Behavioral Advantage, The: What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently to Win in the B2B Arena

by Terry R. Bacon, David G. Pugh

In their book Winning Behavior, Terry Bacon and David Pugh showed how great companies outperform good ones through "behavioral differentiation" -- going beyond superior products and dependable service to connect with customers at every touchpoint. The Behavioral Advantage broadens the concept, applying behavioral differentiation to the business-to-business arena.The best B2B companies depend on a multifront approach to business interaction, and The Behavioral Advantage reveals the secrets behind what is essentially a chess game with competitors. To win the game, companies must develop a carefully plotted opening game, with all internal values, policies, practices, and behaviors fully aligned. A smart and efficient middle game lets the company build and strengthen its position, and the endgame assures victory and lays the groundwork for future business.Just as individual customers do, B2B customers remember those companies whose behavior consistently and significantly outshines even strong competitors. These firms create a lasting advantage -- and reap the profits that come with it.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 12, 2004

About the author

Terry R. Bacon is a poet, playwright, and award-winning author of more than a dozen books, including The Elements of Power, Elements of Influence, What People Want, Selling to Major Accounts, and Effective People Skills. He is the co-author of The Shipley Associates Style Guide, Winning Behavior, The Behavioral Advantage, Writing Winning Proposals, and Adaptive Coaching. He wrote most of these books for Lore International Institute, an executive-development consultancy he co-founded and led as President and CEO. He later sold that firm to Korn/Ferry International and has since retired. Executive Excellence magazine named him one of the Top 100 Thinkers on Leadership in the World.

He has a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from the American University and a B.S. in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point (Go Army!) and has studied leadership and management at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. In his working life, he developed dozens of educational programs, software, assessment tools, and simulations. He delivered educational programs to thousands of professionals and executives worldwide. Since retiring, he created a widely used website on power and influence (www.powerandinfluence.online), through which he offers online assessments of individuals’ sources of power (Power Sources Self-Assessment) and their effective use of common influence techniques (Influence Effectiveness Self-Assessment).

He has served on the boards of a number of non-profits in his hometown, including the Women’s Resource Center, Durango Steam Park, Music in the Mountains (chairman for two years), and Friends of the Fort Lewis College Theatre. He is past chair of the Fort Lewis College Foundation and currently serves on its governance and investment committees. He is also a co-founder of Durango PlayFest (a playwriting festival focused on new plays) and is currently chair of its program committee, which selects the plays to be presented each summer. The Leadership Center at Fort Lewis College is named in his honor.

A world traveler, he resides in the mountains of Colorado. He studies history and cosmology when he is not working on another writing project. Storm Warning in his first novel and the first in a series of Sonny Marshall thrillers. He has completed another novel, The Cerulean Ark, which will be published in the winter of 2023/2024.

He is married to Debra Parmenter. Together, they have three children and eleven grandchildren. He remembers everyone’s birthday but struggles to recall just how old they are.