cover image The Must-Have Customer: 7 Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got

The Must-Have Customer: 7 Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got

Robert Gordman, with Armin Brott. . St. Martin's, $24.95 (310pp) ISBN 978-0-312-35169-4

Veteran business consultant Gordman believes success in business is simple: it's literally there for the asking. What he advises executives ask—and keep asking—are questions that help them understand what their company does well, what it could do better and what its competitors do that lures customers away. Of course, listening without bias and incorporating that feedback into a strategic plan also helps. Gordman has guided numerous companies, including IBM and Berkshire Hathaway, through the steps he discusses in this volume and through the lists of survey questions that he also shares. His seven steps are simple and scalable to any business. But as example after example illustrates—from Coca-Cola to JCPenney—most companies fail to employ them successfully and suffer the consequences as a result. Gordman's personal experience and obvious frustration with poor management practices will make the book compelling to the C-level managers for which it is intended. They are, after all, the individuals he blames for businesses' failure, asserting that companies do not die of natural causes, but from poor decision making that drives away profits, one customer at a time. (Apr.)