personal library.
Joe Heller, Trust Cycle Selling
Better than the standard Spin Selling Book.......2007-06-09
This field book is better than the original book was. If you are going to buy just one of the two you should probably just buy the field book. It allows you to apply the ideas very quickly.
Practice makes perfect........2006-11-14
Usually is not enough to read a book to have the knowledge, you need to practice, and that is what this book helps to, giving you ideas on how to put SPIN method into practice.
Nice book, but too easy after reading SPIN Selling.......2006-08-09
I bought this book together with SPIN Selling. I read the Fieldbook after reading SPIN Selling. If you've already read SPIN Selling, this book is not going to tell you much new things.
If you would read the Fieldbook instead of SPIN Selling, then I think the Fieldbook is not thorough enough, at least if you compare it to SPIN Selling.
In general I think the audience of this book is perhaps college students, or clever highschool students, but not really experienced salespeople. Maybe that's also because of the cartoons every now and then which make the book look like it's meant for younger people.
What I expected when I bought both books was that the Fieldbook offerd some transcriptions of salescalls, and an explanation of why certain aspects are wrong and how this could be improved using SPIN Selling. This was not really the case, it was more like a simple summary of SPIN Selling. So not really the Fieldbook I expected.
Anyway, the book is not bad, but I would not recommend to buy both SPIN Selling and the Fieldbook together. Also, if you're a serious and experienced salesperson I would recommend SPIN Selling. If you're new to sales or if you're still in college, I would recommend the Fieldbook.
Indispensable part of the salesman's library.......2006-07-19
This book is a practical guide for implementing the principles learned in the original book about 'Spin selling', however it is not necessary to have read the other book to make good use of this one. I think the SPIN methodology is a most valuable contribution from Mr. Rackham to the field of large sales and this book gives sound help to implement it.
Book Description
"No longer is being 'a good closer' the basis of sustainable success. Instead intakes the kind of strategic thinking Rick Page outlines inHope Is Not a Strategy."--Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado
Master of the complex sale, Rick Page is the author of the bestselling book, Hope Is Not a Strategy, and one of the most sought-after sales consultants and trainers in the world.
He has taught his breakthrough selling strategies to thousands of people in 150 companies across 50 countries--an amazing platform that has helped his message spread like wildfire. This paperback edition of Page's runaway sales bestseller schools readers in Page's simple, six-step process for making the sale--no matter how complex the deal or how many people are involved in the buying decision.
Integrating the winning selling strategies used by the world's top salespeople, Page shows readers how to:
- Identify and sell to a prospect's business "pain"
- Qualify a prospect
- Build competitive preference
- Define a prospect's decision-making process
Customer Reviews:
Love the title............2007-10-17
I have been using that line for years..."Hope is not a strategy" I recently purchased this book on a longgggg layover at SFO. (It was time well spent) You would be amazed at how many salespeople go into a sales call without a strategy or work on a deal for months to realize they are not at "Power" The principles in this book are truly a "Field Guide" to successful solution selling, and will save you many hours of on the Job training.
Happy Selling!
Hope is Not a Strategy.......2007-05-07
What great insight into the real world of complex decision-making. I now see in such complex sales that the process is to work with the client on the larger issues, not wait until an RFP is done -- because you are then too late. Well worth the time to read.
great book!.......2007-01-28
there r a lot of sales books. but this book deal with B2B and hi-tech sales. very clear, describe the situation well and improve the performance. it's a must to all sales, marketing and marcom managers of hi-tech companies.
The best book on the complex sale I've read.......2007-01-16
This book hits the nail right on the head regarding the complex sale process and what it takes to be successful in a complex selling situation. Like all selling books, it starts a little slow and dwells in obvious theory for the first 4-5 chapters and has a system named with an acronym. But those flaws aside, the last two-thirds of this book has some absolutely great selling concepts. I bought this book for the ten sales reps who report to me, and a lot of the terminology in the book has found its way into our daily vernacular. I firmly believe if you follow the concepts in this book faithfully, success in complex selling is much more likely than using any other selling concepts that I've seen.
Hopeful Strategy.......2006-11-15
Well...at the end of the day there IS a little hope involved, but if you did not work the strategy in this book for your complex sale, hope is all you got. When you are on the complex sale, you have this book and Mahan Khalsa's approach that blend together for a neat toolkit. I've had the opportunity to be part of a presentation from one of the principals at The Complex Sale and saw the tools in this book in action. Happy Selling & Good Luck!
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
To its millions of loyal customers world-wide, the Hallmark brand stands for more than just greeting cards; it embodies the elusive item every company hopes to capture—the customer’s heart. Hallmark has found that one of the keys to attaining superior customer loyalty is through emotion. Now for the first time, Hallmark reveals its groundbreaking strategy: Emotion Marketing.
This strategy can help any company create an emotional bond with customers for a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Emotion Marketing will reveal:
• How emotion works to cement customer loyalty
• The 3 Emotional E’s—Equity, Experience, and Energy
Scott Robinette (Kansas City, MO) is General Manager of Hallmark Business Expressions. Claire Brand (Kansas City, MO) is Customer Marketing Manager at Hallmark. Vicki Lenz (Atlanta, GA) is a writer, consultant, and speaker on business, leadership, and marketing.
Download Description
Hallmark has found that one of the keys to attaining superior customer loyalty is through emotion. Now for the first time, Hallmark reveals its groundbreaking strategy: Emotion Marketing.
Customer Reviews:
More insight in Emotionn Marketing.......2003-09-17
I get lots of insight about emotion marketing from this book.
In fact, the term of "Emotion marketing" is new to me, after I read this book, I found that many products or commercials are already used this concept to sell the product, such as Hallmark and McDonald's. Hallmark emphasizes care and love in its brand, it wants to show to the customer that Hallmark cares what they need and it tries to educate or demonstrate to the customer the importance of sharing love, but not only hard-sell their products.
On the other hand, McDonald¡¦s shows the happy and fun feeling to the customers. It tries to show that McDonald's is not only a fast food shop but also a place for children to have fun which brings happy to every customers.
I think emotion marketing will be more and more popular in the world. The traditional hard ¡Vsell product advertising method is not suitable for customers nowadays. Since product¡¦s differentiation becomes less and less and customers are more knowledgeable, the selling method only emphasizes functions will not be persuasive enough and increase customer¡¦s purchase intention. But emotion marketing is mainly selling the feeling and emotion that can be associated with the brands or products and as we know that human being is kind of emotion oriented when buying products.
Also, emotion marketing is very helpful in building customer loyalty since customers will loyal to the brand which have same belief or they enjoy the emotion which the company created for them.
A comprehensive guide to Emotion Marketing.......2003-09-17
This is a very comprehensive guide to Emotion Marketing for any business.
The book has mentioned many examples of successful emotion marketing strategies used by Hallmark and other companies like Harley-Davidson. However, what they have already done does not mean ¡§sure-win¡¨ plans.
The book explained a model for Emotion Marketing ¡V Value StarSM. Base on this model, any business can work out its own tailor-made success formula. Then, the book also taught us how to put Emotion Marketing to work at different areas of business, like on the Internet.
Emotion Marketing is actually about how to attract and retain customers that will be loyal to a brand for a lifetime. Therefore, the key is how a business manages its customer relationships.
This is a very good book because it goes beyond telling us WHAT to do, but HOW we should PLAN what to do.
A comprehensive guide to Emotion Marketing.......2003-09-15
This is a very comprehensive guide to Emotion Marketing for any business.
The book has mentioned many examples of successful emotion marketing strategies used by Hallmark and other companies like Harley-Davidson. However, what they have already done does not mean ¡§sure-win¡¨ plans.
The book explained a model for Emotion Marketing ¡V Value StarSM. Base on this model, any business can work out its own tailor-made success formula. Then, the book also taught us how to put Emotion Marketing to work at different areas of business, like on the Internet.
Emotion Marketing is actually about how to attract and retain customers that will be loyal to a brand for a lifetime. Therefore, the key is how a business manages its customer relationships.
This is a very good book because it goes beyond telling us WHAT to do, but HOW we should PLAN what to do.
Customer Service "Must".......2001-05-15
Anybody interested in outstanding customer service will value the experience of reading Emotion Marketing by Scott Robinette, Claire Brand and Vicki Lenz.
When one considers the expenses associated with finding new customers and then compares how little, by comparison, it costs to keep the customers you already have, this book becomes essential reading.
Emotion Marketing is easy to read, yet educational and thought-provoking.
Winning Formula for Customers and Employees Alike.......2001-04-28
"Emotion Marketing" presents a powerful formula for engaging customers and employees alike in a meaningful relationship with enlightened leadership. This work should dispel any doubt about the value of pro-people practices in business. Engaging the commitment of 20,000 employees and millions of customers is no small task. Yet, in a world of corporate downsizing, worker alienation, and customer distrust, Hallmark has developed the ability to make money by winning people's hearts and earning their trust. This is a must read for anyone seeking to distinguish themselves and their companies from the madding crowd.
Book Description
Why do Coke, Nike, and Apple inspire so much loyalty among consumers? Laurence Vincent explains how smart marketing professionals can emulate these companies to build lasting brand allegiance.
Coke, Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, and Hallmark engender tremendous devotion, sometimes almost a cult following, among consumers. To create this kind of loyalty, these brands express consistent values and "stories" and, in the process, claim a unique niche in the marketplace. These most successful brands have fine-tuned their stories, building a legacy that attracts steadfast fans, creates tremendous visibility, and underscores enormous profit potential.
Author Laurence Vincent has been a keen observer and frontline player in developing the brand stories of many outstanding companies. In Legendary Brands: Unleashing the Power of Storytelling to Create a Winning Marketing Strategy, he explores:
• The four essential elements that support a successful branding effort
• Ways consumers bond with a particular brand and create a unique culture around a product
• How the best brands tell their stories in ways beyond television spots or space ads-through product placements and sponsorships, among other tactics
• Special problems and anomalies in building a legacy, including a discussion of public and charitable causes, political brands, and public personalities
• Innovative research tools that reveal attitudes and feelings about products that traditional research methods (focus groups, for example) overlook
• What leading marketers do when a brand becomes irrelevant or damaged-how they revive and position their brands in fresh and exciting ways
More than a discussion of theory, Legendary Brands is also a prescriptive guide that outlines how to apply the theory to specific brand issues. This book presents readers with plenty of no-nonsense interviews with leading brand managers, creative directors, and other experts. From their frank comments, readers will learn new ways to approach specific marketing problems, as well as innovative solutions to untangle an assortment of thorny branding issues.
Customer Reviews:
Larry knows how to build a brand narrative.......2005-06-01
This is one of the few books (of the many I have read about storytelling in marketing) that provides a good explanation of "Why" storytelling is a powerful tool and "How" is works. I like that Vincent evidently has carried out a sound piece of research before writing this book.
I particularly like that he makes the point that not only do customers tell each other stories, they also live trough story themselves and build and support their own life-story through their consumption: "consumers in the post-modern world seek a narrative (or narratives) upon which to base their identity" (p. 9), "We define ourselves, our lives, and our well being by what we consume." (p. 11). Essentially this makes it clear that consumers exhibit what I would call sense making through consumption, and Vincent recognises that.
I highly commend this book for anyone who considers exploring the powers of using storytelling in their marketing strategy, since it describes well how to create a brand narrative. I do however personally believe that building a brand narrative is just one way of using storytelling in marketing, there are other approaches to explore too.
Find Your Brand's Story.......2005-06-01
Laurence Vincent skillfully sets the stage on the amazing power of brand stories, how storytelling can be done with brands and how to mine stories from your own brands.
The first half of the book is an excellent "history lesson" in brands like Apple, Nike and others and how they proficiently leverage their brand equity and story. The second half of the book is a "tutorial" in how to discover, mine and bring to light your brand's story.
Truly an amazing and interesting book. Very insightful. The author is intelligent, articulate and easy to grasp. He makes a very strong case for realizing the power of brand stories and engaging consumers in new, compelling and oftentimes utterly unique ways.
The 80/20 rule is alive and well!.......2005-02-01
Maybe you can't explain the creation and management of legendary brands--but if you can, Mr. Vincent didn't. Or, if he did, he used a LOT of extra words to make his explanation fit into a book. "The objective of every advertiser is to implicitly prescribe acts of consumer behavior (e.g., "But the product!"). Legendary Brands, however dole out the prescription through story. These brands do not yell at the consumer to buy, buy, buy. They instead engage them in a narrative that makes the consumer want to buy because they identify with narrative components." -from page 35.
That sounds good to me. But that was about it.
He continues throughout the book to equate a person's Faith with branding. Again, I can see some similarities, but his attempt to "explain" the transcendent by use of the eminent is incongruent unless you believe that there is nothing but the eminent. He would have you believe that your deepest beliefs are simply responses to someone's effective branding attempts.
This book should set better with cynics and agnostics. I'm not reselling my copy-I don't want to spread his gospel.
GREAT BRAND SELECTION, DECENT NARRATIVE, WEAK DISCUSSION.......2003-06-12
Harley, Kodak, Nike, Apple, Linux. The secret to the phenomenal success of these brands is the "narrative" that communicates the underlying brand philosophy, one that engages and inspires consumers to use and stay loyal to these "legendary brands".
A slew of pages is devoted to theorizing about these brands' narrative structure and occasionally the pseudo-scientific verbiage is a little distracting (e.g., "Brand mythology acts upon the cognitive orientation centers of the brain in much the same way that religion and other deeply held philosophical beliefs do").
Yet, all this could have been easily overlooked by the fastidious reader, but without a more organized analysis of how these seemingly facile narratives were conceived, attained, and then maintained by our "legendary" brands, the book falls short of its expectations. Some discussion of the evidence, even anecdotal, would have made this 5 star material although it may still be an interesting collectible for the insightful magazine style discussions of successful branding endeavours.
Packed with Knowledge!.......2003-02-26
What makes a brand become the stuff of legend? Author and consultant Laurence Vincent says it's the power of a good story. Vincent, whose specialty is forging alliances between consumer brands and entertainment properties, presents an interesting parallel between marketing and storytelling that makes sense in today's increasingly cluttered media environment. Vincent introduces you to the basics of myth and storytelling. He explains how these concepts apply to marketing strategy and offers plenty of real-world examples and case studies to illustrate his points. Except for predicting the coming integration of advertising and content (it's been around for decades), Vincent's book is full of fresh insight. We from getAbstract recommend this book to brand managers and marketing executives who want to learn how to turn their brands into powerful icons. Legendary Brands takes the reader step by step through the process - just like any good story.
Average customer rating:
- Interesting and easy read on Harrah's and the industry!
- Motivate yourself
- best marketing book I ever read
- This book is a "winner!"
- "very FUNNY book"
|
Jackpot! Harrah's Winning Secrets for Customer Loyalty
Robert L. Shook
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 0471263230 |
Book Description
The inside story of the gaming company that hit the jackpot playing by its own rules
Robert L. Shook, a New York Times bestselling author, delves into the business behind one of the world's foremost gaming and entertainment companies, Harrah's. Since Bill Harrah took over a small card game business in 1937, Harrah's has become a top casino, dominating Nevada and beyond. The first gaming company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Harrah's is a $4 billion-dollar business driven by smart marketing and smarter leadership. This book is the first to examine Harrah's and its leader, a man who dominated an industry and amassed a staggering fortune while refusing to deal with mobsters and corrupt politicians. Though Bill Harrah died in 1978 and the company has since been sold, Harrah's has retained its sense of history and remained an industry leader. Following the company's growth, Shook uncovers rich business lessons about marketing and customer loyalty, increasing market share in fiercely competitive industries, and maintaining a sense of integrity in a cutthroat business world. This is a compelling and intriguing story of a company that gambled and won, and it offers business readers an opportunity to benefit from the hard-won lessons of a paragon of the entertainment industry.
Robert L. Shook (Columbus, OH) is a seasoned business journalist and the ghostwriter behind several New York Times bestsellers. He is the founder and former CEO of Shook Associates and the American Executive Life Insurance Company. He is the author or coauthor of thirty-five books, including The IBM Way, Mary Kay on People Management, and Mary Kay's You Can Have It All.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting and easy read on Harrah's and the industry!.......2006-11-29
This book tells in an easy, readable fashion the story of Harrah's from the humble beginnings of a small parlor in Reno to the multibillion dollar behemoth it is today. Although the primary focus is on Harrah's, of course, the book covers the growth of the industry in the US overall from the early days, through the mob years in Vegas and the entertainment explosion that happened, to the proliferation of boats, reservation gambling and other gambling alternatives such as the lotteries through many US states.
This is a great book to read for reminders on the basics of "getting it right" when it comes to customer service, treating employees right, thinking strategically and executing on a vision. It is amazing what Harrah's has done in the area of parlaying customer information into long term, profitable relationships!
I have read many business books, this is my most favorite in recent months, for sure.
Read on, and watch out for that river card :)
Motivate yourself.......2003-02-08
Great book -- the lessons taught are for all service based organizations. Learn how to create customer loyalty and enjoy your business more. Must read!!
best marketing book I ever read.......2003-01-16
I have read other books by Robert L. Shook, and he is an accomplished writer of business books. He's at his best with Jackpot. This book is both informative and entertaining. Shook takes his reader behind the scenes at Harrah's, a gaming company with 26 casinos and reveals how the company is able to compete so successfully against billion-dollar properties in the Las Vegas market. Harrah's secret, as the subtitle states is how it wins customer loyalty and does it better than its competition. This is an excellent book for any business reader engaged in a highly competitive industry, and, in particular, goes head to head with the big boys. Shook's writing style is superb--he interwines anecdotal material that makes for a fascnating read. True, this is a business book, but at times, it's such a page-turner, you feel you're reading a novel.
This book is a "winner!".......2003-01-14
This book is about an outstanding culture that is culminated from the founder's passion, integrity and leadership.
Jackpot provides cutting-edge lessons and ideas that are being exposed for the first time in topics such as: marketing and customer loyalty, building market share, and preserving high integrity.
Harrah's placed its chips on integrity and serving the customer. It's no wonder they are so successful.
"very FUNNY book".......2003-01-08
This book is a riot! I could not put it down. One of the funniest books on gambling I have ever read.(and I've read 100 books on Vegas/Gambling.Go straight to page 43 first- "there is no underworld presence today in Las Vegas"- this author really knows how to write satire.The book is just filled with one funny story after another about how everything now in gambling is on the up & up.Robert Shook is more humerous than that Connecticut Senator whose trying to protect children from the entertainment industry.Another fun thing to do with his book- circle the word "lawyer" and then underline all the Federal & State laws that his book exposes.God Bless America! We should all feel blessed to have a comedy writer like Robert.
D.Matthew Hayden
author
Vegas Stories
Book Description
Battle-tested strategies for marketing your product or service to victory!
Millions of business warriors have been inspired by lessons from one of the world's greatest strategists, Sun Tzu. In Sun Tzu Strategies for Winning the Marketing War, the bestselling author and Sun Tzu expert Gerald Michaelson interprets the influential thinker's classic battle strategies specifically for today's marketing professionals by boiling down the classic The Art of War into "The Principles of the Marketing War," such as:
- Organization of Intelligence: Know your market as well as you know yourself
- Economy of Force: Assess accurately where you employ your resources
- Simplicity: Even the simplest plans are difficult to execute
Each principle is followed by strategic and tactical applications of the principle as adapted by the most successful armies of the world throughout history. The book features real-life applications of Sun Tzu's theories drawn from some of the business world's most successful marketing campaigns.
Customer Reviews:
Sun Tzu: Strategies for Marketing.......2003-11-24
Some of the wisest words for marketing professionals can be found in this book, not only because Gerald Michaelson' extensive studies but also by the fascinating framework he uses. Applying Sun Tzu's philosophy to marketing makes a lot of sense. Sun Tzu's the Art of War contains a great deal of wisdom applicable to marketing and Mr Michaelson illustrates this beautifully.
Marketing professionals from all cultures will enjoy this book, as it makes relevant the universal paradox of business - that strategy must be like water, with form yet formless, and most robust when it is least rigid. Such ancient Taoist's insights are prsented here in a fresh and entertaining style that will enlighten every marketing mind.
Book Description
How to use pricing as a strategic tool to increase revenues and win the war for profit
One of the greatest pitfalls in the war for profits is corporate strategists' lack of a practical understanding of the link between overall revenues and overall costs. In Winning the Profit Game, the thought leaders at A. T. Kearney unveil a revolutionary new approach to establishing clear, strategic links between the top and bottom lines. No dry academic treatise, Winning the Profit Game is a guide to growing profits, in boom times and bust, using smart top-line strategies that optimize price, costs, customer behavior, and volumes. The authors clearly lay out the basic principles involved and also include:
- Proven strategies for transforming added value into revenues and winning the war for profits
- Prescriptive frameworks for putting the principles and strategies into action, immediately
- Numerous success stories based on experiences of A. T. Kearney clients worldwide
Customer Reviews:
Key insight from Winning the Profit Game.......2007-10-23
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1V2XM3N7C12W4 The key insight of this book is that "pricing" is an effective way to communicate with your customers.
Insightful!.......2004-08-04
Re-engineering, downsizing TQM, CRM - you've seen them all. But businesses are still trying to find ways to lead their markets and beat their competition. The authors of this book suggest that pricing deserves the kind of attention that, a decade ago, your organization lavished upon procurement. They believe pricing strategy will be the important competitive differentiator in times to come. That is certainly plausible, and this book offers extensive guidance on how, when, why and according to what guiding principles businesses should change prices. Its copy editors should have been more diligent, because spelling and grammatical errors abound, but the book is nonetheless surprisingly readable. The book makes some valuable points, and we believe it merits marketing officers' scrutiny.
Newspaper and Electronic press comments on this book.......2004-03-01
Readers might find the the March 15, 2004 reviews of this book in the Miami Herald and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram to be useful:
"[The Authors] have produced something analogous to an eagle in the realm of business books... Like an eagle, Winning the Profit Game is distinguished by its farsightedness. Its clear, precise prose soars above that of most business books."
"The opus opens with a musical metaphor, reminding readers that every era has its own music and its own signature instruments: the driving drums and multiple guitar riffs of rock n'roll, the thundering brass of the Swing Era's big bands and the virtuoso string sections of classical music. 'If we make the analogy with business, what skills is emerging even now as the lead instrument of the 2000s? What will be the key to success in an environment that's tougher, more competitive than ever before?' the authors write. Their answer is pricing-- not by itself but integrated with brand, cost management and product development."
The authors cover the waterfront on pricing comprehensively and lucidly [including]Quick Hits for management."
Readers might also wish to know that this book has been mentioned on yahoo.com's Finance website (2/20/04), and on Consultant News's consultant-news.com (2/24/04). Their comments were (respectively):
"... executives reading this book will learn tools to help them... develop an effective, integrated price and brand strategy, use price as a language which speaks to customers [and] optimize price to increase revenue."
"... by putting brand at the center of their framework, the authors challenge the conception of branding as a mysterious function separate from price. Rather, the two are inextricably connected and a superior price strategy cannot exist without a solid brand strategy."
Incidentally, I would not say we put brand at the center of our book. We do give it a lot more attention than any other book on pricing, however.
Hope this is helpful.
Rob Docters
(Co-author)
Maybe the best book yet on pricing and branding.......2004-01-20
In fact I was surprised at how good it really was. Most business books are nothing more a string of anecodotes and platitudes, whereas here the reader gets a combination of pragmatic detail and genuine insight into what pricing can accomplish if unleashed. A great book to bring to the meeting room since the emphasis is on upper managament getting involved. From a technical perspective, it would appear the authors have spent time in the trenches, not just on their fannies in academia somewhere, as the stategy and tactics they recommend are fresher than anything to be found in Nagle or Dolan. As an example of this check out the chapter on "price as a language" for starters, then go from there.
Book Description
The Architect's Essentials of Professional Practice Series provides substantive information on the business of architecture and its affiliated professions to maintain and improve the quality of the professional and business environment.
Architects and designers are usually required to prepare and submit proposals in order to secure new business and the success of these proposals has a direct impact on the success or failure of any given firm.
- Architectural firms spend an average of £'000s preparing proposals. This guide offers full coverage of how to create a proposal that will get the job
- Looks at how to personalise proposals as well as effectively targetting it to maximise success rates
Customer Reviews:
Finally someone who really 'gets it'.......2006-05-19
A second book by author Harvey Thompson that shows his mastery of the real meaning of customer value and loyalty. This book is clearly targeted to CEO's and other executives who want to learn more about how to get and keep customers/clients - not someone who thinks they are currently a master of the subject.
Harvey balances his real world expertise and examples with an easy to understand approach for how to relate to your customers/clients. Simply one of the best books I have read on the subject. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about how to develop and maintain a valuable relationship with your customers/clients.
A so so strategic CRM book for CEOs. .......2006-02-21
Dont know whether I had read so many CRM books beforehand that I am not particulary impressed nor disappointed by it. The author, an ex IBM executive, draws upon his "reengineering" experience in dealing primarily within IBM and with many big banking/auto clients, tells the importance, difficulties and high level strategies of transforming a product oriented corp into a solution/customer/touchpoints service value oriented corp.
In short, you may be enlightened if you have not read any CRM book before. If you are a frequent reader of CRM books, you wont lose much for giving this a pass.
As usual, below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.
Businesses often expend precious energy and limited resources trying to address customer satisfaction levels on things that have no correlation between whether they will buy again or leave....They fail to differentiate between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, between satisfaction or loyalty measurement and satisfaction or loyalty management. pg 40
What is your definition of loyalty? When do you most feel that you are being loyal? Is it when you return to buy as a repeat customer...and buy additional...giving them an increased share of your total wallet spending?...What is it that they provide of such value that they win your loyalty? If they did not not provide that, would you be more likely to leave/defect and be stolen away as their customer? pg 61
The Ten Common Myths. Our customrs:- pg 102
1. Want the lowest price - period
2. Other key wants are known by us
3. Cannot envision what does not exist
4. Do not want to be telephoned at home - always
5. Do not want to be sold to when they call us
6. Do not want to provide us personal information
7. Hate to be transferred when they call
8. Wont accept an apology, so dont do it
9. Are unique, and so are their needs
10. Their needs (not wants) are known by us
Lessons learned during the transformation of IBM:- pg 161
1. A case for action and buy-in vs lack of urgency
2. Actionable customer input vs we know what customers want
3. Enterprise wide executive ownership vs optimize my silo
4. cultural transformation and teaming vs knowledge is power.
p.s. I am obliged to remark that the title "Who stole my customer?" and the excercise in the end of each chapter "You are the customer. What...?" are brilliant differentiators of it amongst its sea of competitors.
Insightful, practical, actionable, simply brilliant!.......2004-10-08
Want to know where your customers have gone and how your competitor got them? Better yet, want to be the competitor with those customers? Read this book.
Harvey Thompson has written an outstanding book that combines his global, multi-industry real world experience and some of the best thinking in business and academics (Jan Carlsen, Dr. Noriaki Kano, Dr. Valerie Zeithamel, Dr. John Henderson, Dr. N. Akao, Dr. Michael Hammer, Dr. Terry Vavra, Dr. William H. Davidson and Dr. James W. Cortada) into a tour de force on customer value. Moving way beyond concepts of customer satisfaction, Thompson very pragmatically helps you understand how to design highly successful businesses from the customer view in. This book advances the groundbreaking work of his first book, The Customer Centered Enterprise, and in many ways is more readable, more practical and more actionable.
This quick read provides very pointed questions, exercises, information and motivation to help any organization move closer to a customer defined ideal vision of a value creating future state. It encompasses business strategy, customer loyalty, company culture, and operational excellence in ways that few works attempt, much less achieve. If customer loyalty and retention are important to your organization and you want to gain some real insight into today's strategic imperatives - start right here. Part 4: "The Winning Customer Experience" alone is worth the price of admission. It should be required reading for every management team.
Finally an author that really "gets it".......2004-08-05
A second book by author Harvey Thompson that shows his mastery of the real meaning of customer value and loyalty. Harvey balances his real world expertise and examples with an easy to understand approach for how to relate to your customers/clients.
Simply one of the best books I have read on the subject. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about how to develop and maintain a valuable relationship with your customers/clients.
Books:
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It
- The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth
- The Wisdom of Crowds
- Total Customer Satisfaction: A Comprehensive Approach for Health Care Providers
- Truth, Lies and Advertising : The Art of Account Planning
- Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future
- Under the Radar: Talking to Today's Cynical Consumer
- What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business
- What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services
Books Index
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