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Indispensable: How To Become The Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without by [Joe Calloway]

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Joe Calloway

Indispensable: How To Become The Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Joe Calloway (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

26 ratings

3.9 on Goodreads

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A five-step strategy for turning a commodity into a necessity

When products and services become interchangeable, price becomes the ultimate determinant for consumers. Indispensable shows businesses how to break out of that cycle by using The Five Drivers-a strategy that takes companies to the next level of performance. Renowned business consultant Joe Calloway looks at how real companies have made their product or service "mission critical," and satisfied customers in the process.

Indispensable goes straight to the heart of the issue and reveals how successful companies-of any size, in virtually any manufacturing, selling, or service endeavor-achieve market leadership through The Five Drivers of fierce customer loyalty. Indispensable shows readers how to:
* Create and sustain momentum: overcome organizational inertia and keep moving forward
* Develop habitual dependability: make consistency of performance a defining characteristic
* Connect continuously
* See the Big Picture Outcome: create compelling customer experiences
* Engage, Enchant, Enthrall: make magic in the marketplace

With interviews, detailed case studies, and dozens of real-world, effective customer service ideas and initiatives, Indispensable is just what today's forward-thinking businesses need.

ISBN-13

978-0471703082
Edition

1st
Sticky notes

Not Enabled
Publisher

Wiley
Publication date

April 27, 2007
Language

English
File size

1568 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Intense business competition has made many products and services interchangeable, and made price the ultimate determinant for consumers. When customers know they can get the same product at a lower price from someone else, they will. That is, unless you give them something they can't get anywhere else. Indispensable shows businesses how to break out of the commodity trap and create customer loyalty that overcomes the power of pricing.

The Holy Grail of business is the customer so loyal that they'll do business with you and only you when it comes time to buy. The company that can build that relationship with its customers becomes truly indispensable to them—and destined for market dominance. In Indispensable, renowned business consultant Joe Calloway looks at how real companies have made their products and services indispensable to their customers, and how you can do the same in your business.

Using case studies, interviews, and real-world scenarios, Calloway reveals the Five Drivers of success that virtually all indispensable companies share:

They create and sustain momentum, overcoming organizational inertia and moving forward constantly
They develop habitual dependability and consistent performance for their customers
They maintain a continuous connection by persistently communicating with their customers
They adopt a big-picture perspective by understanding their own, and their customers', long-term goals
They engage, enchant, and enthrall, giving their customers more than they need—and more than they expect

These Five Drivers are what take businesses to the next level of customer service performance. Calloway offers dozens of examples of how to develop these characteristics in your organization, and presents detailed case studies that help you put them into practice immediately. The book also includes dozens of real-world, effective ideas and tactics that you can borrow and use to design your own customer service initiative. Indispensable shows business leaders how to use customer service to build companies and brands that customers won't want to live without.

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

JOE CALLOWAY is a consultant on branding and competitive positioning whose client list reads like a Who's Who in business—from newspapers in Sweden, hotels in Great Britain, and computer companies in South Africa to world brands like BMW and American Express. He speaks frequently on business trends, and has been inducted into the International Speaker's Hall of Fame. He owns an award-winning restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife, Annette, and daughter, Jess. He is also the author of Becoming a Category of One, from Wiley. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000PY4IT0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (April 27, 2007)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 27, 2007
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1568 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,755,340 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #751 in Customer Relations (Kindle Store)
- #1,630 in Advertising (Kindle Store)
- #2,239 in Customer Relations (Books)

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Joe Calloway

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Joe Calloway helps great companies get even better. He helps organizations and top-performing individuals focus on what is truly important, inspires constant improvement, and motivates people to immediate action. A business author, advisor, and speaker, Joe's corporate client list reads like a Who's Who in business, ranging from companies like Coca Cola and IBM to Cadillac and American Express.

Joe is the author of five ground-breaking business books including Becoming A Category of One, which received rave reviews from the New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, Retailing Today and many others. Joe's newest book is Be The Best At What Matters Most, is published by John Wiley And Sons.

Joe is a popular speaker for business meetings and events, and he also works with clients to help them achieve specific results and improvements in exclusive 90 day advisory programs. Although Joe has been inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame, he doesn't do traditional "speeches." Instead, Joe actively engages people in highly interactive keynote presentations and workshops that challenge assumptions and create new ways of thinking.

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5 star		51%
4 star		20%
3 star		15%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		15%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Rob Kirk

Solid but not groundbreaking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 11, 2013

Verified Purchase

With the amount of business books published every year there is the constant pursuit of trying to find something truly original. Well, with this book....keep looking. It's a solid book to remind you about the basic (and maybe not so obvious) tenants of business success that everyone should be striving to achieve. There are some really gems of advice buried in the pages though and since it's only 220 pgs it won't take too long to read and find. Solid but not groundbreaking is my opinion and if you are really trying to improve your business success....it's worth your time.

One person found this helpful

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Lalabakes

Meh.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

This book is okay - to be honest, I thought the case studies would have more facts and figures and statistics, but they were just his opinions of places he frequents (and the companies featured are probably his clients, which means he's obviously biased). He also kept reiterating the same basic points over and over again - I guess just to make sure he filled enough pages with ink. The points in the book are so general and basic that I don't think there was anything that you won't read in other classics like Good to Great.

One person found this helpful

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Business Reader

Full of Duh's

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 14, 2005

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Calloway's book starts with 5 promising but not earthshattering "drive behaviors" that result in becoming indispensable. But the book quickly becomes lots of duh's. Among his 28 indispensable lessons: #1 "Sell the same thing as everybody else and have the lowest price." Duh.

#7 "Know your customers." Duh

And lots and lots of stories...Serious students of business development should pass on this book.

3 people found this helpful

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Nantimon

I want Caecilia!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2015

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I'm going to give every book that can't change fonts one star, even before I read it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 25, 2009

Verified Purchase

Book gave lots of good insight. Some was common sense but all in all it was a good book.

Helpful

Real world examples of building loyalty

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 6, 2010

Building customer loyalty today requires far more than good service, competitive pricing and attentive sales contacts. In the rapidly changing global market, avoiding the dangers of becoming a commodity is reaching critical stages of reality.

Calloway uses believable case studies and interviews with real people to introduce his drivers of success. These are used as illustrations to encourage readers drastically change their service approaches to become the clients' first and only choice.

Feedback is always welcome

John Hogan

HoganHospitality com
HospitalityEducators com

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 28, 2005

Meet Joe Calloway, a consultant on branding and competitive positioning. He's delightfully candid, direct, instructive, and stimulating. As you read this book, you will get to know Calloway as a human and consumer with feelings...that certainly come out in this text. I thoroughly enjoyed page after page of stories of how companies become indispensable...or not. The conversational tone is captivating and motivating.

You'll read about the Five Drivers: create and drive momentum, develop habitual dependability, continuous connection, big picture outcome, and engage, enchant, and enthrall. The chapters illuminate these drivers and deliver even more. I found myself looking at my business relationships much differently-both as a consumer and as a deliverer of goods and services. Between Calloway's lessons, countless examples, and case studies is an intricate fabric of a clear message. Be indispensable or lose to the competition. I won't tell you more details-there's too much to try to convey the depth of this book in a review. Read it.

Expect to be thoroughly engaged by this book, eager to return to it every time you put it down. And, expect to send it to someone who really needs it when you're finished!

10 people found this helpful

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Randy Pennington

I read it again

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 18, 2009

First, the disclosure: Joe Calloway is a friend. That said, I bought this book when it appeared in 2005, and I read it again today. The principles in this book - which some will say are obviious - resonate more with me today than they did four years ago. The need to be Indispensible has gone way past "want to do" to become the "need to do" goal that will ensure your success and long-term viability. This book was definitely worth another read.
Randy G. Pennington
Author, Results Rule! Build a Culture that Blows the Competition Away

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

P. Rosser

Buy this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

I've read a lot of business books and find most of them to be over complicated and more focused on selling the author than on actually providing down to earth useful advice.

After reading the excellent Category of One I've been going back through Joe's catalogue and this was the last one on my list to read.

Like all Joe's books is really easy to understand with some great real world examples to support the concepts discussed.

For those looking for a 20 step guide to becoming an indispensable company to your customers, then this isn't for you as there is no such thing. If however you are looking for a book which will help you understand how other companies have become indispensable so you can work (yes work, there is no magic wand!) to make your own company the same, then you won't be disappointed.

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