Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers are Transforming Business Together [Hardcover]

Bob Pearson (Author), Mark Addicks (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2011

Ideas for leaders to engage directly with customers to shape their brand and marketplace success

Since its debut E-commerce has been centered on the transaction, which represents less than one percent of the time we spend online.  Now, we are entering the era of Pre-Commerce where customers make their own decision to buy or support a brand before the transaction. Pre-Commerce explains how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers go about making their purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves and why they choose to support certain brands above others. It shows what executives must do to re-create the way their companies interact with and learn from their customers, employees and competitors. It includes exclusive interviews and anecdotes Pearson has conducted or experienced with numerous influential C-suite executives during his time as leader of Dell’s global social media team and as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, worldwide.

• Offers a step-by-step process for leaders to apply this knowledge to begin transforming their companies, right now
• Begins with a foreword from Mark Addicks, Chief Marketing Officer, General Mills
• Over 25 Fortune 500 executives interviewed, including special side-bar interviews with Michael Dell and Marc Benioff
• Explores the concept of "Pre-commerce"--the customer's decision making happens well before a transaction takes place and continues after the transaction, representing 99% of time spent online, often outside a company’s reach today
• Shows how to build internal employee networks and how to take your first and most important steps to integrate social media throughout your company.

Pearson reveals that the best ideas are often free and the technology needed is rarely a cost-issue. Instead, it's a matter of the top executive deciding to adopt a new way of engaging directly with its customers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A masterclass on ensuring every part of your organization leverages the power of social media.' (I, Global Intelligence for the CIO, July 2011).

From the Inside Flap

Ideas for leaders to engage directly with customers to shape their brand and marketplace success

Since its debut, E-commerce has been centered on the transaction, which represents less than one percent of the time we spend online. The other 99 percent is referred to as Pre-Commerce—a time where customers make their own decisions to buy or support a brand before and after the transaction, with or without a company's involvement. Future leaders will develop expertise in how to become relevant throughout the entire online experience.

Pre-Commerce explains how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers go about making their purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves, and why they choose to support certain brands above others. It shows what executives must do to re-create the way their companies interact with and learn from their customers, employees, and competitors. The book includes exclusive interviews and anecdotes Pearson has conducted or experienced with numerous influential C-suite executives during his time as leader of Dell's global social media team and as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, worldwide. Filled with a wealth of information, PreCommerce

• Offers a step-by-step process for leaders to apply this knowledge to begin transforming their companies, right now

• Begins with a foreword from Mark Addicks, Chief Marketing Officer, General Mills

• Contains over twenty-five Fortune 1000 executives' interviews, including special Case Study interviews with Michael Dell and Marc Benioff

• Shows how to build internal employeenetworks and how to take your first andmost important steps to integrate socialmedia throughout your company

Pearson reveals that the best ideas and the technology needed are rarely a cost issue. Instead, it's a matter of top executives deciding to adopt a new way of engaging directly with their customers.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (March 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470928441
• ISBN-13: 978-0470928448
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Precommerce should be required reading for all March 15, 2011

By Gary Lee

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I met the author of this book at the South By Southwest conference in Austin yesterday, and received a copy of the book as well. I've been reading it since yesterday and wanted to share an early endorsement. If you are in sales, marketing, management or otherwise care about your company and its survival, buy this book and begin to study it. Precommerce defines in very clear terms the role customers now have in making decisions about your products, people, company and brand. And how companies must acknowledge that traditional marketing (eg: the 4Ps) are now virtually obsolete in a world where customers and potential customers can interact directly and in communities across the web often without ever visiting your corporate web site, reading your sales materials, etc.

Buy this book. Read it. Discuss it. Precommerce should become a new term in business in order to understand what customers are doing today BEFORE they buy -- or make the decision not to.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars How to Influence the Savvy Customer's Buying-Cycle June 18, 2011

By David H. Deans

Format:Hardcover

Marketers still tend to focus most of their efforts on the activity that's immediately before a new revenue opportunity closes and ultimately ends in a sale. In contrast, this book is primarily about all the research, consideration and time that a person might invest in the earlier stages of the buying-cycle.

The book's liner notes explain the context this way; "Since its debut, e-commerce has been centered on the transaction, which represents less than one percent of the time we spend online. The other ninety-nine percent is referred to (by the author) as Pre-Commerce - a time where customers make their own decisions to buy or support a brand before and after the transaction, with or without a company's involvement."

Granted, a key focal point of Bob Pearson's first book is about the rise of social media, and its application within the marketing, sales and customer service organizations - but I would consider its inherent value to be viewed more broadly. It's also about re-engineering front-line business processes - with the intent to meet the info needs of today's discerning retail consumer or savvy corporate procurement professional.

The author succinctly states the current market reality at the beginning of chapter one. "Companies today have to reach customers long before they commit to their purchases, because customers are making decisions before they arrive at your store or home page."

It seems to me that Bob Pearson has devoted this book to helping legacy marketers understand how to ensure that their organization is producing content that enables a customer to purchase something that's a best-fit for their needs. He also explains, by sharing numerous case study examples, how to engage with your stakeholders online and give them the opportunity to participate in improving the product or service you offer.

Like most how-to oriented business books, the notion of Pre-Commerce was developed around a new model, called the four A's - awareness, assessment, action and ambassadors. This model provides a useful guide for most marketers to be prepared to put these forward-looking communication concepts into practice.

Mr. Pearson concludes the final chapter with the following insight. He says "I didn't write this book to give you all the answers - no one can do that. Nothing stands still in the Pre-Commerce marketplace, so business leaders constantly must learn it anew."

If learning where to begin the process of marketing communications evolution is where you're at today, then this book will likely be a good starting point for you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book... a must read! November 30, 2011

By David Henry

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are in marketing in any capacity and haven't read this book, buy it now! This takes a good look at consumer behavior and what they are doing BEFORE they ever interact with a company. Want to know how people get their information on how they buy, read this. This will give you a new perspective and have you thinking differently about how you interact with your customers/clients.