Planting Flowers, Pulling Weeds : Identifying Your Most Profitable Customers to Ensure a Lifetime of Growth

by Rubio, Janet; Laughlin, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780471035138
• ISBN10: 0471035130
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-11
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Two former Dell executives turned Fortune 500 consultants reveal the incredibly successful, ten-step program they instituted at the world?s number-one PC manufacturer for finding profitable customers, building and maintaining lasting relationships with them and allocating resources based on their bottom-line value: the Direct Impact Growth System. Rubio and Laughlin use fascinating and instructive case studies based on their experiences at Dell, Xerox, Citibank, Mercedes Benz, Braun and other top international firms to demonstrate the system in action and its phenomenal results.

Author Biography

JANET RUBIO, a former marketing executive with Dell, led the company into direct marketing by launching catalog programs and target-marketed segment programs. As a consultant, she developed databases and direct marketing programs for Xerox Corporation and Mercedes-Benz of North America. The relationship marketing program she designed for Mercedes won a Gold Echo Award at the Direct Marketing Association Conference in 1997. <p> K LAUGHLIN began his career at IBM, where he was ranked among its top sales representatives. Laughlin joined Dell as a marketing manager in 1992. There he developed a variety of innovative programs, including SMART, the Sales and Marketing Analytical Reporting Tool, which provided detailed intelligence about customers and prospects and tracked the companys performance against targeted accounts.<BR>Ms. Rubio and Mr. Laughlin are partners at Direct Impact, a direct marketing agency based in Austin, Texas.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Need to Know Customers.

PART I: BUILDING THE VALUE SEGMENTS.

Overview It Takes A System.

Step 1: Defining Your Corporate Objectives.

Step 2: Collecting and Storing Your Data.

Step 3: Assessing and Analyzing Your Data.

Step 4: Placing People in Value Segments.

PART II: IMPLEMENTATION AND EXECUTION.

Step 5: Planning to Capture Value.

Step 6: Organizational Magnification.

Step 7: Marketing Execution.

Step 8: Sales Execution.

PART III: EVALUATION AND MODIFICATION.

Step 9: Metrics.

Step 10: Closing the Loop.

Appendix: Resources.

Index