August 13, 2010

About Ralph’s Book

Businesses often are started by entrepreneurs with an idea, a product or service, or an expertise. Many of them fail, not because the idea or product isn’t good, but because their attention is overwhelmingly directed internally – e.g., what goes into the product – when they should focus externally, always reminding themselves:

“It’s The Customer, Stupid!”

That’s the premise of Ralph Crosby’s new book, “It’s The Customer, Stupid! Lessons Learned in a Lifetime of Marketing.”

An organization’s success starts and ends with the customer, a lesson absorbed by the author on the front lines of small businesses he owned or operated, through the teachings of experts and mentors, and from years of strategic marketing for myriad clients at his own marketing agency. Those lessons are the foundation of this book, which covers the following:

• Knowing who is your customer.
• How to bond with your customer.
• Best practices in the customer-centric process.
• Sending the right message to the customer.
• How to handle one of your best customers – the media.
• Avoiding the myths of marketing.
• Customer engagement in the Internet age.
• New media + old media = The future of marketing.
• Learning from your marketing mistakes.

The author contends that if you are in business – for profit or nonprofit – you must focus on your customers, be they buyers, members, contributors, patients, clients, volunteers, subscribers, employees or any other persons whose satisfaction is key to the organization’s success.

Using examples and stories of both marketing success and failure, this book offers guidance on how to achieve that customer focus and satisfaction.

Read excerpts from the book. »