What Customers Really Want

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell—or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club. Inundated by fakes and sophisticated counterfeits, people increasingly see the world in terms of real or fake. They would rather buy something real from someone genuine rather than something fake from some phony. When deciding to buy, consumers judge an offering's (and a company's) authenticity as much as—if not more than—price, quality, and availability. In Authenticity, James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II argue that to trounce rivals companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, nonprofit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers' perception of authenticity by: recognizing how businesses "fake it;" appealing to the five different genres of authenticity; charting how to be "true to self" and what you say you are; and crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity. The first to explore what authenticity really means for businesses and how companies can approach it both thoughtfully and thoroughly, this book is a must-read for any organization seeking to fulfill consumers' intensifying demand for the real deal.

The must-read summary of Scott McKain's book: "What Customers Really Want: How to Bridge the Gap Between What Your Organization Offers and What Your Clients Crave". This complete summary of the ideas from Scott McKain's book "What Customers Really Want" shows that there is a fundamental disconnection between what customers really want and what businesses currently offer. Customers want a personal connection with the people and the organisations they do business with so that the outcome is a compelling experience rather than a mere transaction. In his book, the author explores six major areas in which this business-to-consumer disconnection frequently occurs and how you can bridge the gap. This summary is a must-read for any business owner who wants to ensure that customers form a connection with the company and come back again and again. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand key concepts • Expand your knowledge To learn more, read "What Customers Really Want" and discover the key to connecting with your customers and providing a great customer experience.

A world-renowned innovation guru explains practices that result in breakthrough innovations "Ulwick's outcome-driven programs bring discipline and predictability to the often random process of innovation." -Clayton Christensen For years, companies have accepted the underlying principles that define the customer-driven paradigm--that is, using customer "requirements" to guide growth and innovation. But twenty years into this movement, breakthrough innovations are still rare, and most companies find that 50 to 90 percent of their innovation initiatives flop. The cost of these failures to U.S. companies alone is estimated to be well over $100 billion annually. In a book that challenges everything you have learned about being customer driven, internationally acclaimed innovation leader Anthony Ulwick reveals the secret weapon behind some of the most successful companies of recent years. Known as "outcome-driven" innovation, this revolutionary approach to new product and service creation transforms innovation from a nebulous art into a rigorous science from which randomness and uncertainty are eliminated. Based on more than 200 studies spanning more than seventy companies and twenty-five industries, Ulwick contends that, when it comes to innovation, the traditional methods companies use to communicate with customers are the root cause of chronic waste and missed opportunity. In What Customers Want, Ulwick demonstrates that all popular qualitative research methods yield well-intentioned but unfitting and dreadfully misleading information that serves to derail the innovation process. Rather than accepting customer inputs such as "needs," "benefits," "specifications," and "solutions," Ulwick argues that researchers should silence the literal "voice of the customer" and focus on the "metrics that customers use to measure success when executing the jobs, tasks or activities they are trying to get done." Using these customer desired outcomes as inputs into the innovation process eliminates much of the chaos and variability that typically derails innovation initiatives. With the same profound insight, simplicity, and uncommon sense that propelled The Innovator's Solution to worldwide acclaim, this paradigm-changing book details an eight-step approach that uses outcome-driven thinking to dramatically improve every aspect of the innovation process--from segmenting markets and identifying opportunities to creating, evaluating, and positioning breakthrough concepts. Using case studies from Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, AIG, Pfizer, and other leading companies, What Customers Want shows companies how to: Obtain unique customer inputs that make predictable innovation possible Recognize opportunities for disruption, new market creation, and core market growth--well before competitors do Identify which ideas, technologies, and acquisitions have the greatest potential for creating customer value Systematically define breakthrough products and services concepts Innovation is fundamental to success and business growth. Offering a proven alternative to failed customer-driven thinking, this landmark book arms you with the tools to unleash innovation, lower costs, and reduce failure rates--and create the products and services customers really want.

A vice chairman of a rapidly growing $100 million organization explains how client loyalty is the connection created by organizations through the use of good service, a good product, and a good price along with personalization, differentiation, and emotion.

If you ask the right questions, then you’ll get the sale every time. As a salesperson, your product knowledge is extensive but that's not enough. If you fail to ask the right questions - the ones that uncover a customer's real needs - you will never close the deal. Top sales effectiveness expert and author Paul Cherry reveals advanced questioning techniques that will help you sell your products or services based on value to the customer, rather than price, and increase your success rate as a result. In Questions That Sell, Cherry shares material on how to: Discover hidden customer needs and motivations Reinvigorate a stale relationship Soothe anxious buyers Accelerate the decision process Upsell and cross-sell so you no longer leave money on the table Use questions to qualify prospects (without insulting them) And much more Questions That Sell is packed with powerful examples, exercises, and hundreds of sample questions for a wide range of buyer interactions. Success is yours for the asking. Smart questioning will get you there.

Building on the work of Daniel Kahneman (Thinking Fast and Slow), Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational), Shaw and Hamilton provide a new understanding of how people behave, explain what it means for organizations who really want to understand their customers, and show you what to do to create exceptional customer experiences.

Bacal provides a practical guide to dealing with nasty, hostile, angry, and even abusive customers. He gives you the skills and confidence to deal with the most troublesome of customers.