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What the Customer Wants You to Know: How Everybody Needs to Think Differently About Sales
From the bestselling author of What the CEO Wants You to Know ?how to rethink sales from the outside in
?We have to face the the process of selling is broken . Customers have more choices and are under intense pressure. Yet few companies are facing this reality. When they don?t, a lingering malaise sets in.?
More than ever these days, the sales process tends to be a war about price?a frustrating, unpleasant war that takes all the fun out of selling.
But there?s a better way to think about sales, says bestselling author Ram Charan, who is famous for clarifying and simplifying difficult business problems. What the customer wants you to know is how his or her business works, so you can help make it work better. It sounds simple, but there?s a you won?t be able to do that with your traditional sales approach.
Instead of starting with your product or service, start with your customer?s problems. Focus on becoming your customer?s trusted partner, someone he can turn to for creative, cost-effective solutions that are based on your deep knowledge of his values, goals, problems, and customers.
This book defines a new approach to selling?which Charan calls value creation selling?that while radical is nonetheless practical. VCS has been battle-tested in companies in a variety of industries, such as Unifi, Mead-Westvaco, and Thomson Financial. It will enable you
? Gain a deeper knowledge of your customer?s problems
? Understand how your customer?s company really makes decisions
? Help your customer improve margins and drive revenue growth
? Connect sales with other key functions such as finance and manufacturing
? Come up with new customized offerings
? Make price much less of an issue
VCS gets you out of the hell of commoditization and low prices. It differentiates you from the competition, paving the way to better pricing, better margins, and higher revenue growth, built on win-win relationships that deepen over time.
Someday, every company will listen more closely to the customer, and every manager will realize that sales is everyone?s business, not just the sales department?s. In the meantime, this eye-opening book will show you how to get started.
?We have to face the the process of selling is broken . Customers have more choices and are under intense pressure. Yet few companies are facing this reality. When they don?t, a lingering malaise sets in.?
More than ever these days, the sales process tends to be a war about price?a frustrating, unpleasant war that takes all the fun out of selling.
But there?s a better way to think about sales, says bestselling author Ram Charan, who is famous for clarifying and simplifying difficult business problems. What the customer wants you to know is how his or her business works, so you can help make it work better. It sounds simple, but there?s a you won?t be able to do that with your traditional sales approach.
Instead of starting with your product or service, start with your customer?s problems. Focus on becoming your customer?s trusted partner, someone he can turn to for creative, cost-effective solutions that are based on your deep knowledge of his values, goals, problems, and customers.
This book defines a new approach to selling?which Charan calls value creation selling?that while radical is nonetheless practical. VCS has been battle-tested in companies in a variety of industries, such as Unifi, Mead-Westvaco, and Thomson Financial. It will enable you
? Gain a deeper knowledge of your customer?s problems
? Understand how your customer?s company really makes decisions
? Help your customer improve margins and drive revenue growth
? Connect sales with other key functions such as finance and manufacturing
? Come up with new customized offerings
? Make price much less of an issue
VCS gets you out of the hell of commoditization and low prices. It differentiates you from the competition, paving the way to better pricing, better margins, and higher revenue growth, built on win-win relationships that deepen over time.
Someday, every company will listen more closely to the customer, and every manager will realize that sales is everyone?s business, not just the sales department?s. In the meantime, this eye-opening book will show you how to get started.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
41 people are currently reading
534 people want to read
About the author
Ram Charan
125 books215 followersRam Charan is an Indian-American business consultant, speaker, and writer resident in Dallas, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 11, 2016
This book proposes a selling system in which seller and customer interact to build a solution with an appealing value proposition as well as premium price, differently from traditional sales, which focused on getting the selling, period. Philosophically, the Value Creation Selling resembles the Lean Manufacturing principles, from the Toyota Production System, where companies must create bonds to achieve better synergy instead of fighting each other for lower prices and larger orders.
In my opinion, the book is poorly written, without fluid writing. Out of the 8 chapters, the first 3 ones are spent convincing you that VCS is great for many companies and the last one is a simple wrap-up. The remaining 4 chapters - with real content - present guidelines on implementing VCS into a company, with somewhat superficial rules and examples.
This book might be useful if you are directly involved with sales, however I believe there are better literatures on VCS than "What the Customer Wants You To Know".
In my opinion, the book is poorly written, without fluid writing. Out of the 8 chapters, the first 3 ones are spent convincing you that VCS is great for many companies and the last one is a simple wrap-up. The remaining 4 chapters - with real content - present guidelines on implementing VCS into a company, with somewhat superficial rules and examples.
This book might be useful if you are directly involved with sales, however I believe there are better literatures on VCS than "What the Customer Wants You To Know".
April 14, 2024
Customers are under intense pressure for transformations so they can differentiate themselves from their competitors. The barrage of choices they are exposed to can be quite daunting.
Bestselling management author Ram Charan, an Indian-American business consultant who helps companies like GE, Bank of America, etc., gives us a simpler (not easy!) way in the book.
Following were the key thought-shifts for me:
1. *From pricing wars that take the fun out of selling* to understanding the customer's business so we can help make it better.
2. *From pushing our offerings* to starting with customer's problems so we can become a trusted and creative partner and not a seller.
Battle-testing these ideas will be not just fun when we bask in the trust clients will place on us than our competition, but the results can impact our sales, margins and most importantly long term client relationships.
Bestselling management author Ram Charan, an Indian-American business consultant who helps companies like GE, Bank of America, etc., gives us a simpler (not easy!) way in the book.
Following were the key thought-shifts for me:
1. *From pricing wars that take the fun out of selling* to understanding the customer's business so we can help make it better.
2. *From pushing our offerings* to starting with customer's problems so we can become a trusted and creative partner and not a seller.
Battle-testing these ideas will be not just fun when we bask in the trust clients will place on us than our competition, but the results can impact our sales, margins and most importantly long term client relationships.
August 3, 2018
3.5 | Sales playbook manual. Majority of examples detail specific account plans and the impact on results. For strategic and enterprise sales professionals it can be read literally. For managers and leaders in shorter sales cycles you could apply to a customer persona group with strict and strategic outreach.
March 14, 2020
Great book but not for beginner salespersons. I think this book will be a perfect fit for those salespersons who already have built a business and have made so many sales calls, meetings before, and have a sales team. Because I'm a beginner, so this book couldn't help me that much. But it's very informative I agree.
February 17, 2021
The book revolves around Value Creation Selling as a tool to improve sales and relook at the way we interact with customers. The approach is sensible, there are a quite a few references to drive the point home. It’s a decent read for people working in sales, but the writing, in general, could’ve been more engaging.
September 6, 2019
An outstanding book. Extremely practical.
The author goes through great trouble to detail how sales should be approached, including pitfalls. Many organizations will not follow this approach as it takes a lot of time. The ones that do, will have customers for life.
The author goes through great trouble to detail how sales should be approached, including pitfalls. Many organizations will not follow this approach as it takes a lot of time. The ones that do, will have customers for life.
March 12, 2021
Amazing read...
The book gives your direction to how to empathize with customers, act and deliver the products/services that your customers are looking for. An inspiration for all the candidates who are looking forward to become a product manager!
The book gives your direction to how to empathize with customers, act and deliver the products/services that your customers are looking for. An inspiration for all the candidates who are looking forward to become a product manager!
October 4, 2024
Great intro to value creation selling and explaining the importance of relationships in sales. Outlines the key components of selling to C-Level executives and the value that they look for in a product.
January 2, 2018
Old wine in a new bottle! Good for beginners in sales.
January 26, 2019
Must read for all the sales guys!!
August 8, 2020
It is not a complete book of sales but it has good tips
February 4, 2023
The first 4 chapters are the Gold mine. A thorough and insightful read.
February 8, 2013
First, let me give you the background of Ram Charan.
He was the son of poor Shoe Shop Seller in the streets of India. And from abject poverty, has risen to become an International Business Consultant - Someone who has taught at Harvard Business School, The Kellogg School of Management and Boston University, has coauthor of two bestsellers - Execution and Confronting Reality and the author of another 11books. And has also worked with leaders of some of the world's most successful companies, including GE, Bank of America, Verizon, Coca-Cola, 3M, Merck, Aditya Birla Group, and Tata Group.
In fact, he is so busy with his travelling and so in demand for his expertise, that his assistants in Dallas send him new clothes via courier and he returns his dirty laundry to them.
So due to respect to the man. I am a big fan of his.
Now having said that, I was not at all impressed with this book of his titled “What Your Customer Wants You To Know".
Let me give you a brief outline with regards to the book & its contents.
It is organized around the following eight headings:
1. The problem with sales
2. Fixing the broken sales process.
3. How to become your customer's true partner.
4. The Value Proposition Account Plan
5. Developing the Value Creation Sales Force.
6. Making the sale
7. Sustaining the process
8. Taking Valuation Creation Selling to the Next level.
Ram Charan also introduces 3 concepts:
Value Creation Selling:
The organization must know, the capabilities and tools required, and how success should be tracked to make it effective.
The Value Account Plan.
A framework to insure information is communicated consistently and that the value proposition attached to each account is front and center.
A Sales Apprenticeship program.
This provides a structure for successful implementation. Examples (Mead Westvaco, Anheuser-Busch, General Mills, Thomson Financial, and EDS) of successful adoption of are included.
Now, I can tell you one thing – That Ram Charan must be providing his expertise to structure and restructure mammoth organizations to improve their bottom-line. But in whatever he stated here -
I didn’t find anything new. Out of the books by Tom Hopkins, Jeffrey Gitomer, Zig Ziglar, Peter Drucker, Tom Peters, John Maxwell and I am sure many others whose names I cannot remember – and each one of them had something to say about increasing revenue, building relationships and providing value added service.
So to be honest – I wasn’t too impressed with this book. In fact, I wish Ram would stick to his brand on focusing on bigger and larger issues which he specializes in than moving downwards towards everyday functions like sales, marketing, relationship building – which almost every speaker, trainer, thinker and writer has written innumerable books on.
In short, with though I am big fan of Ram Charan - I was disappointed with this book.
Boring, Cliché and Nothing New Learnt.
Overall rating 2 out of 10
Loy Machedo
loymachedo.com | loymachedo.tv
June 10, 2011
At first blush, there is a lot to like about “What the Customer Wants You to Know” by noted business consultant Ram Charan. In Charan’s typically easy to access writing style, he lays out a plan for Value Creation Selling, a plan to understand the customer better before you try closing the deal. In a nutshell, become a trusted partner to your customer by helping them drive revenue and increase market share. To do this, you need a his selling method called Value Creation Selling or VCS if you like acronyms.
It’s a simple enough message and that’s the problem. There is nothing ground breaking in this opus. Most of the observation and tactics laid out in the book well known to successful sales people.
Still, it’s worth reading for anyone in sales, unless you already are a high performer on large accounts. If that’s the case, then most of the information in “What the Customer Wants You to Know” will be redundant.
For anyone one who wants to be a high performer, reading this book will give you the foundation you need to jumpstart your move to the top.
The three key takeaways from the book are:
1. Understand your customer, what drives their revenue and can increase their market share.
2. Create relationships throughout your customer’s organization, not just within the purchasing department.
3. Improve your financial acumen so that you can express value to the customer in the financial terms c-level executives use.
Charan argues that it’s necessary to create a Value Account Plan. The plan should include three key elements: a customer profile, your value proposition to the customer and the benefits the customer will receive by selecting your solution. All of the benefits should be expressed in business terms. This is all sound advice, but something successful salespeople and their companies do as a matter of institutional behavior.
The Value Account Plan is also helpful because it can be picked up and easily followed if a key salesperson leaves the company, which sometimes happens on large accounts.
Typical of the thoroughness of the book, Charan offers detailed information on how to fill out a Value Account Plan and, more importantly, how to present it for maximum success.
Charan is a well respected consultant, who has worked with Verizon, GE and DuPont. Through Charan’s pedigree, you know the Value Creation Selling methods works. Then again, you also know it works because the ideas are commonly accepted sales practices.
It’s a simple enough message and that’s the problem. There is nothing ground breaking in this opus. Most of the observation and tactics laid out in the book well known to successful sales people.
Still, it’s worth reading for anyone in sales, unless you already are a high performer on large accounts. If that’s the case, then most of the information in “What the Customer Wants You to Know” will be redundant.
For anyone one who wants to be a high performer, reading this book will give you the foundation you need to jumpstart your move to the top.
The three key takeaways from the book are:
1. Understand your customer, what drives their revenue and can increase their market share.
2. Create relationships throughout your customer’s organization, not just within the purchasing department.
3. Improve your financial acumen so that you can express value to the customer in the financial terms c-level executives use.
Charan argues that it’s necessary to create a Value Account Plan. The plan should include three key elements: a customer profile, your value proposition to the customer and the benefits the customer will receive by selecting your solution. All of the benefits should be expressed in business terms. This is all sound advice, but something successful salespeople and their companies do as a matter of institutional behavior.
The Value Account Plan is also helpful because it can be picked up and easily followed if a key salesperson leaves the company, which sometimes happens on large accounts.
Typical of the thoroughness of the book, Charan offers detailed information on how to fill out a Value Account Plan and, more importantly, how to present it for maximum success.
Charan is a well respected consultant, who has worked with Verizon, GE and DuPont. Through Charan’s pedigree, you know the Value Creation Selling methods works. Then again, you also know it works because the ideas are commonly accepted sales practices.
January 17, 2009
First impression is, Ram Charan discusses lot of practical issues (minute details), this really proves that he had a practical experience in organisation. With respect to subject content, it deals about sales and account team issues and how can be added value thro' VAP (Value Account Plant). I could understand the importance of this since I am going thro this process in my organisation and could see the result. Only thing which we are yet to follow is presenting to the customer. This book helps me personally to review my process and put a check over it. I really recommend for the people who are in sales, customer business group or account team to atleast go thro' once
July 6, 2013
Speaker and author Ram Charan advocates for a different way of selling, based on creating value for the customer. Accomplishing this requires a sales team that understands their customers' business, finances, and decision process. This concept isn't new. What Charan adds to it is a framework. For someone who hasn't already discovered these concepts, this book could be helpful. What would have made it more useful for me would be to skip the very basic content, such as explaining margins and ROI, and to use some real success stories rather than created ones.
March 18, 2014
Well I did the audio book for 4 days back and forth to work--I was really jacked up about this book and after listening to this audio I felt that Ram did an excellent job at bring to the forefront the heart of sales. He goes into a few scenarios and tells a tale about the widget company in the heart of running ragged. The mind set has to change, and in his thinking he is even lured by others to join their company after they see him pulling out of the bottom to the middle in a few months. The ceiling is about 25,000 feet away but through understanding sales he pulls through for the better.
January 7, 2012
Oh the joys of having an office book club...
Charan does a good job of emphasizing Value Creation Selling over a traditional, commoditized approach to sales. But rather than take 160 pgs to explain this approach I think it could have been tightened up to a long magazine article or a fill-in-the-blanks workbook. Salespeople are busy and tend to be a little ADD; it was a slog to get through the entire book.
Charan does a good job of emphasizing Value Creation Selling over a traditional, commoditized approach to sales. But rather than take 160 pgs to explain this approach I think it could have been tightened up to a long magazine article or a fill-in-the-blanks workbook. Salespeople are busy and tend to be a little ADD; it was a slog to get through the entire book.
November 11, 2014
I think the book is too big for the message that wants to trasmit us. The message is:
- We should care more about the client and not only with the price of the product.
- Create a strong relationship with the client and try to know as many things as possible about them;
- After close the sell we should continue to worry about the client and serve them with what we can;
Those are the 3 important messages and after 20 minutes of reading the book you already got them.
- We should care more about the client and not only with the price of the product.
- Create a strong relationship with the client and try to know as many things as possible about them;
- After close the sell we should continue to worry about the client and serve them with what we can;
Those are the 3 important messages and after 20 minutes of reading the book you already got them.
February 1, 2016
Like any other book from Prof Ram Charan, this book offers insights you could use Monday. He is calling on companies to under customers and their customers and develop a comprehensive view of the entire value chain. Only then, your sales guys can make a compelling pitch for your products and identify new opportunities.
He explains the concept very well, but not sure there is enough in here for execs to adopt this at a company.
He explains the concept very well, but not sure there is enough in here for execs to adopt this at a company.
March 20, 2013
An excellent introduction to Value Creation Selling (VCS) in a concise and easy to read format! Recommended for anyone who is in the selling business. This literally means everyone in an organization as per VCS philosophy!
For more details about this book visit
http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/201...
For more details about this book visit
http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/201...
August 28, 2008
Must real for sales guys in product oriented organization. I myself used somethings for some of my customers though I head R&D division. Nice read and may be Must read.
March 14, 2009
This book will make you a customer centric manager(read it 'successful') for sure.
Read
December 28, 2009Is it wrong that I have not burned this book yet? What has become of me?
April 3, 2011
GOod to start, boring to end
November 14, 2011
good reminder that we shouldn't be selling based on cost - we should be selling based on value. By understanding our customer's customer we can start understand the value our products provide
July 29, 2012
Must read for all...
VCS, VAP, ROI = Velocity x Margin...
Customer Summits ...
My first Ram Charan... floored
VCS, VAP, ROI = Velocity x Margin...
Customer Summits ...
My first Ram Charan... floored
March 30, 2013
A must-read book on customer services for knowledge workers, managers, executives, and entrepreneurs.
November 9, 2013
READ NOV 2013
Good overview of VCS.
Good overview of VCS.
January 23, 2014
the first 3 chapters are highly enough to understand the concept.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews