IN THE PRESS

Your four opportunities to capture customers who no longer care where they buy: The Four Decisive Customer Moments
The European Business Review

Today, sellers live in a virtual glass houses – they are stripped naked by social media, vulnerable to the attitudes, positive and negative, of the “new experts.”

In 2010, customers discovered that loyalty is no longer in their best interest. Why did this profound transformation occur at this moment in time?

The answer is a single word: change.
The velocity of today’s change is almost unfathomable.
The changes in our world are no longer easy to predict.
All businesses are or will be affected, most quite severely, by these rapid and seemingly unpredictable changes. Read More >

 

Take-Home Value
YPO-WPO

In each newsletter we ask a recommended resource to provide relevant content for YPO-WPO members. Here, Robert Bloom, author of "The Inside Advantage & The New Experts," talks about how “The Business World Has Changed Forever.”

Most business leaders believe that their current unsatisfactory financial performance is a result of today’s harsh economic conditions. This challenge, while severe, is masking a far more serious and enduring problem, perhaps the most difficult our business world has ever encountered: The radical change in customer behavior. Buyers, not sellers, are now in control of almost all financial transactions. As a result, buyers no longer care where or from whom they buy! Two alarming examples — only 20% of car buyers are brand loyal and only 36% of business travelers are brand loyal. Read More >

 

Change Will Not Wait for You to Change
American Management Association

Globalization, technology, and economic turmoil are driving change in every business sector at a velocity never before experienced.

Of course, many readers are already familiar with this destructive reality because their firms are suffering from its effects.

However, all-too-many business leaders and directors are not yet:
—acknowledging the threat of this unprecedented velocity of change
—confronting this era of enduring change with a sense of urgency
—anticipating and planning for the profound changes most likely to influence their category and company in the immediate future. Read More >

 

A Next Generation QR Code Will Revolutionize m-commerce
Overdrive

A next generation QR Code will revolutionize m-commerceThe QR code is now enjoying remarkable success in Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea.

Although, the rest of the world – including the Euro Zone and North America – has been slow to adopt it, during the last six months of 2010, scanning of the QR code increased 1,200 percent in North America (Mobio Identity Systems Inc., Mobile Commerce Daily). Read More >

Commoditization is Today’s Threat To Your Business
ChiefExecutive.net

If you want to take your business to the next level, you must generate and sustain growth in a marketplace that is suffering from the convergence of globalization and overabundance. Moreover, these powerful twin forces are driving commoditization in every business sector.

Worldwide competition and excess choice gave customers vastly expanded options in every commercial sector and motivated them to shop more, buy more, and haggle more. Read More >

Four essential steps for acquiring and retaining today's connected customer
Retail Customer Experience

You are an aggressive, successful retailer. You have extensive experience in your category. Customers are your highest priority.

Yesterday, this was enough to assure your continued success. But today, it's not.

Globalization and technology are transforming retail customers at a velocity never before experienced. This is why your store or brand is exposed to a profound change in your customers' buying behavior and why this change will intensify at a rapid pace.

This is why the purchasing habits of online retail customers and offline retail customers are now identical. Today's customers do their homework online whether they buy from a site or a store. Read More >



Bloom Discusses Planned AT&T, T-Mobile Merger
Bloomberg



March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Bloom, author of "The New Experts" and former chief executive officer of Publicis Worldwide, talks about AT&T Inc.'s agreement to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in cash and stock to create America's largest mobile-phone company. Bloom talks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg) Read More >

How To Sell To "The New Experts"
TheStreet TV


Robert Bloom, author of The New Experts, discusses how the internet has changed the purchasing behavior of buyers and what sellers can do about it. Read More >

1-on-1: Make Them Want You
Success Magazine

In the absence of brand loyalty, you've got to use your inside advantage to make the sale.

Robert Bloom built his career by developing successful sales and marketing solutions for some of the world’s biggest brands. As the CEO of Publicis Worldwide, he helped create and implement growth strategies for companies such as BMW, L’Oréal, Nestlé and TGI Friday’s. In addition to consulting for businesses of all sizes, he directed the launch of brands that went on to become household names—Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile USA and Theraflu.

“When I retired from being CEO of Publicis, I had no intention of writing a book,” Bloom says. But as a student of trends and a business consultant, he noticed two things: Technology had changed the way businesses and customers interacted, and existing books didn’t offer satisfactory strategies for dealing with newly empowered buyers. Bloom set out to define the problems facing business leaders and to provide solutions. “I wanted to simplify the complex and to make the answers universal so that any business leader can apply them to his business immediately,” he says. Read More >

The Five Most Serious Challenges for CEOs in 2011
Chief Executive

Be prepared to experience another year of unprecedented high unemployment and slow-or-no growth.

The next 12 months will be particularly difficult for businesses of every type, size, and location because:

• Customer loyalty, long in decline, has virtually disappeared:
In 2009, only 36 percent of business travelers were brand loyal, compared to 42 percent in 2007 and only 20 percent of US car buyers were brand loyal, compared to 80 percent in the 1980s. (New York Times, December 1, 2009; October 20, 2009).
• Customer buying behavior has been irreversibly transformed by technology:
There is no longer a difference in the purchase behavior of "online customers" and "offline customers". Most of today's prospective customers are addicted to sites that instantly compare choice, availability, quality, service, and the most dangerous comparison of all – price. These customers are a generation of "new experts" - confident and determined because they are equipped with purchasing firepower unavailable to any previous generation.

What follows are the five most serious challenges of 2011 and the practical ways that CEOs can combat the damaging effects of each on their financial performance. All five challenges focus on the single most valuable corporate asset - customers. Read More >

The New Bull Run, Profiting From Volatility, "The New Experts"
TheStreet

Guests include Jason Thomas, chief investment officer at Aspiriant, Rob Steele, president of Bishop Asset Management and Robert Bloom, author of "The New Experts" Listen >

Another Great Business Book From Bob Bloom!
Stopwatch Marketing

Bob Bloom, formerly the U. S. chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, has come up with another outstanding business book. Another, as I blogged when reviewing his first book, The Inside Advantage: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business, in 2008 that is just as good as Stopwatch Marketing!

The new book is titled The New Experts, Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments.

The first part of Bob’s book is descriptive: The problem, he says, is that customers, armed with limitless information and the technology to compare features, benefits, prices, etc., display absolutely NO LOYALTY any more. I can vouch for this, as I’m sure too many businesspeople can: No matter how hard you (and your firm, of course) have worked over the years with the expressed purpose of creating loyalty among customers, sooner or later you get disappointed. And disappointed at increasingly alarming rate. I recently spoke with a friend at a major ad agency whose big client relationship is very much at risk. He had data: “The average relationship last six years. We’ve already beaten that.” Think of it: They have quantified the lack of loyalty!

The second, more interesting part, is prescriptive: Bob offers up a time-based set of 4 Decisive Customer Moments. (Longtime readers of this blog and Stopwatch Marketing will, of course, understand my immediate attraction to anything that is A) about marketing, B) time-based, and C) breaks things into four parts (quadrants, in Stopwatch Marketing). Bob’s 4 Decisive Moments are, perhaps, more practical for a quick read than ours... Read More >

 

The CEO's New Role in an Era of Unprecedented Change
Chief Executive

CEOs who want to take their firms to the next level can benefit from understanding the management disciplines that exceptionally successful business leaders employ to keep their firms ahead of competition. This article identifies four CEOs who have more in common than meteoric success and iconic status — they have ways of thinking and working that are applicable to businesses of every type and size.

Procter & Gamble decides to sell directly to consumers on the internet.

"I don't feel the need to have every sale go through a retailer," commented P&G President and CEO, Robert McDonald. McDonald and former CEO AG Lafley agree that P&G must always be where the consumer wants to shop. (FT, 5/20/10)

Italy's Fiat, marketer of Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ferrari, Maserati and Fiat, reported a net loss of €2 billion in 2002.

Soon after, Sergio Marchionne was named CEO of Fiat Auto. In 2007, Fiat launched the brilliantly cool Cinquecento (500), European "Car of the Year," that encourages buyers to co-design on the internet. That same year, the firm reported all-time high trading profits. In 2010, Marchionne, now CEO of Fiat Group, announced "the creation of a global automotive firm that will incorporate Chrysler." (IHT, 7/22/10) Read More >

 

Know Your Customer
smart CEO

Like many CEOs, Larry Weinberg thought he knew his customer base – and was marketing to it correctly. His award-winning company, BOWA, which for 22 yars has built and remodeled luxury homes in the Washington, DC, area, considered its main customer the architects who were doing design work on a home and needed a builder's help on the job. "Yet early last year," says Weinberg, "we realized we were marketing to the wrong people." Read More >

 

Build and Maintain Customer Loyalty
ABC News

Book Talk: Win Over Your Customers
Bold Business

Most business leaders believe that their current unsatisfactory financial performance is chiefly a result of the recent and current harsh economic realities and the birth of powerful new global competitors. These problems, while severe, are masking a far more enduring problem.

Many companies will not thrive—or survive—in the coming years because all businesses are suffering from a more serious and enduring problem that has hidden beneath our former prosperity and our current troubles.This problem—namely, the upheaval in the fundamental buyer-seller equation—was concealed by the recent boom years during which sellers could sell anything to buyers who were eager to buy everything they could, or as it turned out could not, afford. The excesses of yesterday—irrational investments, extravagant lifestyles, unwarranted business expansion, and abundant financial results—obscured the emergence of the buyer’s newfound power and authority. Businesses—every size and type—have been, are now, and will continue to be impacted by this monumental revolution in buyer behavior. Read More >

 

"The New Experts: Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers" gives four critical decision points that can make or break a sale
Business Journal

Author Robert Bloom, the retired U.S. CEO of Publicis Worldwide, a global advertising and marketing communications firm, delivers this message: In the real world or the digital one, people-to-people communication is the most powerful voice in marketing. Sales and marketing cannot ignore that prospects and customers talk to each other about your products and services. When you’re selling, think like a buyer not a seller. Read More >

 

Books in Review: Customer Centricism Explained
Chief Executive

Robert Bloom, retired U.S. CEO of Publicis Worldwide and author of The Inside Advantage, believes there has been a profound shift in the buyer-seller equation. His premise is that "buyers no longer care who they buy from." His simple explanation is that technology has allowed buyers to take control. They have become their own experts in the decision process.

The internet now represents the confluence of technology and choice. Buying is easier, faster, simpler, and cheaper. In addition, Facebook and Twitter connects millions of customers with millions of sellers, and millions of sellers with millions of customers – in real time. These networks allow customers to collaborate and share reactions further enabling them to be more demanding and forthcoming with their changing requirements. And powerful software applications for mobile devices like the iPhone are making it easy for bargain- hunting consumers to see if another retailer is offering a better deal. Read More >

 

Win Today’s Empowered Customers: Discover Their Four Decisive Purchasing Moments
American Management Association

“Customer loyalty,” long in decline, has virtually disappeared. Here are just two startling examples of this fundamental alteration in customer behavior:

• In 2009, only 20% of car buyers were brand loyal, compared to 80% in the 1980s, according to CNW Marketing Research.
• In 2009, only 36% of business travelers claimed that they were brand loyal, compared to 42% in 2007, according to Forrester Research.

Today’s customers no longer care where or from whom they buy—they are a new generation of aggressive, internet-empowered customers—they are the “new experts.” Read More >

 

Be aware of your hidden assets
Business with The Wall Street Journal

"THIS week, I sat in an adjoining booth to Woody Allen in an upper east side diner on Madison Avenue in New York City.

However, I didn't twig until his companion started to leave.

The experience underlined a lesson that many in business have to learn, that we often don't see opportunities that stare us in the face.

The irony of this chance encounter was that at the time, we were sitting with friends in the diner discussing trivial subjects that had been magnified in importance, Woody Allen-style.

The same happens in millions of businesses around the world every day. Robert H. Bloom, the former chief executive of the giant advertising group Publicis Worldwide, explains it succinctly in his book The Inside Advantage.

Bloom was not just an agency chief executive, he helped build a family business that started in Texas and grew into one of the most influential advertising businesses in the world." Read More >

 

The New Experts by Robert H. Bloom - Book review
Blog Business World

"Buyers no longer who they buy from", writes former US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, and widely respected authority on business strategy Robert H. Bloom, in his visionary and results oriented book The New Experts Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments. The author describes the revolution that has been taking place in buyer behavior that has placed the customer in control of the marketplace.

Robert Bloom attributes to this massive transformation of the relationship between buyer and seller to the power of the internet. Online technology has facilitated the empowering of consumers to exercise control of the transaction. A potential customer has the power, at the click of a mouse, to move the purchasing decision to another seller. The author points out that this massive and fundamental change has gone relatively unnoticed because of the strong economy of the past decades. Unfortunately for complacent marketers, those days of easy and effortless sales are now long gone. These confident new buyers are described by the author as "the new experts", and they present a challenge to sellers that must be addressed if the company is to survive. Read More >

Four moments that should not be missed
Blog Business World

Former US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, and widely respected authority on business strategy Robert H. Bloom, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about his visionary and results oriented book The New Experts Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments.

Robert H. Bloom describes the revolution that has been taking place in buyer behavior that has placed the customer in control of the marketplace.

Thanks to Robert Bloom for his time, and for his interesting and thought provoking answers. Read More >

Four moments that should not be missed
The Hindu

"When economy recovers – or, if you are among those business leaders who think that the global crisis is already behind us – it may be natural to heave a sigh of relief that the worst is over and that henceforth financial performance should be okay.

Wait, you may have to keep your seatbelts fastened, because ‘many companies will not thrive – or survive – in the coming years because all businesses are suffering from a more serious and enduring problem that has hidden beneath our former prosperity and our current troubles,’ cautions Robert H. Bloom in ‘The New Experts’ (www.gbgpress.com).

That problem, he finds, is the upheaval in the fundamental buyer-seller equation, something that remained concealed during the boom years during which sellers could sell anything to buyers who were eager to buy everything they could – or, as it turned out, could not – afford. “The excesses of yesterday – irrational investments, extravagant lifestyles, unwarranted business expansion, and abundant financial results – obscured the emergence of the buyer’s newfound power and authority.” Read More >

Court Those Customers
Investor’s Business Daily

"...Show proper respect. With virtually unlimited information at their fingertips, today's consumers are savvier — and more fickle — than ever. So says Robert Bloom, author of 'The New Experts.'

'Brand loyalty is virtually dead today,' he said. 'If you move that up only a small decimal point, it's huge.'

Treat sales prospects like they're worth pursuing. 'How you approach your customer is fundamental to your success,' Bloom said. 'It must be very personal.'

• Be their hero. Want to sweep clients off their feet? Don't think about what you have to offer. Zero in on what they need. 'If you know your customer's 3 a.m. nightmare, you can provide a solution,' Bloom said. 'What the customer is looking for is a solution.'" Read More >

 

The Common Sense of Business Growth
Inland Empire Business Journal

The Simple Truth of Growth: Common sense will more-likely-than-not translate into business success.

The best way to expand the size, scope, and profits of your business is to grow it from the inside, capitalizing on strengths that already exist within your company or brand.

Generating growth by doing what you are good at and doing it better than anyone else is common sense. It works because you are leveraging something you already own—profiting from your company’s Inside Advantage. Read More >

 

mint BOOK REVIEWS
live mint

A respected strategist explains why sales and service require a 'customer-centric' approach. Read More >

 

Customer Loyalty is Dead According to Publicis Worldwide Former Chairman Bob Bloom
The Advertising Show

Co-hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray Schilens interview Robert H. bloom is a widely respected authority on business growth and the author of The Inside Advantage: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business (McGraw-Hill, 2007.) Bloom advises firms of every type and size on their growth strategies.

As U.S. Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, the centerpiece of the $4.6 billion global marketing services company, he helped craft and implement growth strategies of some of the world’s largest companies and brands, including BMW, L’Oreal, Nestle, Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, and Novartis’ Teraflu and Triaminic. As an entrepreneur, he grew an advertising agency into a successful national business. Read More >

 

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

This book delivers a practical strategy for recruiting & retaining today's seller-agnostic customers. Who are these 'new experts'? A generation of ruthless customers empowered by three lethal weapons: instant access to information, immense choice, and real-time price comparison. This visionary book by Robert Bloom, a veteran CEO and respected authority on business strategy, tells readers how to win customers who no longer care where they buy. It explains how to give customers what they want when it matters most to them - at their 4 Decisive Moments during the purchase progression: the Now-or-Never Moment, Make-or-Break Moment, Keep-or-Lose Moment, and the highly profitable Multiplier Moment. Read More >

Empowered Customers Discover their four decisive moments.
Sales & Service Excellence

THE SERVICE SECTOR IS THE most vulnerable segment in business because it has more customer touch points. Companies that make their living providing service must deliver that service more consistently and at a higher standard. Of course, you already know this because you live it every day. However, you may not recognize the full extent of change in customer purchasing behavior nor realize how much this change is damaging your bottom line. The transformation in customer purchasing is radical, irreversible, and permanent. Read More >

Bloom Says Apple CEO Jobs Should `Continue to Do Cool'
Bloomberg

Robert Bloom, author of "The New Experts" and former chief executive officer of Publicis Worldwide, talks about Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs and the outlook for the company. Bloom also discuses the U.S. automobile industry and Facebook Inc. He talks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." Read More >

 

 

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

"Robert Bloom, a veteran CEO and respected authority on business strategy, tells readers how to win customers who no longer care where they buy. It explains how to give customers what they want when it matters most to them - at their 4 Decisive Moments during the purchase progression: the Now-or-Never Moment, Make-or-Break Moment, Keep-or-Lose Moment, and the highly profitable Multiplier Moment. The book turns today's most serious business challenge into a business-building advantage by providing a no- or low-cost solution to reduce costly customer churn and increase profitable customer conversion, retention, and referral." Read More >

“The New Experts” are in Control of Your Bottom Line
Entrepreneur & Self-Employed Business Journal

In today’s marketplace, the buyer’s are in control.

This is the opening sentiment in Robert H. Bloom’s book, The New Experts. Once we recover from the initial sting of that statement, however, Bloom explains how this market shift occurred, and how businesses of all types and sizes can win customers by delivering what they want most during what he refers to as the “4 Decisive Moments” of the purchase progression. Read More >

 

The Advertising Show

This week's featured guest on The Advertising Show is Robert Bloom, author of THE NEW EXPERTS. The Advertising Show is America's only globally distributed weekly program focusing on advertising, media, branding and marketing. 

The Advertising Show is sponsored by Advertising Age Magazine. You can listen to a live webcast of Robert’s interview on Sunday, November 28th starting at 5 p.m. E.T (2 p.m. Pacific Time). 

This week's appearance by Robert will be archived and available 24/7 through our Apple iTunes page and at http:///www.theadvertisingshow.com. You may also access the show directly here beginning Monday, November 29th.

 

Customer Loyalty Is Dead - Your Four Opportunities To Capture Customers Who No Longer Care Where They Buy
brandchannel

In 2010, customers discovered that loyalty is no longer in their best interest. Here’s why:

• Customers are empowered by unlimited access to information on the internet.
• Customers are emboldened by unlimited choice in every category.
• Customers are armed with the ability to compare competitive prices on smart phones at point of sale.
• Customers are enthralled by the ability to trash sellers on social media seconds after a poor purchase experience. Read More >

 

Customer Loyalty – Gone (Insight From Robert Bloom’s The New Experts)
First Friday Book Synopsis

Robert Bloom, marketing guru, has a new book about The New Experts. And who are those new experts? You are – the buyer. The buyer is now in control. And this is a genuine change in the way business is conducted.

The book is filled with quotes describing this no longer changing, but now-changed, environment. Read More >

Make Your Business 1st Choice at Four Decisive Customer Moments
StrategyDriven

Throughout the history of buying and selling, purchase has been a challenging experience for both buyers and sellers because purchase is a lengthy progression with three phases: consideration, negotiation, and transaction.

Buyers have always been in control of their consideration phase and sellers have always been in control of negotiation and transaction because they “owned” every bit of valuable information relevant to the purchase. Today’s buyers, no longer dependent on sellers’ information, have taken control of the entire selling progression including negotiation and transaction. Read More >

 

Book Review: The New Experts: Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments
Sales and Sales Management Blog

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. Read More >

 

Book Offer: "The New Experts" by Robert H. Bloom
MarketingSherpa

Who are the 'new experts'? A generation of ruthless customers empowered by three lethal weapons: instant access to information, immense choice, and real-time price comparison. This visionary book by Robert Bloom, a veteran CEO and respected authority on business strategy, tells readers how to win customers who no longer care where they buy. It explains how to give customers what they want when it matters most to them - at their 4 Decisive Moments during the purchase progression: the Now-or-Never Moment, Make-or-Break Moment, Keep-or-Lose Moment, and the highly profitable Multiplier Moment.

This book turns today's most serious business challenge into a business-building advantage by providing a no- or low-cost solution to reduce costly customer churn and increase profitable customer conversion, retention, and referral. Read More >

 

BizEd

Much has been written about how technology and social media have changed the retail game. Customers can surf the Web to find the best prices on any product and post their praise and complaints on Facebook. These are The New Experts, says business strategist Robert H. Bloom, and they have no brand loyalty. Sellers must woo them by offering benefits that will win consumers' preference even when other options are available. "Sellers do not have to build their brand to create preference; they have to build the benefit their brand stands for," writes Bloom. And they have to deliver that benefit consistently – in-store or online – or customers will look for it somewhere else. Bloom's book is easy to read, to the point, and focused on one key lesson: Today's buyers have all the power. Sellers must become buyer-centric or close up shop.

Interview - GUEST: Robert Bloom
Jim Blasingame - The Small Business Advocate

TOPIC: When did your customers become the experts? Roberts Bloom joins Jim Blasingame reveals that your customers are increasingly becoming experts on what they want and what you sell, and how your business must be prepared to connect and serve these experts.

 

Books
dallasnews

Robert Bloom, the retired U.S. CEO of Publicis Worldwide, delivers this message: In the real world or the digital one, people-to-people communication is the most powerful voice in marketing. He identifies four decisive moments that influence a buyer's decision:

Now or never: It's the prospective buyer's first contact with your business. Regardless of how prospects heard about you, your website is their fastest way to gather informa- tion now. If the homepage confuses rather than simplifies their search, you're just one click away from never. Read more >

Decisive Points of Customer Contact
The Engaging Brand Blog

Bob Bloom, a widely respected authority on business growth joins Anna Farmery on The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about his new book The New Experts

• How buyers may own the purchasing process but sellers can still influence the purchase.
• How consumers think about brands
• Is there too much choice for consumers? Read more >

 

The Manufacturer's World Has Changed Forever
IndustryWeek

Today's aggressive, techno-savvy customers are armed with purchasing firepower unavailable to any previous generation, and they use three lethal weapons to secure the benefits they seek and satisfy their intense need to win. Read more >

The bookshelf
KansasCity.com

Subtitled “Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments,” this book says it is increasingly important to catch and hold customers on initial contact with the company, in the sales pitch and negotiation stage, after the initial sale, and when they might talk up the product or service to others. All this is tougher than ever, the author says, because consumers have so much access to information. Read More >

Make Your Business First Choice At Four Decisive
Customer Moments
Daily Biz Solutions

"Business success is possible only if marketers and sellers can persuade these highly informed, techno-savvy, assertive customers of every age, gender, and income to buy from them, and that is becoming increasingly difficult to do. In THE NEW EXPERTS, Bloom focuses entirely on this serious challenge to businesses of all types and sizes. He identifies the 4 Decisive Customer Moments that influence the outcome of any potential sales transaction and shows companies how they can create Customer Preference – the fundamental differentiator in the new brand-agnostic world. Bloom’s solution enables businesses to win customers by delivering to them what they want most, when they want it – at each of the 4 Decisive Moments." Read More >

 

How to be first choice at the four decisive customer moments
MyCustomer.com

"Throughout the history of buying and selling, purchase has been a challenging experience for both buyers and sellers because purchase is a lengthy progression with three phases: consideration, negotiation, and transaction.

Buyers have always been in control of their consideration phase and sellers have always been in control of negotiation and transaction because they 'owned' every bit of valuable information relevant to the purchase. Today’s buyers, no longer dependent on sellers’ information, have taken control of the entire selling progression including negotiation and transaction." Read More >

The Investment Edge - The Old Stink Of Condescension
Life Insurance Selling

"Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit — the Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization, by Lenoardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon (Amacom, 2010).

These folks know their stuff. The information about how to handle customer complaints alone is worth the price of the book. The authors ask, “Who should handle customer complaints?” The answer? Everyone. The whole section on customer complaints is top-notch.

How about this? The way to build excellence and create loyal customers is to deliver anticipatory service. That’s right. We need to figure out what customers need and want in advance." Read More >

Directors interview on 'Responsible Leadership' with Robert H. Bloom - retired CEO of Publicis Worldwide and author of The Inside Advantage and soon to be released The New Experts
totaleXec

"Yesterday I interviewed Robert 'Bob' Bloom. You may know Bob as the now retired CEO of Publicis Worldwide which was built to a $4.6billion+ business under Bob's leadership.

Currently Bob is at his Italian home and doing some traveling in Europe before his return to the publication launch of his new book ' The New Experts' in the US on September 7th.

I read Bob's book and found it an interesting read that ties in very much with the services Total Executive offer in the digital communications arena. Though let me provide the review below as what I found highly engaging in my conversation with Bob was the subject of 'Responsible Leadership' - highly relevant with Total Exec's July newsletter that will go out this week." Read More >

More Wisdom From Bob Bloom
The Growth Guy

"Author of my favorite "how to" book on strategy, the Inside Advantage; Bob has a new book out entitled The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments. Grab a copy now from his website (it's not available on Amazon until this Sept). He was kind enough to give everyone that attended the Fortune Sales & Marketing Summit a free copy (thanks Bob). And his half-day workshop with Chris Bryant rocked, scoring almost perfect 10's. If your strategy needs fine-tuned or totally revamped give Bob a call." Read More >

Opinion: 'New retail experts' are here to stay
Retail Customer Experience

"In this new generation of Internet-empowered, seller-agnostic customers, retail is the most vulnerable business sector because it has a multitude of critical customer touch points. Retailers of every size, type, and location must urgently confront the radically changed purchasing behavior of these aggressive, often-ruthless customers.

Today’s techno-savvy customers are armed with purchasing firepower unavailable to any previous generation — they use three lethal weapons to secure the benefits they seek and satisfy their intense need to win:

• Instant, comprehensive information from the Internet about all products and services sold at retail — online and offline
• Immense choice in every segment of retail — a wide variety of options and prices in every local community and from every corner of the world
• Real-time price comparison at the moment and location of purchase on smarter-and-smarter technology and newer-and-newer apps on their now-ubiquitous mobile devices" Read More >

 

Winning over empowered customers
Canadian Pizza

September 22, 2010 - The service sector is the most vulnerable segment in the business world because it has more customer touch points than other kinds of business. Companies that make their living providing service must deliver that service more consistently and at a higher standard than other kinds of firms. Of course, you already know this because you live it every day. However, you may not recognize the full extent of change in customer purchasing behavior nor realize how much this change is damaging your bottom line. Read More >

 

Think Like Your Buyers
Baldridge.com

"In the 1980s, four out of five American car buyers were loyal to the company that manufactured their brand. I remember growing up in a Chevy family and we had friends who were Ford people and we were as loyal to our car brand as we were to our religion.

In 2009, only one in five Americans was loyal to the same car brand.

In “The Manufacturer’s World Has Changed Forever” (IndustryWeek, July 14, 2010), Robert Bloom provides this contrast in customer loyalty to point out that the purchasing behavior of customers has changed, which is old news to any company that’s managed to keep its head above water the last two years, but his case study is interesting. Italy’s Fiat Auto reported a net loss of nearly two billion euros in 2002 and experts thought it would not survive. In 2008, it reported a trading profit of more than 1.1 billion euros—a three billion euro turnaround in six years.

How did Fiat Auto do it? Bloom lists several key actions:

• Terminated a failing venture with General Motors to gain full decision-making autonomy
• Eliminated an entire floor of executives to reduce costs and bureaucracy
• Cut Fiat’s product development time in half to get products to market quickly
• Reorganized and re-energized its dealer organization to assure sell-through
• Redesigned every Fiat product to create Customer Preference for the Fiat brand and products"

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Selling to the Tough 'New Experts'- Customers Empowered by the Internet
Small Business Digest

"An unprecedented transformation has occurred. For the first time ever, Internet-empowered customers – aka the “New Experts” – are in control.

They are armed with three lethal weapons:

• Instant access to information about all products and services,
• Immense choice in every consumer and industrial category, and
• Real-time price comparison on now-ubiquitous, apps-loaded mobile devices.

These “New Experts” no longer care where or from whom they buy. “Today’s confident, intensely aggressive buyers have taken control of the entire purchase progression. This is the most dangerous situation that business leaders have ever experienced,” says Robert Bloom, former U.S. Chairman & CEO of Publicis Worldwide and author of The New Experts: Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers at Their Four Decisive Moments (Greenleaf Book Group Press, September 2010).

Business success is possible only if marketers and sellers can persuade these highly informed, techno-savvy, assertive customers of every age, gender and income to buy from them, and that is becoming increasingly difficult to do. In The New Experts, Bloom focuses entirely on this serious challenge to businesses of all types and sizes. He identifies the Four Decisive Customer Moments that influence the outcome of any potential sales transaction and shows companies how they can create Customer Preference – the fundamental differentiator in the new brand-agnostic world. Bloom’s solution enables businesses to win customers by delivering to them what they want most, when they want it – at each of the Four Decisive Moments." Read More >

Finding Success When Your Clients Are 'The New Experts'
The Weekly Book Scan

"Instant gratification. That’s the solution to winning customers in a marketplace saturated with competition, says Robert Bloom in his book The New Experts (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2010; $18.95 hardcover). In a time when wireless Internet and mobile apps make it quicker and easier for consumers to compare options and make informed purchasing decisions, Bloom says the key to standing out in the marketplace (and the webosphere) is satisfying the needs of these “new experts” at four stages, giving them what they want, when they want it." Read More >

 

The customers’ 4 decisive moments
Association Of Imaging Executives

Robert H. Bloom is CEO of Publicis Worldwide and author of The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers At Their 4 Decisive Moments. On today's episode of the Imaging Executive podcast, Bloom explains what those four key decisive moments are, and how businesses can win customers by delivering what they want most, when they want it. Read More >

 

Win Today's Empowered Customers by Discovering Their Four Decisive Purchasing Moments
Centre

Of course, you've noticed that your customers' purchase behavior is a great deal different today. However, you may not recognize the full extent of this change or realize how much this change is damaging your bottom line. Here is the reality - the transformation in customer purchasing behavior is immense, irreversible, and permanent. Read More >

The New Experts
On Internet Business

"In May I had the great pleasure of hearing Robert ‘Bob’ H Bloom speak – since then, I’ve been lucky enough to read his excellent book, The New Experts.

The central premise of his book is that, owing to the internet, buyer behaviour has changed completely. It’s a detailed exploration of how the relationship between business and customer has changed and what makes consumers into the ‘new experts’

Essentially, internet-empowered buyers have four lethal weapons that they can use:

1. instant access to information about a potential purchase
2. almost unlimited choice
3. real-time comparison of price offerings
4. pleasure in ‘victory’ over the seller using the first three weapons

These four weapons mean that customers no longer have loyalty – they don’t care who they buy from or where the seller is located, as long as they ‘win’ the deal." Read More >