PIC No. 4: PAILS IN COMPARISON
• Title: Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers' Hearts
• Author: Neil Hoyne
• Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin (240 pages, Feb. 22, 2022)
• Management Bucket #2 of 20: The Customer Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 4 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the “little brother” of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—short reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
A DIGITAL MARKETER WALKS INTO A BAR…
BREAKING NEWS! Forget everything you thought you knew about converting prospects into customers. (Spoiler alert! The current approach is insanity!)
Author Neil Hoyne is Google’s chief measurement strategist. He’s also (in his own words) “the father of many forgettable slides of glossy funnels and Venn diagrams.” He warns, “The marketing success stories over the next decade will be about more than just clicks and conversions. They will be about people and conversations with customers that build relationships.” He begins:
“A Digital Marketer Walks into a bar…and asks the first person they see to marry them. Crazy, right? But that’s what companies do. That’s digital marketing. And if the marketing team asks enough strangers the question—maybe it’s a hundred, maybe a thousand—eventually someone will say yes.”
Oops! If that’s you, Hoyne has a wake-up call for you—proven principles to move your digital strategy into 2022 (whether you’re nonprofit or for-profit). Someone (anyone!) on your team or board MUST read this book. The three big ideas:
• CONVERSATIONS. In “How to Ask Questions,” the author pleads “Before you ask a question, ask yourself how you’ll respond based on the answer.” Also valuable: “How to Read Hints.”
• RELATIONSHIPS. Do you know your CLV (customer lifetime value)? You may be losing money on every sale. Fortunately, Hoyne includes a robust website/toolkit with “a curated and expanding collection of content to support the lessons in the book” and much more.
• SELF-IMPROVEMENT. (Must-read: the “toothpick rule” for lobbying in Washington, D.C.) Warning! “…even the most brilliant idea won’t work forever. Maybe you’ve figured out the best pickup line ever; you say it to someone and they instantly fall in love with you. But if you’ve come up with anything that great, chances are other people will figure it out too. After a couple of months, all you are is unoriginal, because everyone else is saying the same thing. The market will change. Your customers will change. And the process of being better never ends.”
You’ll appreciate the author’s intelligent—coupled with his very readable style (helpful metaphors: high heels, cake recipes, and more). Think Peter Drucker meets Seth Godin meets Duct Tape Marketing.
Neil Hoyne begins his introduction to Converted with this: “Digital marketing is about keeping the faith.” He ends the intro with, “Welcome to church.” Read this important book and you’ll become a convert—to new wineskins.
PAILS IN COMPARISON: I’d compare this book favorably to other must-read books in the Customer Bucket, including:
• Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers, by Raja Rajamannar (read my review)
• From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans, by Jon Picoult (read my review)
• Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers, by Fred Reichheld with Darci Darnell and Maureen Burns (read my review)
• Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today’s Leaders, by Peter F. Drucker, Frances Hesselbein, and Joan Snyder Kuhl (read my review)
TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers' Hearts, by Neil Hoyne – Listen on Libro.fm (3 hours, 19 minutes). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. (And thanks to Fortier PR and Portfolio/Penguin for sending me a review copy.)
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