Book Review: Winning with Customers

By Elizabeth Macanufo 

May 2011

Do you wonder if your customers make more money doing business with you? If so, authors D. Keith Pigues (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, '93) and Jerry D. Alderman can help by taking a sports metaphor and running with it in their book Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B. From the initial "kickoff" to the "touchdown," Pigues and Alderman provide a playbook using real-life case studies for successful customer relationships.

Written with the current economic climate in mind, Pigues and Alderman incorporate charts and graphs throughout their book to illustrate their thoughts. To further ensure clarity, each chapter ends with a summary of the ideas presented.

Throughout the book, the premise remains focused on the end goal of increasing profits, realizing that business is indeed a competitive arena. Simply put, good customer service and creating value for customers will increase profits.

The authors begin by asking "Why We Lose." Identifying six reasons for failure, the two then proceed to define winning, providing six counterexamples for success. Chapter 3 introduces the Customer Value Creation Stadium, complete with a scoreboard, players and the end zone. Your team, the authors note, must include representatives from across the organization to execute plays that help you win - and win big with your customers.

Here, the authors outline the remainder of the book, or "The Playbook." Each "play" addresses one of the Big Six Ideas on how to win. The details of winning are discussed further in the following chapter, as metrics are assigned to determine mutual success for you and your customers.

Finally, it's time to get on the field! The first step to winning with your customers, the authors assert, is to know how they think. The first play, "Discover" offers a method to interview customers to understand their needs. The authors describe the process of preparing and conducting the interview. A case study of an interview is included in the chapter.

The authors also recommend capturing the resulting data. As they say, "customers are not used to anyone actually following up on this stuff. We guarantee that sending the customer a quality document that reflects the conversation, you will automatically be elevated to elite status in the listening field."

Capturing the data ensures that your business is accountable, which leads to the next play, Analyze. The authors suggest assembling the data, determining the scope of work, then identifying and assigning analysts. These analysts are internal candidates, who should be paired with technology to quickly analyze the data and implement the resulting decisions.