One to One B2B

Imagine that you live in a city made of steel and woke up one morning to discover the entire city had been turned to glass. Everything that had been opaque would be transparent, everything sturdy would be fragile. One false move, even the slightest slip and — boom! — everything around you could shatter.

Nowhere does this frightening image seem more real than in the realm of business-to-business commerce, where the Internet is recasting and remodelling nearly every existing relationship.

Although consumer markets may have been first to launch Web-based, customer-centric initiatives, it is the business-to-business companies that have the most to gain. They also have the most to lose by doggedly sticking with outdated traditional market penetration strategies. In One to One B2B, marketing gurus Don Peppers and Martha Rogers argue persuasively that in the broad arena of business-to-business commerce, organizations will rise or fall on the basis of their abilities to cultivate one-to-one relationships with their customers.

In a series of richly detailed case studies, the authors paint vivid portraits of B2B organisations wrestling with front burner issues such as channel complexity, customer valuation, account development, sales force automation, knowledge-based selling and new modes of compensation. And they squarely tackle the question of how much technology is too much, arguing that one shouldn't ask, "How can you use technology to automate a relationship?" but, rather "How can you use technology to strengthen a relationship and make it valuable over time?"

• Foreword, by Geoffrey Moore
• Chapter 1: The Once and Future Business Strategy
• Chapter 2: The >Real Economy
• Chapter 3: Dell: The Automated Relationship
• Chapter 4: Bentley Systems: Preaching to the Choir
• Chapter 5: Convergys: Racing for the Best Clients
• Chapter 6: Novartis CP: Rediscovering the Customer
• Chapter 7: LifeWay: A Sense of Mission
• Chapter 8: Virtual B2B
• Chapter 9: Return to the Future

It pains me to say it, but this is a really good book.

Forget the hype, just read it!