Winning Behavior: What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently (Hardcover)

by Terry R. Bacon Ph.D. (Author), David G. Pugh (Author) "Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that if you can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or build a better mousetrap, though you build your..." (more)
Key Phrases: behavioral differentiation, differentiating behaviors, behavior toward customers, Southwest Airlines, New York, Winning Behavior (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Marketing experts Terry Bacon and David Pugh offer insightful and practical benchmarks for "outbehaving the competition" in Winning Behaviors. Their book avoids gaseous generalities about customer service and underlines four specific routes to "behavioral differentiation" (BD).

Using examples as diverse as Elvis-dressing Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher, the Ritz Carlton concierge who replaced a lost teddy bear, and Bogart as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, the authors illustrate four types of "BD" including "operational," (using procedures like return policies to demonstrate high standards,) "interpersonal," (focused listening to convey genuine concern) "exceptional," (rule breaking beyond the call of duty) and "symbolic," (sending a consistent message through words and deeds).

The book's strength is in the details. For example, how to do homework about a new client, customize a service, and avoid a charge for every minute mentality. The authors leverage clear lessons from gold standard companies such as Harley Davidson, Nordstrom, and Volvo who use BD to out perform competitors. This smart book invites readers to exceptional performance by offering fresh ideas for being on your best behavior. --Barbara Mackoff

Review
"...nothing average about this book.If you are trying to excel[...]put this one on your CEO's desk tomorrow morning." -- Training

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (July 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814471633
• ISBN-13: 978-0814471630
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #937,915 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STERN'S MANAGEMENT REVIEW FINDS THIS AN EXCELLENT BOOK!, August 4, 2003

By	Gerry Stern "Stern's Management Review Online" (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Based on a study of highly successful companies, the authors have identified nine domains of differentiation, all of which can be copied. What is unique are new ways to create a positive chemistry with customers through four major areas of behavioral differentiation. These are: 1) Operational: institutionalizing behavior through practices, policies, procedures, and employee education and training. 2) interpersonal: interpersonal skills and attitude. 3) Exceptional: when employees go out of their way to help customers; 4) symbolic: behavior that reflects the company's key product, service, or messages and values (aligning the company's behaviors with it's intended image and promises). The book gives examples that show ways winning organizations create these behavior differentiations. While most of the book is devoted to B2C companies, a chapter also addresses B2B firms. The authors provide a treasure trove of illustrations. An excellent work, rich in real-life details.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clients Needed? Then you need this book!, November 13, 2003

By	D. Hicks (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

The name says it all..."Winning Behavior". Pugh and Bacon provide real life examples of why behavior towards our clients cannot be turned on and off like a lightswitch. Their book expands on those studies to show why and how today's best companies have sucessfully developed an understanding of their clients needs amd made them "their own." WINNING BEHAVIOR shows why that understanding is crucial in today's highly commoditized world.

Pugh and Bacon walk through the finer points of what today's most successful companies do to exemplify Winning Behaviors. Evidence the large change in the contracting landscape today. Great names from the past that were once giants in industry are no longer. Why? Terry and David provide the answer. They lead you through why the companies that have endured are the ones that have subscribed to the principles David and Terry write about.

Winning Behavior truly is a "Must Read" for anyone wanting the insight into today's way of developing long-term relationship based clients. In order to develop that relationship, one must take the steps necessary to acheive the type of behavioral change required - Terry and David's book provide the roadmap!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you want to Win More than Your Fair Share?, July 18, 2003

By	Bruce E. Hogge "free thinker" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a world where new offerings are commoditized as soon as they are recognized - differentiation quickly vanishes. This is true for widgets and professional services alike. So how do you overcome the reality of excess capacity of most everything? Bacon and Pugh bring us an antidote for overcoming the excesses of a market that is characterized by Darwinian behavior. Here the authors provide a portal into Winning More Than Your Fair Share via a very special intangible - WINNING BEHAVIOR. While behavior isn't centric to the ether filled business theory books that are being cranked out by the score, here Bacon and Pugh present clear and concise recommendations that are backed up with something that rings true in every board room, in every country - the evidence of PROVEN RESULTS.

As one who has been in the successful driver seat of deals reaching from a few million to more than a billion dollars the wisdom and guidance of the authors has made a difference for my sales force not to mention my career. Seeing the resulting delta between those that have established the quality relationships at each touch point in the customer's organization along with their solid offering compared to those that merely reverse engineer their "copy and paste" proposals quickly clarifies which is the smart path to follow.

Seeing is believing! There's nothing quite like putting up that PowerPoint slide that shows the addition of a third comma in the backlog of profitable contracts at your quarterly or annual performance review. Trust that the Gods of the Board Room are far friendlier when the numbers are heading north rather than south.

Buy it. Read it. Implement it. Deliver it. The process is simple. The discipline is the tough part. Perhaps that is why we all heard mom say more than once - BEHAVE!