Rating: 
Summary: Required reading for execs
Review: As reviewed in our January 6, 2004 issue:Let's cut to the chase: This is the best book on sales we've read in many, many years. "CustomerCentric Selling" doesn't break new ground with sales tricks and techniques; rather, its strength is in the fact that it ties sales, marketing, and business imperatives together in a way that has the potential to turn conventional selling approaches on their collective ears. In fact, there's a bit of a paradox here: If you're a dyed-in-the-wool software sales rep with a quota to meet or beat, you may be disappointed in this book, because you won't find any magic bullets you can employ to meet your month-end number. If you are that beleaguered sales rep, you may even find yourself annoyed with Bosworth and Holland, because their message is that your obsession with quotas is misguided. That's easy for them to say, right? They don't have a sales VP banging them on the head every Monday morning. But that's exactly the point: If you're that rep, get your sales VP to read "CustomerCentric Selling" Better yet, get the company's CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, VP marketing, investors, and board of directors to read it. "CustomerCentric Selling" does such a superb job of outlining why people buy -- and when and from whom -- it should be required reading prior to the creation of any business plan. Yes, it has the word "selling" in the title, but this book is a really a business book more than it is a sales manual. Bosworth and Holland won't give you 15 clever opening lines for telesales, or 12 terrific PowerPoint templates. But they will help you understand what it is that you're selling, whom you should be selling it to, where you should find them, and how you can refine and manage the messaging as well as the sales process. In other words: Read this book when you're ready to stop screwing around. Read this book when you've realized that selling to early adopters isn't really selling, it's order-taking. Read this book if you're tired of acting as referee between marketing and sales. Although "CustomerCentric Selling" isn't written specifically to software people, the fact that the authors have spent most of their lives with technology companies permeates every page. Because it applies a sales perspective to Geof Moore's chasm concepts, the relevance for software companies is very high indeed.
Rating:
Summary: It's a great read
Review: I just got Customer Centric Selling in the mail and immediately started reading it and could not put it down. It's a GREAT read!
This book is a completely new way of looking at customer relationships. In essence you tell people how to make a meaningful connection. That's something very few people know how to do. Stop talking product features or customer benefits, start talking about real life situations that people can relate to. That discovery is so simple and yet so powerful. I also like the analogy with a jazz band and an orchestra. Only those who understand math can appreciate jazz and only those who architect relationships creatively can deliver a good riff.
I am proud of you and I appreciate your kind acknowledgments up front. You are a class act! I should not forget John in the process, I can see the rich synergies between the two of you. Your real life examples make this book very valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Long awaited & satisfies!
Review: I successfully relied on Mike Bosworth's methodology for decades as I sold "disruptive" technologies. Now a Sales and Marketing EVP, my staff, I and our customers are ready for a change. The people who make the buy decisions now, the motivations, and every stage of the process has shifted. Buyers are more savvy. This is both a plus (it's no longer disruptive technology, but core) and a negative (because they've been burned). These changes are met head-on in this book with practical advice that can be implemented immediately from my newbies to my seasoned reps and marketers. I'm making this text required reading for my whole staff. It helps us migrate from traditional marketing and selling to what works in today's more sophisticated environment.
Rating: 
Summary: Good stuff...but a hard read
Review: I've read all the top, 'usual suspect' sales books. Before reading CustomerCentric Selling, I was most impressed with Mastering the Complex Sale, by Jeff Thull. Mr. Thull has summarized current sales challenges in a very compelling and distinctive way. However Mike Bosworth demonstrates that he is the true thought-leader, the virtuoso in this field, and is most generous in providing a wealth of practical how to detail that isn't the case in Mr Thull's book. I work with a multi-billion dollar revenue vendor serving the bio-tech industry. I will be taking immediate action to bring Mr. Bosworth's CustomerCentric Selling organization in to assist with our sales & marketing processes.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic new approach!
Review: If you interact with others in the workplace and happen to be among the 90% of us who are not natural born (intuitive) salespeople, you need to read this book! Customer Centric Selling offers an abundance of new and useful ideas about how to work with others who make buying decisions. Unfortunately, these fundamental paradigms are unrecognized by most salespeople until they have many eureka moments by studying the concepts presented here. Bosworth and Holland have done a great service enabling a major step forward in the sales and buying professions by writing this book.
Customer Centric Selling goes beyond a promise that strong relationships with prospects will ultimately lead to sales success. Instead, the book describes how to be more selective in chosing better prospects. It explains how to focus energy on winnable accounts. Bosworth and Holland describe how to have a conversation that is of greater value to a prospect and as a consequence also to the salesperson. The book offers specific and useful methods for improving sales efficiency and effectiveness by helping prospects make better decisions. What is really cool is that all of these mutual benefits occur within a workplace where both parties are more comfortable, have more fun, and enjoy greater business success as a result. This is the ultimate win-win-win and win some more end result!
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing approach to complex sales
Review: In this book you can find a refreshing approach in order to create new opportunities to sell.
Showing how to detect the capabilities your current prospect needs in order to reach his goals you can advance in the sales process without the pain and stress that all profesional sales people suffer.
The steps that Customer Centric Selling offer can help you to clarify your real chances to close a deal and this way focus your time, efforts and resources in the prospect where you can add more value.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: It is refreshing to find a book that attempts to remove some the art and mystique that I have experienced in my sales career to date and replace it with structure and process. In the modern enterprise every aspect of business is subjected to process and 'best practice'. Sales is the lifeblood of any company but yet remains the most unstructured. Surely successful businesses of the future will address this issue. I have recently gone through the process of re-reading all the acknowledged heavyweights (SPIN, New Conceptual Selling etc) You can use elements of each of them to change the way that you approach your own sales situations. I would also highly recommend Jeff Thull's book.
Rating:
Summary: Diagnose Before You Prescribe
Review: The concepts contained in this book are not new. Their presentation, however, is. The authors outline why people buy -- and when and from whom. It should be required reading prior to the creation of any business plan. Although the word "selling" in the title, but this book more of a business manual is a really a business book more than it is a sales manual.
There are no clever opening lines, or guaranteed PowerPoint templates. If you spend time with the book you will gain much more-an understanding of what you sell, to whom you should be selling it and where to go to find them.If your managers read it, they will develop a new a concept of how to message and manage their sales process. Bosworth and Holland believe customer centric selling contains seven basic concepts:
1. Sales are based on conversations, not presentations.
2. Asking relevant questions versus rendering opinions.
3. Solutions rather than relationships earn buyers' respect.
4. Target businesspeople versus users.
5. Sell usage, not reliance.
6. Salespeople manage managers rather than needing to be managed.
7. Enable buyers rather than selling them. Managers and Salespeople who spent time with this book will add value to their organizations. If you are responsible for moving product, this book is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Diagnose Before You Prescribe
Review: The concepts contained in this book are not new. Their presentation, however, is. The authors outline why people buy -- and when and from whom. It should be required reading prior to the creation of any business plan. Although the word "selling" in the title, but this book more of a business manual is a really a business book more than it is a sales manual.
There are no clever opening lines, or guaranteed PowerPoint templates. If you spend time with the book you will gain much more-an understanding of what you sell, to whom you should be selling it and where to go to find them.If your managers read it, they will develop a new a concept of how to message and manage their sales process. Bosworth and Holland believe customer centric selling contains seven basic concepts:
1.Sales are based on conversations, not presentations.
2.Asking relevant questions versus rendering opinions.
3.Solutions rather than relationships earn buyers' respect.
4.Target businesspeople versus users.
5.Sell usage, not reliance.
6.Salespeople manage managers rather than needing to be managed.
7.Enable buyers rather than selling them. Managers and Salespeople who spent time with this book will add value to their organizations. If you are responsible for moving product, this book is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: This is an interesting, useful guide to selling a non-traditional way. Many companies, especially in high-technology industries, build their sales effort around early adopters. But early adopters are a minority of the market and their needs and preferences are distinct from those of the mainstream. To adjust their sales effort to the mainstream majority of the market, companies must listen to their audience. Instead of building sales messages around products, they need to build their sales communications and their sales process around customer needs and preferences. Customer-centric selling begins in the earliest stages of marketing and proceeds through the final sale. Authors Michael T. Bosworth and John R. Holland clearly set forth the nature of customer-centric selling and provide a comprehensive guide. We recommend this worthwhile addition to any salesperson's bookshelf.
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