Customers As Partners

Effective customer partnership creates customers who return in good times and in bad, customers who say, "I wouldn't go anywhere else". Using real-world examples, Chip Bell examines the qualities that form the core of all lasting relationships and describes a way of business where personal interactions, not sales, take center stage.

Astute Managers and entrepreneurs already know that customer loyalty is an absolute necessity for profitable businesses in the '90s and beyond. They have invested in this knowledge by initiating a wide variety of quality service programs intended to dazzle customers. Yet, beyond the reach of these programs, and the books that promote them, are the real human relationships on which customer loyalty is based. Going beyond the external forms of outstanding service, Customers As Partners vividly shows how lasting success depends upon creating sustaining personal bonds. Identifying these bonds as the true source of a company's profitability, this ground-breaking work provides insights on how to keep the quality of these relationships central in every interaction. It offers a model of partnership that is not just value-added, but value-based.

Today's customers are the most demanding in history. They want more, better, faster, and cheaper. Customer Intimacy is brimming with case histories of companies, both large and small, that have discovered the secrets of establishing and maintaining close customer relationships--and have reaped the profits to prove it.

Unlock the enormous potential of strategic partnerships You think you know partnerships, don’t you? But the nature — and growth potential — of partnerships for business has transformed in recent years. In The Partnership Economy, partnership automation expert and impact.com CEO David A. Yovanno delivers an insightful, actionable guide to navigating this newly defined era and growing your company’s revenue far beyond expectations. Using real-life examples from well-known brands such as Fabletics, Target, Ticketmaster, Walmart, and more, the book offers practical frameworks on how to unlock the value of modern partnerships. Along with showing how partnerships build brand awareness, customer loyalty, and competitive advantage, Yovanno reveals the tremendous possibilities for growth when partnership agreements work in concert across all partnership types, such as influencers, commerce content publishers, business-to-business integrations, and affiliate rewards. In this book, you’ll learn: Why and how the most innovative companies, both large and small, and across industries, invest in their partnership programs and consequently drive up to a third or more revenue for their organization How a variety of partnership types, including influencers, commerce content, traditional affiliate programs, and more, operate and how each can make a difference in your business Why you don’t have to wait — you can begin your partnerships strategy today, either in-house or through agency partners, with a point-by-point startup plan and roadmap for growth What partnership maturity means and how to diversify and grow your partnerships program to fully unleash your organization’s growth potential Perfect for founders, executives, managers, and anyone responsible for revenue acquisition in any industry or sector, The Partnership Economy is an indispensable guide for anyone planning to grow their business and its revenue.

A top social media guru shares the secrets to expanding your business through relationships People have always done business with people they know, like, and trust. That's the essence of "relationship marketing." Today, the popularity of online social networking has caused a paradigm shift in relationship marketing. This book helps businesspeople and marketers master this crucial new skill set. Social marketing expert Mari Smith outlines a step-by-step plan for building a sizable, loyal network comprised of quality relationships that garner leads, publicity, sales,, and more. If you're a businessman or businesswoman feeling the pressure to shift your approach to using social media marketing, to better understand the new soft skills required for success on the social web, and to improve your own leadership and relationship skills through emotional and social intelligence, this book is for you. Outlines how to become a significant "center of influence" for your customers and prospects Explains the unspoken rules of online etiquette—and the common "turnoffs" that drive customers and potential partners away Details the unique cultures of Facebook, Twitter, and other popular online platforms Shows exactly what to automate and delegate to build your social media persona, yet still retain the personal touch Even if you currently have zero presence online, this book will help you see measurable results in a short time.

Preface Corporations that achieve high customer retention and high customer profitability aim for: The right product (or service), to the right customer, at the right price, at the right time, through the right channel, to satisfy the customer's need or desire. Information Technology—in the form of sophisticated databases fed by electronic commerce, point-of-sale devices, ATMs, and other customer touch points—is changing the roles of marketing and managing customers. Information and knowledge bases abound and are being leveraged to drive new profitability and manage changing relationships with customers. The creation of knowledge bases, sometimes called data warehouses or Info-Structures, provides profitable opportunities for business managers to define and analyze their customers' behavior to develop and better manage short- and long-term relationships. Relationship Technology will become the new norm for the use of information and customer knowledge bases to forge more meaningful relationships. This will be accomplished through advanced technology, processes centered on the customers and channels, as well as methodologies and software combined to affect the behaviors of organizations (internally) and their customers/channels (externally). We are quickly moving from Information Technology to Relationship Technology. The positive effect will be astounding and highly profitable for those that also foster CRM. At the turn of the century, merchants and bankers knew their customers; they lived in the same neighborhoods and understood the individual shopping and banking needs of each of their customers. They practiced the purest form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). With mass merchandising and franchising, customer relationships became distant. As the new millennium begins, companies are beginning to leverage IT to return to the CRM principles of the neighborhood store and bank. The customer should be the primary focus for most organizations. Yet customer information in a form suitable for marketing or management purposes either is not available, or becomes available long after a market opportunity passes, therefore CRM opportunities are lost. Understanding customers today is accomplished by maintaining and acting on historical and very detailed data, obtained from numerous computing and point-of-contact devices. The data is merged, enriched, and transformed into meaningful information in a specialized database. In a world of powerful computers, personal software applications, and easy-to-use analytical end-user software tools, managers have the power to segment and directly address marketing opportunities through well managed processes and marketing strategies. This book is written for business executives and managers interested in gaining advantage by using advanced customer information and marketing process techniques. Managers charged with managing and enhancing relationships with their customers will find this book a profitable guide for many years. Many of today's managers are also charged with cutting the cost of sales to increase profitability. All managers need to identify and focus on those customers who are the most profitable, while, possibly, withdrawing from supporting customers who are unprofitable. The goal of this book is to help you: identify actions to categorize and address your customers much more effectively through the use of information and technology, define the benefits of knowing customers more intimately, and show how you can use information to increase turnover/revenues, satisfaction, and profitability. The level of detailed information that companies can build about a single customer now enables them to market through knowledge-based relationships. By defining processes and providing activities, this book will accelerate your CRM "learning curve," and provide an effective framework that will enable your organization to tap into the best practices and experiences of CRM-driven companies (in Chapter 14). In Chapter 6, you will have the opportunity to learn how to (in less than 100 days) start or advance, your customer database or data warehouse environment. This book also provides a wider managerial perspective on the implications of obtaining better information about the whole business. The customer-centric knowledge-based info-structure changes the way that companies do business, and it is likely to alter the structure of the organization, the way it is staffed, and, even, how its management and employees behave. Organizational changes affect the way the marketing department works and the way that it is perceived within the organization. Effective communications with prospects, customers, alliance partners, competitors, the media, and through individualized feedback mechanisms creates a whole new image for marketing and new opportunities for marketing successes. Chapter 14 provides examples of companies that have transformed their marketing principles into CRM practices and are engaging more and more customers in long-term satisfaction and higher per-customer profitability. In the title of this book and throughout its pages I have used the phrase "Relationship Technologies" to describe the increasingly sophisticated data warehousing and business intelligence technologies that are helping companies create lasting customer relationships, therefore improving business performance. I want to acknowledge that this phrase was created and protected by NCR Corporation and I use this trademark throughout this book with the company's permission. Special thanks and credit for developing the Relationship Technologies concept goes to Dr. Stephen Emmott of NCR's acclaimed Knowledge Lab in London. As time marches on, there is an ever-increasing velocity with which we communicate, interact, position, and involve our selves and our customers in relationships. To increase your Return on Investment (ROI), the right information and relationship technologies are critical for effective Customer Relationship Management. It is now possible to: know who your customers are and who your best customers are stimulate what they buy or know what they won't buy time when and how they buy learn customers' preferences and make them loyal customers define characteristics that make up a great/profitable customer model channels are best to address a customer's needs predict what they may or will buy in the future keep your best customers for many years This book features many companies using CRM, decision-support, marketing databases, and data-warehousing techniques to achieve a positive ROI, using customer-centric knowledge-bases. Success begins with understanding the scope and processes involved in true CRM and then initiating appropriate actions to create and move forward into the future. Walking the talk differentiates the perennial ongoing winners. Reinvestment in success generates growth and opportunity. Success is in our ability to learn from the past, adopt new ideas and actions in the present, and to challenge the future. Respectfully, Ronald S. Swift Dallas, Texas June 2000

Praise for SMART CALLING "Finally, a sales book that makes sense! As a master sales trainer, Art nailed—no, obliterated—the number one fear of selling in this great book: cold calling! Let him teach you to stop cold calling and start Smart Calling!"—LARRY WINGET, television personality and New York Times bestselling author "Smart Calling is the benchmark as the highest professional standard for effective cold calling. Take the initiative to read and implement Art's rational principles and you will sell much more and develop a prospect base of potential customers who will call you when they are ready to purchase or graciously take your future calls. This is THE BEST sales text I have read in the past twenty years."—REX CASWELL, PhD, VP, LexisNexis Telephone Sales "You get only one chance to make the right impression in sales. If a top prospect gets a hundred calls a week, you want to be the one he remembers and buys from. Art's proven methods create a unique brand for you and position your offering as the best option. Art's advice isn't just smart, it's priceless."—BOB SILVY, VP, Corporate Marketing, American City Business Journals "Smart Calling effectively enables inside sales reps and organizations to accomplish a top priority—acquiring new customers. Art's pragmatic and actionable techniques will increase productivity, success, and professional satisfaction."—BILL McALISTER, SVP, Inside Sales, McAfee "A must-read, must-own book for anyone who wants to increase their sales right away with less effort and more fun. I'm so sure this book is a winner for anyone who needs to call prospects that I'll personally assure you that your results will increase noticeably after reading it, or I'll send you your money back."—MIKE FAITH, CEO & President, Headsets.com, Inc. "If you need to make a first call to anyone, for whatever reason, this book is for you. More than common sense, it's a real-world, no-fluff, simple approach that anyone can use to be successful."—DARCI MAENPA, President, West Coast Chapter, American Teleservices Association; Director, Member Support, Toastmasters International

The secret to higher revenue is locked in the mind of your current customers. Using the proven methods in this book, you will learn how to interview your own customers so you understand exactly what they were looking for, why they bought from you, what they value about your product or service, and the steps they went through as they purchased your product or service. You will understand their questions and concerns, and the answers they needed in order to be convinced that your product or service would meet their need. Armed with this information, you can reverse-engineer your successful sales and manufacture new sales in quantity. This is the core premise of the book, and it will transform and empower all of your marketing and sales efforts. You will make it easy for new customers to find you, like what they see, and buy from you. You will be able to map out their buying process and then support that process at every stage. Your content will resonate with potential customers, because you will be using concepts, words, and phrases that came from others with similar problems and seeking similar solutions. You will use marketing methods that will work for your product or service, and avoid those that won't, guided by the information provided by your own customers. Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy is a step-by-step guide to increased sales, using a method that has been tested, perfected, and proven to work, regardless of the size of the company or the industry.