The Must-Have Customer: 7 Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got [Hardcover]

Robert Gordman (Author), Armin Brott (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2006

For almost forty years, Robert Gordman has been a successful business leader and consultant. In The Must-Have Customer, Gordman shares the same insights and strategies he has used to help dozens of companies---companies whose sales range from $10 million to $80 billion---achieve sustained, profitable growth.

The Must-Have Customer will show you how to keep your best customers (the ones who got you where you are today) and how to identify, attract, and forge long-lasting relationships with the customers you don t have---the ones who will take your company to the next level. Each chapter contains powerful questions and a process for asking them that will enable you to drive sales and increase profits year after year.

 
The Must-Have Customer describes how to assess your company s position in the marketplace and carve out a defensible sweet spot against your competitors. You ll find out how to recognize your must-have customers rules for doing business and why some of your satisfied customers are former customers waiting to happen. You ll also learn how to identify your must-have employees and how they can improve the way you do business with your must-have customers. You ll learn how to create a ready-to-go strategic plan, and how to increase sales and profits by improving the effectiveness of your company s advertising.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran business consultant Gordman believes success in business is simple: it's literally there for the asking. What he advises executives ask—and keep asking—are questions that help them understand what their company does well, what it could do better and what its competitors do that lures customers away. Of course, listening without bias and incorporating that feedback into a strategic plan also helps. Gordman has guided numerous companies, including IBM and Berkshire Hathaway, through the steps he discusses in this volume and through the lists of survey questions that he also shares. His seven steps are simple and scalable to any business. But as example after example illustrates—from Coca-Cola to JCPenney—most companies fail to employ them successfully and suffer the consequences as a result. Gordman's personal experience and obvious frustration with poor management practices will make the book compelling to the C-level managers for which it is intended. They are, after all, the individuals he blames for businesses' failure, asserting that companies do not die of natural causes, but from poor decision making that drives away profits, one customer at a time. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover

Advance Praise for The Must-Have Customer

"The best business books combine an experienced breadth of perspective with incisive and practical ideas for taking action. Robert Gordman's book, The Must-Have Customer, provides us with both. If you want clear guidance on what to do to build your business, then read this book."
---Marcus Buckingham, author of The One Thing You Need to Know

"Bob Gordman's extensive experience as a consultant, along with his successful retail career, enables him to readily define the Must-Have Customer. These are the customers who will ensure that a business is financially successful. After reading this book, every businessperson will find it easier to understand and focus on the crucial issue of how to attract Must-Have Customers."
---Lee Synnott, former chairman and CEO of Ingram Book Group

"Any good commander knows that preparation of the battlefield is essential to winning the war. In The Must-Have Customer, the business world will learn the steps it must take to prepare its battlefield. Preparation results in profits!"
---Gen. William W. Crouch (Ret.), U.S. Army, and former Vice Chief of the Army

"By gaining an in-depth understanding of our Core and Must-Have Customers' rules, we developed an industry-leading strategy. We turned a stagnant part of our business into a profitable growth engine for the company. This formula has been successful for nine years and is now part of the company's global strategy."
---C. Henry Orme, former vice president of the Whirlpool Corporation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Truman Talley Books; First Edition edition (April 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312351690
• ISBN-13: 978-0312351694
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Robert Gordman's, May 8, 2006

By 

Steve Rosen (Omaha) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Must-Have Customer: 7 Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got (Hardcover)

[...]! After 35 years in Retail, finally a simple, step-by-step outline that teaches you how to add more customers that behave just like your best customers. No more beating your head against the wall trying to convert infrequent customers into core customers. IF you follow ALL the steps (and you're honest with yourself) ... IT ALWAYS WORKS!

Steve Rosen

Managing Director, Retail Marketing Solutions

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why didn't they teach me this in Business School?, June 12, 2006

By 

Daniel Richards (Pleasant Hill, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Must-Have Customer: 7 Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got (Hardcover)

Powerful ideas, backed up with practical guidance and fascinating case studies. The "Must-Have Customer" reads like a good novel - it's that hard to put down. And unlike many business authors, Gordman clearly knows what he's talking about.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strongly recommended for all business executives, consultants, managers, and productivity assessment officers, May 7, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Must-Have Customer: 7 Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got (Hardcover)

The Must-Have Customer: Seven Steps To Winning The Customer You Haven't Got by Robert Gordman (President of the Gordman Group) with the assistance of professional author Armin Brott provides a powerful and persuasive understanding of an expertise developed through over thirty years of business consulting and executive management for retail companies. Introducing readers to the tactics and wisdom from Gordman which helped dozens of companies improve their sale range from about ten million to eighty billion, The Must-Have Customer comprehensively provides readers with "user-friendly" and persistently informative guide to productive and securing utilization of the business and consulting process for any company. The Must-Have Customer is very strongly recommended for all business executives, consultants, managers, and productivity assessment officers for its exclusive and complete mapping of the entire system.