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The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments

Robert Bloom | Resources > From the section: Book Reviews

September, 04, 2012 |

For the last several years I've argued, along with many others, that selling and marketing are changing rapidly because buyers are changing. No longer is the salesperson needed to educate the prospect; marketing is having an increasingly difficult time breaking through the noise to capture the prospect's attention. With the immense amount of information every prospect has at their fingertips, many times the prospect knows far more about their issues and potential solutions than the salesperson they're dealing with.

In this new marketplace the question becomes how do you gain the prospect's attention and then put your product or service in first position.

The New Experts by Robert H. Bloom Robert H. Bloom in The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments (Greenleaf Book Group Press: 2010) offers an answer to this problem. Bloom is the retired US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, a global marketing services company and advises companies on their business growth strategies.

Bloom argues that technology has empowered buyers and "ultimately {their} loyalty died" because of the immense number of choices they now have along with an enormous amount of detailed comparison information, along with the ability to purchase anytime, day or night, and from a growing number of vendors, all vying for their business.

Consumer loyalty, according to Bloom, is a thing of the past. In today's marketplace companies can no longer count on loyalty from their customers, but they can still become the preferred product or service by creating Customer Preference. Customer Preference does not guarantee a sale as there are other factors at work, but preference opens doors, allowing you to charge a bit higher price and still get the business, to not have the exact desired color and still get the sale, to not have the best product and still get the sale, and to not be the best known brand and still get the sale.

Creating Customer Preference involves giving the prospect a real or imagined benefit that is different from and more valuable to them than those given by your competitors.

Further, Bloom argues, there are 4 decisive moments when you can make your business 1st choice for the prospect:

The Now-or-Never Moment—the first brief contact with the prospect

The Make-or-Break Moment—during the transaction process

The Keep-or-Lose Moment—the period when the customer is using the product or service

The Multiplier Moment—the chance to convert a one-time user customer into a repeat customer and gain a customer advocate and referral

Becoming the preferred product or service need not be expensive and can be accomplished by any size company since consumers, both business and individual, no longer care about who they purchase from—big or small; local, national, or online; old-line established or new start-up—as long as they provide the sought after benefit.

The New Experts is a very interesting read and provides a thought provoking argument about not only how buyers are changing but how companies must respond to the change. As Bloom states at the beginning of the book, the root for change is beginning to think like a customer, not a seller. Once we begin to think like a customer we can begin to understand the change in the marketplace and how to deal with it—at each of the 4 decisive customer moments.

The New Experts is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, and all fine booksellers.

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