Farm Don't Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success

by Guy Nirpaz, Fernando Pizarro

Across entire verticals of the economy the new normal is the recurring revenue business. Charging customers on a monthly basis, firms with this model have to play by an entirely new set of rules, rules which generally favor the customer over the seller. But this new model also opens up fantastic opportunities to provide and extract more value from the relationship as well. To create that value business needs to move away from a hunting mindset to a farming mindset. That change is the new paradigm of Customer Success. Many business leaders have heard of Customer Success but few understand what it really means to run their business from the Customer Success standpoint. Even fewer have the experience to build the Customer Success function and optimize its performance. As a pioneer in the field of Customer Success, Guy Nirpaz is acknowledged as one of the earliest proponents of this business realignment. In “Farm Don’t Hunt” Guy breaks down the intellectual underpinnings of Customer Success as a theory and quickly moves to providing pragmatic, actionable advice for orienting your business around this new model.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

140 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2016

Reviews

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

The editor of this book should have been fired.

This book is full of BFOs.

[Emil Niclas Hofseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the subject for leaders or other stakeholders. How-to for establishing a success-organization and running it.

[Justin Ceaser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, concise and direct.

A wealth of CS knowledge and wisdom is effectively distilled and deliver with little fluff in this excellent learning experience.

Highly recommended for experienced CS professionals, as well as those beginning or transitioning into the field.

[Jacob Berger · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a useful book and a quick read, but it REALLY hurts your credibility when it looks like it was written in Google Docs and you couldn’t be bothered to get an editor. It’s littered with errors: random symbols, repetitive words, spots where the author changed his mind on the direction of the sentence but forgot to backspace, paragraph breaks in the middle of a sentence, etc.

The idea behind the book is great, but it’s really hard to put much stock in recommendations made by someone who clearly didn’t even read it after writing.

[Rose Siders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much substance. Thinly veiled 140 page ad for Totango mixed in with some very basic customer success strategy. Unimpressed.

[Niy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly a decent book. This is a great book for someone who doesn’t know the basic CS language and is looking for somewhere to start. Noticable typos/repeated words that should’ve been caught by an editor/proofreader but not anything too bad. Of course it’s just an intro book, so it’s going to be a tad unrealistic/optimistic about CS goals and how to achieve them, but Guy mentions how you must tailor these guidelines depending on your solution and customers. He did promote his business enough to make me want to look into it, so good for him haha. I’d def recommend this as like a “CS for dummies” book. Good job (:

[Gladys Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s indeed a good customer success guide. I feel I was reading my daily life and to be honest, I can’t think another way of defining a customer success program. I would improve the format as it can be more visual appealing and the font a bit smaller. A book doesn’t have to be +100 pages to be valuable.

[Cassie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a great book for someone who has zero customer success experience, or is a start up who has no clue where to start with a success organization. If you are someone with even 6 months experience this book will be a waste of your time. I read this in about a day and a half. The Typos were quite distracting. Very glad I got this on sale and did not pay full retail price.

[Joe Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has recently made the step into CS, this book provided a really sound introduction to the role and what is important. It provides actions, not just theories, which makes it a useful book to go back to and probably why I enjoyed it so much. Some really helpful frameworks to take away and put into action too.

[Karina Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that opens someone new to the world of Customer Success. It’s definitely a book that gives action steps then just theories which I loved!! I’d say it’s a pretty sturdy stepping stone into the world of CS.

[Thijs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely quick read about how to treat customers.

The content is very logical, but it's helpful to have a summary of 'logical things'.

[Heather-Mae Ackerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Great in depth explanation and breakdown of how to set up a successful Customer Success team and establish best practices.

[Grayson Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, quick scientific approach to Customer Success. No implementation details, just a framework for thinking. Solid intro to customer success

[Matt Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ripped through this in 2 days. A short read and not fully comprehensive but a good way to kickstart your CS plan. Found it very helpful

[Ed Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, quick read.

[Jonas Forshell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic book for beginners to get a good over of CSM.

[Daniel M20 Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insights and some very actionable suggestions and success plays. Will definitely recommend

[Krista Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for new CSMs!

[Aaron Delgadillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for any Customer Success Manager.

At very least, keep a copy with you so you can reference it when you are working with your SaaS customers

[Boaz Maor · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on the emerging field of Customer Success, this one is positioned as a hand-book, a practical guide for CSM and others who are interested in a glimpse into the world of CS to make sure they get the basics right. It provides a solid foundation on the reasons for the emergence of the new discipline and a thoughtful framework for practitioners to be successful working in it. The analogy of CS to managing a grove is very thoughtful. A book very worth reading by any and all in the field.

[Paulina Adamczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to the topic of Customer Success. A week ago I had only a blurry feeling of what it is, today I feel ready to take up a new challenge that my Organisation laid out for me and I know I will kick it of in a really well structured manner.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short sharp primer from someone who runs a software company in this space.

[Ms. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of helpful things for CS. Wish I better understood the scorecard.

[Joe Frissora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple metaphors, easy to understand, a quick read. A good introduction to customer success as a concept