Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers are Transforming Business Together

by Bob Pearson, Mark Addicks (Foreword)

Ideas for leaders to engage directly with customers to shape their brand and marketplace success Since its debut E-commerce has been centered on the transaction, which represents less than one percent of the time we spend online .  Now, we are entering the era of Pre-Commerce where customers make their own decision to buy or support a brand before the transaction. Pre-Commerce explains how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers go about making their purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves and why they choose to support certain brands above others. It shows what executives must do to re-create the way their companies interact with and learn from their customers, employees and competitors. It includes exclusive interviews and anecdotes Pearson has conducted or experienced with numerous influential C-suite executives during his time as leader of Dell’s global social media team and as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, worldwide. Pearson reveals that the best ideas are often free and the technology needed is rarely a cost-issue. Instead, it's a matter of the top executive deciding to adopt a new way of engaging directly with its customers.

Genres: Business

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 8, 2011

Reviews

[Arun Kodumuru · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t really like the book.

Pros: really cool case studies. Specifically, I enjoyed the ones of Michael Dell, how different companies used a social media model (Lego, Salesforce, GM, JNJ, etc) and non business examples like the Obama campaign. Thought the central message that you need to know you customer, what they face, and how to get through the pre commerce to the e-commerce message made sense.

Cons: book was super boring, long and diluted, and didn’t have much value add after the first third. I wished there was more depth to the case studies and examples provided - as I thought those sections were the most value additive. The other parts of the book lacked structure or if they had a structure it was like an instruction list that wasn’t fun to read.

Overall, wouldn’t recommend the book.

[Matthew Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too long. The book's central thesis is diluted with unnecessary narrative and platitudes to the point of making this book borderline unreadable and boring. This would have made a fantastic blog post, but not a book.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for anyone that is in e-commerce written by a Pro.