Business Customer Success

In the wake of economic downturn, foreign competition, spiking oil prices, and even war, American business throughout this decade has been thrust into crisis. To improve their performance, corporations everywhere have adopted a wide range of tools and techniques, yet many continue to struggle. Going Lean points to a better way.

Stand aside, we’re coming through! That’s the cry of a new generation of technology vendors. They have a new approach to enabling success for their customers. And they’re thriving as a result. These vendors all have subscription pricing at the heart of their business. Each has learned that if customers don’t feel they’ve had success, recurring revenue doesn’t grow, and may even decline. What makes them different? They have absolute clarity about what the customer considers success to be. And they’ve built their business around enabling that success.

Good sales relationships don't just happen. They must be nurtured and developed. From ancient trade routes to modern Internet platforms, sales is one of the world's oldest professions. Throughout the ages, there have been as many ways to sell as there are customers who want to buy. But whether you're a novice or seasoned sales person, no matter what your product or service there is one truth that crosses all boundaries in selling. Selling depends on a relationship.

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

There is a common misconception that being good at sales necessitates aggressive closing or finding ways to effectively bring in clients. Think again! Author and sales trainer Jim Doyle explains how the best sellers have a commitment to their customers that goes way beyond being customer focused. Servant Heart Sellers, as he calls them, are obsessed with making sure the products they sell make a difference for their customers, not just closing the deal. This commitment changes everything about their sales approach.

Every day outstanding organizations do things and promote values that ensure they will retain customers, grow revenues, increase market share, and build their reputations. Informed by his own commitment to the concept of personal accountability and enlivened by compelling true stories from exceptional organizations, in this insightful and accessible audiobook John Miller identifies the principles and behaviors that distinguish such organizations from the pack and provides listeners with ways to integrate them into their own work.

Far away from Silicon Valley, in familiar, traditional, even unglamorous fields, ordinary people are unleashing extraordinary advances that amaze customers, energize employees, and create huge economic value. Their secret? They understand that the work of inventing the future doesn't belong just to geeks designing mobile apps and virtual-reality headsets or to social-media entrepreneurs hoping to launch the next Facebook. Some of today's most compelling organizations are doing brilliant things.

Every time the phone rings, your business is on the line. When customers call, how do your people come across? Are they friendly? Empathetic? In control? Willing to help - even if it means going out of their way? This informational course will give you tips and techniques to give your customers exceptional telephone customer service.

Loyal customers are the beating heart of every great business. So why do so many companies act like adrenaline junkies, chasing after new customers at the expense of creating deeper, more profitable relationships with the ones they already have? Evergreen exposes the mad pursuit for what it is: a brief spike in metrics and an ongoing revenue drain as one-time customers fail to return. A better solution is to shift resources from attracting new customers to engaging the base.

The best companies and most successful salespeople live by a three-word mantra - "it's all about them" - because when they relentlessly focus their brand on their customers instead of themselves, their businesses flourish. All About Them shows listeners how to use this simple but extremely powerful influencing technique. Bruce Turkel, who has advised some of the world's greatest companies, including American Express and Bacardi, lays the groundwork by relating his personal journey of discovery to the "All About Them" principle.

Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best-selling author and leader of one of America's top sales training companies, Todd Duncan reveals the 10 most deadly mistakes salespeople make, and offers insight on how to avoid them. Duncan addresses the catastrophic mistakes that are commonly made, such as selling your product before knowing your customer or making unplanned calls on unknown customers, with clarity and directness.

No one understands better than Joseph Michelli how businesses create and leverage world-class customer experiences. In The Airbnb Way, he shows how innovative leaders have managed to build an unique brand by inspiring and engaging a community of hospitality entrepreneurs - a feat unparalleled in the shared economy.

Sales Badassery: Kick Ass. Take Names. Crush the Competition. is a no-nonsense guide to transforming your entire attitude to sales, turning the old way of doing things on its head to shift all the power to you. The common myth of sales strategy tells you to approach a prospect from a position of deference - they hold the superior position, forcing you to supplicate, beg, make undue concessions, and be at their beck and call during and after the sale. This indispensable work shows you that leveling the playing field is not enough, you need to slant it in your direction.

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

Employees don't work for companies; they work for people. The more irresistible you are as a leader, the more pull you have for employees to want to stay and for your customers to remain loyal. In The Magnetic Leader, Roberta Matuson asks us to consider that the quality of a company's leadership is the most important factor in attracting and retaining high-quality employees.

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

Consulting firms hire bright people directly out of college or with industry experience to help their clients solve business problems. Consulting 101 provides you with 101 useful tips to optimize your professional performance and jump-start your consulting career with success.

When kindness becomes your primary goal, everything changes: how you look at life, what you get from it, and how others interact with and relate to you. The Profit of Kindness will help you master the art of building trusting, long-lasting relationships through open, nonadversarial interchanges that result in mutually beneficial outcomes.

In Obsess to Success, Cindy passes on all the ways she was able to build her success on a foundation of personal relationships. Whether it's giving gifts or making time to chat, remembering names or sharing meals, there are a thousand small ways you can take your business connections beyond the financial and into the personal. When you obsess about remembering the little things, big things will follow. Once they do, the possibilities are limitless.

It is commonly believed that the work of a waiter consists of taking orders and carrying dishes properly. However, this book aims to give new meaning to the profession and show that the true value of a waiter lies in their ability to help us have a nice time while we recharge our energies.