Competing for Customers

Business-to-business customer expectations have changed. To survive—and thrive—in today’s economy, where customers are constantly reevaluating their purchases and looking at options never available before, you need to deliver business outcomes, not features and functionality.   Suddenly, your “sale” is no longer a one-time event: it’s a relationship that demands continuous care and nurturing. You need to constantly deliver, measure, and demonstrate the value you create for your customers.   Like it or not, it’s your job to make sure your customers succeed—and keep on succeeding—with what you’ve sold them. That job has a name: “Customer Success.”   Delivering customer success means radically changing the way you engage with customers—from sales, to marketing, to engineering and support. This book gives you a complete framework for doing just that. Step by step, you’ll learn how to make sure your customers are achieving business outcomes from your offerings…now, next year, and for years to come.   Embed customer success in your organizational DNA, in 3 steps: Listen: Truly understand what it means for your customers to succeed with your offeringsEngage: Start a productive dialogue, collaborate to solve problems, and promote awareness of the value you createEnsure: Innovate to deliver on your promises, prove it to the customer, and build retention 

Jeb Dasteel holds the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Oracle. He is responsible for driving the relentless focus on customer success into all aspects of the Oracle business. Dasteel works across Oracle to deliver customer programs that continuously improve collaboration and attainment of customer business outcomes, value delivered, and loyalty. He has been with Oracle for 17 years in a number of corporate and field-based roles. Before joining Oracle in 1998, he worked as a management consultant at Gemini Consulting, helping Fortune 500 organizations define and implement business and IT strategies. Amir Hartman, Founder and Managing Director of Mainstay, is a leading authority on corporate and technology transformations, and works with customers to help develop and execute customer success strategies. He is an international best-selling author and has served on the Business School faculty at Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard Business School Interactive. A frequent speaker, he is the author of several influential books, most recently Ruthless Execution (2014). Prior to forming Mainstay, Amir served as Managing Director for Cisco System’s Corporate Internet Strategy and the Internet Business Solutions Group. In this role, he was responsible for shaping Cisco’s Internet business strategy and advising key customers on the same. Craig LeGrande recently coauthored Ruthless Execution (2014) and serves as a senior advisor to leading high-tech companies. As Founder and Managing Director of Mainstay, LeGrande leads a world-class team helping clients deliver customer success strategies, including innovative marketing and sales enablement capabilities. Before forming Mainstay, LeGrande worked in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group and Accenture’s Strategic Services and Technology Services Groups. He received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS in Electrical Engineering with Honors from the University of Florida—Go Gators!