Customer Reviews

Capturing Customers.com: Radical Strategies for Selling and Marketing in a Wired World

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Colombo promises to provide "radical strategies for selling and marketing in the wired world" and he delivers. As he explains in the Introduction, "What you're going to find in the pages of this book is a guide that's designed to help you navigate through the maze of issues that surround this whole business of using technology to enhance your sales and marketing efforts. It's going to help you match your technology initiatives with the wants and needs of your customers. " he also promises (and delivers) specific strategies and tactics to understand so as to cope with "the dynamics of a changing marketplace" to be at the cutting edge, and, in process he provides essential insights into the possibilities of e-business so as not to miss any significant but appropriate opportunities. The word "appropriate" is critically important. Colombo correctly realizes that it would be folly to attempt to be all things to all customers and prospective customers. He organizes the material within three Sections:

Moving Beyond the Limitations of "Web Centricity" (Chapters 1-4)

An Unstoppable Arsenal of Winning Strategies and Tactics (Chapters 5-10)

Fine Tuning Your Formula for Success in the Wired World (Chapters 11-14)

At the end of most chapters, Colombo includes a "Capturing Conversations" component which is a probing interview of a relevant authority (eg Seth Godin) on the key issues previously addressed. Jeffrey Gitomer and others have stressed the importance of customer "loyalty" (ie sustainable repeat business) as opposed to customer "satisfaction" which is experienced on a per-transaction basis. Colombo shares that view. The ultimate objective is not to "capture" customers but to KEEP them. In this well-written book, he explains how. Here is a brief excerpt from the concluding chapter: "In the grand scheme of things, the technology piece of the puzzle is relatively easy. There is plenty of talent out there to help you get where you want to go. The hard part is knowing where to go. The hard part is understanding what your market wants. [Note: Some customers may often seem fickle or disloyal when, in fact, their needs have changed. Hence the importance of what Treacy and Wiersema characterize as `the discipline of customer intimacy.'] The hard part is understanding what motivates your customers. Serving the needs and desires of your customers is the objective. Implementing technology is the vehicle that can get you there." For many organizations regardless of their nature or size, Colombo would be an excellent chauffeur.

This book was written for the all the tortoise business owners who've enjoyed the Dot Com bubble burst and are now ready to extend their proven business models to the web. George Colombo's no nonsense, sales and marketing approach to business is evident throughout.

I've already suggested this as reading for two of my clients who are grappling with very complex issues as they embrace these new tools. Read and re-read this practical guide.

The author doesn't let his good ideas go to his head. Instead he shares his knowledge in a way that's easy to digest, as if you're chatting together over a good cup of joe. George Colombo defines how to get your business wired for a profitable outcome by employing the Internet as one of many tools at your disposal. Capturing Customers.com is an important "must read" for those who want their business to grow is this "click and mortar" world.

Forests have been felled to carry articles and books analysing the Internet Boom and its Bust from every conceivable angle. This book offers far more than simple analysis, breaking down cases and examples into straightforward lessons for business owners and executives.

George Colombo has an engaging, direct style that is short on jargon and long on lessons that can be applied to nearly any business that wants to use the web to increase customer contacts and sales. Colombo argues that the basics of business still matter, whether the business is based in a downtown storefront or a Java-heavy catalog application. It's the sort of advice that a lot of us could have used in 1998.

I'm a survivor of the Internet Era, and have read many of the books that have tried to make sense of what happened, but this is the one that will be covered with pointers and sticky notes when we're building the next business web site. Capturing Customers.com is a keeper.

It is a useful book which can give readers much information about runing a Dot com company. It was known to me that, running a company with web page only cannot work effectively since physical supports are needed to provide to customers. So, the author recommended the points that I think it is quite insightful, that is "the integration of online/offline strategies. As online business can support the offline business, i.e. physical store, salesperson. The reason is that customized services and stores are needed to provide to customers, so that the company can suvive in the competitive market.

Also, another useful point of the book is about the offline strategies. Since the effective use of offline strategies can greatly help the operation of the company and the promotion of products and services, there are some strategies that suggested by author.

For example, personalized customers through internet, e.g. asking them for their personal information, so that the company can send those things customers are interested and customized the email messages, for reminding and promoting about the products or services the company could provide to them.

This book was very helpful to me as a beginner in internet marketing. It opened my eyes to many new ideas and ways of thinking. The author's style of writing was comfortable and easy to comprehend. I have already recommended this book to several of my co-workers.

What I liked most about this book, is that it cuts through a lot of the (now obvious) hype of the internet to focus on the fact that you cannot simply ignore traditional means of developing customer relationships when you decide to incorporate the internet into your business plans. Effective businesses still need to provide face-to-face and voice contact with customers.

This book also stands on the shoulders of other giants by including several interviews with key industry gurus that honestly have perceptive insights. For example: In a world where pricing cannot provide you with a competitive advantantage, how do you differentiate yourself or your products?

The tenor of the book is summed up in the my favorite quote: "In the grand scheme of things, the technology piece of the puzzle is relatively easy. There is plenty of talent out there that is available to help you get where you want to go. The hard part is knowing where to go."

This book helps you to see where you need to go.

My only criticism is that there are several typos and grammatical errors in the book that would have been caught if somebody had done a little proof-reading before it went to press. The errors, however, are minor and do not detract much from what is a very helpful book written in an engaging style.

Colombo's insight into establishing and maintaining a web based business is crucial to success. Colombo demonstrates what is needed to establish, and maintain a website for long term business success. This book is a must read for folks just starting a business and desire to use the web as a marketing tool. Even for established "brick and mortar" businesses, Colombo gives good advice on how to reach customers to acheive incremental sales growth. Even if you think you know how to use the web to your advantage, I would recommend this book. In today's competitive environment, practical information is what you need. This book delivers.

This is not just another techie book. This is a wonderful amalgamation of marketing, technology and business wrapped in an easy-to-read "how-to" book.

Capturing Customers.com is filled with so many good ideas that I was kicking myself for the opportunities I had been missing. Now, armed with these lessons, I'm already making meaningful changes in my business. I'm so glad I picked up this book and only hope my competition doesn't.

You read the manifestos, the prophecies and the change-or-die ultimatums. Now read the postmortem. George Colombo begins his dissection of the dotcom corpse by stating the now obvious: Many Internet companies didn't offer viable business plans, the Internet stock boom was mostly hysteria, and the average Internet start-up had no clue how to acquire or serve customers. But picking through the carnage, he identifies elements of the dotcom business model that are worth salvaging. In clear, spare prose he explains how businesses can blend brick-and-mortar operations with electronic innovations like permission marketing and mass customization to capture long-term customers - the key to success in a market of hyper-informed and fickle consumers. We at getAbstract.com strongly recommend this book to any and all professionals, especially those left wondering what's to become of their vaunted Web strategies in the post-dotcom era.