The One to One B2B : Customer Relationship Management Strategies for the Real Economy (One to One)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: After reading many books about CRM/Marketing One-One, my opinion is this book has to be read as soon as possible. You might have read others like me but this one is a plus. Buy it, read it, apply it, let it pass 6 months, then read it again. Finally, post here how much it helped you. It includes pratical stuff (case studies) of leading companies (Dell, Convergys, etc). This book has to be seen as a complement to others previously written by same authors.

Rating:
Summary: CRM gurus take new approach to B-2-B relationships
Review: Don Peppers and Martha Rogers continue to prove their exceptional understanding of the possibilities of CRM. Their latest book does an excellent job of illustrating the practical execution of theoretical concepts in customer relations. The case studies are vivid descriptions of real-life situations, and are as exciting as they are informative. In general, the writing is a cut above that of a typical business book, which makes absorbing the information that much easier. A vital guide for those trying to understand CRM, or those who want to do it better.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy it - opt for "MANAGING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS"
Review: Having worked in line management with relationship marketing for many years, Peppers & Rogers have inspired my thinking on "One-to-One" tremendously. I believe that Peppers & Rogers' most important contribution is to change a company's focus from customer acquisition to customer retention. That is: Stop spending all your money getting new customers and start spending more on keeping and growing existing customers.

But if you have high expectations - like I had back in 2001 -, then this book on "B2B One-to-One" will be a huge disappointment. The real good stuff on one-to-one is all found in the first part of the book. But even that is merely a summary of their previously published material.

The case stories - being the bulk of this book - are not very inspiring (except perhaps the inevitable Dell Premier case). I cannot recommend you wasting your time on them. They were already of poor value when published in 2001.

The only real value of "B2B One-to-One" is provided in few charts as well as a small table on page 64 of the book. Curiously, the authors do not expand on the table's valuable content. If you have read some of the authors' previous publications, you'll already be familiar with their core concept of the IDIC-model (Identify-Differentiate-Interact-Customize):

Phase 1: IDENTIFY
What B2B firms typically do: Identify the most valuable customers by value. Know key contacts in the customer organization.
What B2B firms should do: Map all contacts in the customer organization. Map and remember every contact's influence on the buying process. Create a programme specifically targeting end-users.

Phase 2: DIFFERENTIATE
What B2B firms typically do: Treat different customers differently. Provide superb service levels to the most valuable customers. Differentiate reactively on customers' expressed needs.
What B2B firms should do: Rank customers by lifetime value and strategic value (most growable customers!). Develop strategies for unprofitable customers. Differentiate proactively the handling of different needs-based customer categories.

Phase 3: INTERACT
What B2B firms typically do: Keep interaction only via sales reps. Believe that sales reps will resist change towards sales automation or CRM initiatives because they see them as a threat. Restrict EDI to the largest customers.
What B2B firms should do: Remember interactions with the customer across all interaction points ... including the Internet. Compensate sales reps for reporting details on the customer interaction. Market the Internet as an alternative to EDI.

Phase 4: CUSTOMIZE
What B2B firms typically do: Customize products and services on request from the largest customers on an ad-hoc basis. Develop and execute account plans.
What B2B firms should do: Mass-customize products and services by modularizing the production, delivery, and services processes. Make a template for handling individual customers by using a needs-based segmentation on a routinely basis. Develop and execute specific customer strategies - including strategies for individual contacts within the customer organization.

For the insight provided by this table's content, I rate the book 2 stars.

I recommend that you buy Peppers & Rogers 2004-publication "MANAGING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS" instead. If you read my online review of that book, you'll see why.

Peppers & Rogers' "ONE TO ONE FIELDBOOK" (1999) is also highly recommended. It's a hands-on book with many checklists and inspiring tools for Monday morning. And it has a dual focus: Both B2C and B2B.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Rating:
Summary: Will Be A Classic
Review: Over the years, the Peppers and Rogers duo have made an outstanding contribution to the field of marketing and the process of developing relationships with customers. "One to One B2B" is yet another installment. This well-written book builds on their earlier works and does a great deal to define in a tangible fashion the new "customer relationship mentality" that is so essential for all organizations to consider in today's real economy. This book is thought-provoking and stimulating. It is evident that the authors who have pioneered the bulk of the original thinking underlying customer relationship management want to share their compelling philosophy. They are very convincing in citing numerous advantages that accrue to those who embrace their way of operating a business. And, this book seems to be committed to showing a straightforward, direct blueprint for implementation. The initial chapters of the book provide an updated version of the principles and philsophy found in their earlier works. These early chapters constitute a worthwhile review, but the also offer some different slants that are extremely valuable supplements. The later chapters are integral to the book's mission. The authors offer very detailed coverage of companies and organizations that have adopted the "one to one" way of doing business. The book provides detailed description in a case study format illustrating the steps of implementation and explaining the benefits associated with each implementation phase. In keeping with their well-established literary character, in the final section of their book Peppers and Rogers have an eye to the future they share with the reader. For example, they don't shy away from offering advice to Dell on future direction in light of the challenges posed by the current environment. And, they take time to weigh the eventual impact of a B2B world that is rapidly extending its scope, offering conjecture from their very informed perspectives. As an academician who has spent significant time studying the CRM movement and consulting with companies that embrace the same, this book definitely offers value and is a must read for anyone that is committed to preserving lasting customer relationships.

Rating:
Summary: Will Be A Classic
Review: Over the years, the Peppers and Rogers duo have made an outstanding contribution to the field of marketing and the process of developing relationships with customers. "One to One B2B" is yet another installment. This well-written book builds on their earlier works and does a great deal to define in a tangible fashion the new "customer relationship mentality" that is so essential for all organizations to consider in today's real economy. This book is thought-provoking and stimulating. It is evident that the authors who have pioneered the bulk of the original thinking underlying customer relationship management want to share their compelling philosophy. They are very convincing in citing numerous advantages that accrue to those who embrace their way of operating a business. And, this book seems to be committed to showing a straightforward, direct blueprint for implementation. The initial chapters of the book provide an updated version of the principles and philsophy found in their earlier works. These early chapters constitute a worthwhile review, but the also offer some different slants that are extremely valuable supplements. The later chapters are integral to the book's mission. The authors offer very detailed coverage of companies and organizations that have adopted the "one to one" way of doing business. The book provides detailed description in a case study format illustrating the steps of implementation and explaining the benefits associated with each implementation phase. In keeping with their well-established literary character, in the final section of their book Peppers and Rogers have an eye to the future they share with the reader. For example, they don't shy away from offering advice to Dell on future direction in light of the challenges posed by the current environment. And, they take time to weigh the eventual impact of a B2B world that is rapidly extending its scope, offering conjecture from their very informed perspectives. As an academician who has spent significant time studying the CRM movement and consulting with companies that embrace the same, this book definitely offers value and is a must read for anyone that is committed to preserving lasting customer relationships.

Rating:
Summary: Great Survival Handbook for CRM
Review: Peppers & Rogers are definitely the heavyweight champions of customer-centric marketing. This new book continues their odyssey from theory to practice. Each of the case studies are like mini-novels, complete with plot twists and cliff-hangers. For a business book, this is exceptionally well written and very accessible. It's a good read, for newcomers and experienced one-to-one marketers.

Peppers' & Rogers' stories are fresh and unique. Even the chapter about Dell reveals aspects of that company that are rarely discussed with outsiders. It's amazing that they were able to get such detail from companies that are usually tight-lipped about their CRM strategies. Worthwhile reading for managers who need to go beyond CRM hype and learn from the real, and sometimes painful, experiences of others. This book is well-researched and crisply written.

Rating:
Summary: Worth leaving work early to read
Review: This is an important new book on several levels. First and foremost, it is packed with details about how five organizations are working to build closer, more sustainable relationships with their customers. It offers far and away the most detailed, engrossing profile available of what it takes to accommodate the differences between each valuable customer.

Unlike past Peppers and Rogers books, this one focuses specifically on B2B relationships, which, as the authors point out, are unique in many ways: there are customers within customers, a few large customers tend to dominate, relationships are made complex by channel relationships, and there are often good reasons to invest in training your customers.

Perhaps because B2B relationships have so many facets, there's a startling amount of knowledge and insight in this book. This is not a book about theory, but rather one about the actual practice of relationship management. The authors are less strategists and more skilled reporters. It's surprising they got permission to reveal so much of these companies' internal efforts, but the results make must reading.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I've known Don and Martha a long time, and believe in wisdom of their ideas. But that hasn't stopped me from offering constructive criticism in the past. Not here. This is a great book, instantly valuable and worth leaving work early to read.

Rating:
Summary: So Obvious and Yet So Under-Appreciated
Review: Those who have already read any of Peppers and Rogers' previous books (The One to One Future, Enterprise One to One, The One to One Fieldbook with Bob Dorf, and The One to One Manager) no doubt share my high regard for their uniquely creative as well as highly analytical thinking about CRM within the global marketplace. They continue to draw upon an abundance of real-world experience. This book may well be their most important thus far. In it, they suggest and then explain a number of strategies to create and then sustain solid relationships with B2B customers. Even if your organization is not currently involved in such relationships, these same strategies can also be of substantial value. Once again, the authors' essential idea (hardly original, they realize) is that businesses as well as most other human communities (e.g. a political constituency, a religious following, a military force) share at least this in common: Each is built one believer at a time to serve mutual self-interests. In this sense, the term "B2B" is a misnomer because people do business with other people. (Rest assured, I fully understand the differences between and among B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.) Even when purchases are completed electronically, they are initiated and fulfilled by people. Goods are manufactured by people. Services are provided by people. And so forth.

Over the years, when customers have been asked to cross-rank attributes of greatest importance to them, "Feeling Appreciated" and "Convenience" or "Ease of Doing Business" are either #1 or #2. (Remarkably, "Price" is usually ranked between 9th and 14th in order of importance.) It is also worth noting that, as Peppers and Rogers carefully explain in this book, as new efficiencies are created by breakthrough technologies, the quality of one-to-one human interaction becomes even more important. They include five case studies, including one which examines the policies and procedures of Dell Computer. Somehow, they gained access to information which is probably otherwise unavailable, except to those involved in the Dell organization. Each of the case studies reads as if it were a one-act play. However different their "characters" and "plot" may be, all five companies are literally customer-driven. Their ultimate objective is not to achieve "customer satisfaction"; rather, as Jeffrey Gitomer and others have insisted, their ultimate objective is sustainable "customer loyalty" (indeed "customer passion"). Peppers and Rogers provide a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective system to achieve that objective. They would be the first to recommend that each reader make appropriate modifications of that system to accommodate the specific CRM needs, interests, and resources of her or his own organization.

Earlier, I suggested that this may well be the most important book Peppers and Rogers have written thus far. The system they provide in it is worthless, however, unless and until an organization involved in B2B is wholly committed (top to bottom) to doing everything possible to make each customer feel appreciated. One of the best strategies to accomplish that is to make doing business with it as convenient (as "easy") as possible.

Here's another key point. Based on my own extensive experience working closely with all manner of organizations, I have become convinced that organizations cannot be "customer-driven" unless they are first "employee/associate-driven." Those who feel mistreated cannot be expected to treat others well. Therefore, effective CRM depends almost entirely on the quality of relationships within a given organization...and each of them is also, inevitably, one-to-one.