Competing for Customers: Why Delivering Business Outcomes is Critical in the Customer First Revolution - Hardcover

Dasteel, Jeb; Hartman, Amir; LeGrande, Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0134172205 ISBN 13: 9780134172200

Publisher: Pearson FT Press, 2016

Synopsis

Business-to-business customer expectations have changed. To survive—and thrive—in today’s economy, where customers are constantly reevaluating their purchases and looking at options never available before, you need to deliver business outcomes, not features and functionality.

 

Suddenly, your “sale” is no longer a one-time event: it’s a relationship that demands continuous care and nurturing. You need to constantly deliver, measure, and demonstrate the value you create for your customers.

 

Like it or not, it’s your job to make sure your customers succeed—and keep on succeeding—with what you’ve sold them. That job has a name: “Customer Success.”

 

Delivering customer success means radically changing the way you engage with customers—from sales, to marketing, to engineering and support. This book gives you a complete framework for doing just that. Step by step, you’ll learn how to make sure your customers are achieving business outcomes from your offerings...now, next year, and for years to come.

 

Embed customer success in your organizational DNA, in 3 steps:

Listen: Truly understand what it means for your customers to succeed with your offerings
Engage: Start a productive dialogue, collaborate to solve problems, and promote awareness of the value you create
Ensure: Innovate to deliver on your promises, prove it to the customer, and build retention 

About this title

About the Author

Jeb Dasteel holds the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Oracle. He is responsible for driving the relentless focus on customer success into all aspects of the Oracle business. Dasteel works across Oracle to deliver customer programs that continuously improve collaboration and attainment of customer business outcomes, value delivered, and loyalty. He has been with Oracle for 17 years in a number of corporate and field-based roles. Before joining Oracle in 1998, he worked as a management consultant at Gemini Consulting, helping Fortune 500 organizations define and implement business and IT strategies.

Amir Hartman, Founder and Managing Director of Mainstay, is a leading authority on corporate and technology transformations, and works with customers to help develop and execute customer success strategies. He is an international best-selling author and has served on the Business School faculty at Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard Business School Interactive. A frequent speaker, he is the author of several influential books, most recently Ruthless Execution (2014). Prior to forming Mainstay, Amir served as Managing Director for Cisco System’s Corporate Internet Strategy and the Internet Business Solutions Group. In this role, he was responsible for shaping Cisco’s Internet business strategy and advising key customers on the same.

Craig LeGrande recently coauthored Ruthless Execution (2014) and serves as a senior advisor to leading high-tech companies. As Founder and Managing Director of Mainstay, LeGrande leads a world-class team helping clients deliver customer success strategies, including innovative marketing and sales enablement capabilities. Before forming Mainstay, LeGrande worked in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group and Accenture’s Strategic Services and Technology Services Groups. He received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS in Electrical Engineering with Honors from the University of Florida—Go Gators!

From the Back Cover

WHEN YOUR CUSTOMERS WIN, YOU WIN

• Drive revenue and profitability by refocusing everything you do on measurable customer outcomes
• Master a roadmap for planning and executing winning customer success strategies
• Learn from customer success innovators at Oracle, Cisco, GE, Rockwell, and Telogis

“Customer focus” and “customer advocacy” are no longer enough. Today, customers can walk away from your products and services at a moment’s notice. There’s only one way to make sure that doesn’t happen: focus relentlessly on helping your customers achieve measurable business outcomes.

 

Not just once. Not just before the sale. You need to drive customer outcomes constantly, throughout your entire relationship–and make sure your customers know it. This doesn’t just happen. It requires a comprehensive, tested blueprint that integrates everything you do. You’ll find that blueprint right here.

 

Using examples from great companies, the authors identify the unifying principles and tactics of customer success delivery. Next, they guide you through every step of planning and execution, supporting you with clear tools and templates based on actual practice.

 

You’ll learn how to embed a distinct focus on customer success in your corporate DNA, so your customers’ success really is yours, and vice versa. If you want to attract and keep profitable customers, this is how you do it.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson FT Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0134172205
• ISBN 13: 9780134172200
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224