Customer Development

What makes the world's most successful individuals so good at their jobs? What do they do that others don't? The Connectors answers those questions with the kind of straightforward wisdom that business strategists so often overlook. Forget marketing tactics or business school best practices. Those are handy, but it's really people - and the relationships you build with them - that form the cornerstone of long-term success, sales growth, and excellence.

Drawing on more than a decade of new work, Kim and Mauborgne show you how to move beyond competing, inspire your people's confidence and seize new growth, guiding you step-by-step through how to take your organization from a red ocean crowded with competition to a blue ocean of uncontested market space.

Whether you work at a startup or a large, established company, we all know that building great products is hard. Most new products fail. The Lean Product Playbook helps improve your chances of building successful products through clear, step-by-step guidance and advice. The Lean Startup movement has contributed new, valuable ideas about product development and has generated lots of excitement. However, many companies have yet to adopt Lean thinking. Despite their enthusiasm and familiarity with the concepts, many teams run into challenges trying to adopt Lean because they lack guidance.

Leading marketing practitioner and thought leader Joe Federer draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology, neuroanatomy, and psychology, as well as more than a decade of hands-on experience, to explain why people act so differently in various online spaces and what they are seeking from participating in each one.

Strategy consultant Robbie Kellman Baxter has been helping companies excel in this business environment for more than a decade. Now, in The Forever Transaction, she reveals all her secrets. Whatever industry you're in, Baxter provides the inspiration, tools, and insight you need to build and execute a business model that will leave your competition in the dust.

Because if you’re reading this now, you’ve probably been dying for a reason to strike out on your own. To build out that side hustle that you’ve been too busy to grow. To turn that business idea you’ve been dreaming about into a full-time money-making reality.

Don’t be daunted by a challenging economy and fierce competition. Even in the toughest environment, innovative, highly profitable businesses abound. And yours can be one of them with Now, Build a Great Business! This essential success kit from business heavyweights and acclaimed authors Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy is filled with straightforward, powerful strategies to ignite growth in your business.

What are companies like Uber, IKEA, Belgo, and Eurostar doing that makes them so profitable? They know how to scale relationships. But online gurus are lying to you about scaling to hundreds of clients without creating an exceptional customer experience. Ben and I created this book with that in mind. When you feel like there is much more to be done in how you serve your clients, we’ve got you. For a long time, marketers--specifically in the online space--have been making bolder and bolder promises.

Do you love popcorn? Of course you do! Who doesn’t? This is why starting a flavored popcorn business is such a good idea. People will be intrigued by your unique flavors or they’ll want to go with an unbeatable classic that’s made with a special touch.

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.

Digital marketers tap into an unprecedented ability to discover and reach motivated customers at scale. Now more than ever digital marketing strategies are the key for emerging brands, new and veteran entrepreneurs, and businesses of all sizes to convert customers in digital spaces. Author and veteran marketer Benjamin Sweeney distills a decade's worth of marketing experience into a crash course that covers everything from marketing fundamentals to sophisticated digital strategies.

In today’s revolutionary market, the classic sales model is both out-of-date and dangerous. Often, it seems like you don’t just have to run to keep up, you have to continually sprint, market, and discount. That’s exhausting, but there is another way. The best and most successful organizations don’t follow this chaotic strategy. They slow down and design world-class solutions that optimize sales for the long term. This is the approach we call "slow selling".

This practical, step-by-step book is designed specifically for selling teams committed to high achievement in the enterprise environment. You'll learn how to master 13 selling tools integral to your SES success - like the KARE Account Planning Tool, Growth Account Booster Tool, LinkedIn Levers Tool, and Client-Centric Satisfaction Tool. You'll discover practical solutions to the vastly complex challenges in enterprise organizations - extended sales cycles, wide buyer networks, or significant investments in pursuits.

In The Customer Education Playbook: How Leading Companies Engage, Convert, and Retain Customers, customer learning experts Barry Kelly and Daniel Quick explain how teaching customers to best engage with your products and services is the key to converting them from prospects to loyal advocates of your brand.

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.

The team behind the data management platform that helps fuel Salesforce - the number one customer relationship management (CRM) company in the world - presents this indispensable guide to data-powered marketing. You’ll discover the three principles for building a successful data strategy and the five sources of data-driven power. You’ll hear how top companies put these data-driven strategies into action. And if you’re wondering what the future holds, you’ll receive seven forecasts to better prepare you for what may come next.

When it comes to negotiation, there is an ugly double standard. As women, if we make concessions to further a deal, we're viewed as weak. But if we play hardball, we can be seen as overly aggressive - and the strategy backfires. No wonder most women hate negotiating.

We're in the midst of a revolution. Quantum leaps in technology are enabling organizations to observe and measure people's behavior in real time, communicate internally at extraordinary speed, and innovate continuously. These new, software-driven technologies are transforming the way companies interact with their customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Networking is often considered a necessary evil for all working professionals. With social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at our disposal, reaching potential investors or employers is much easier. Yet, these connections often feel transactional and agenda-driven, leaving professionals feeling burnt out and stressed out.

Your reputation defines how people see you and what they will do for you. It determines whether your bank will lend you money to buy a house or car; whether your landlord will accept you as a tenant; which employers will hire you and how much they will pay you. It can even affect your marriage prospects.