The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time

by Don Peppers

A guide to pitching products and services to one customer at a time shows business people how to find the twenty percent of their loyal customer base and how to find out what those customers want. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Management

443 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Recognized for well over a decade as one of the leading authorities on customer-focused relationship management strategies, Don Peppers is an acclaimed author and a founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group, the world’s premier customer-centered consultancy.

Don’s vision, perspective and thoughtful analysis of global business practices has earned him some significant citations by internationally recognized entities. Business 2.0 Magazine named him one of the 19 “foremost business gurus of our times,” and Accenture’s Institute for Strategic Change listed him as one of the 50 “most important living business thinkers” in the world. The Times of London has listed him among its “Top 50 Business Brains,” and the U.K.’s Chartered Institute for Marketing included him in its inaugural listing of the 50 “most influential thinkers in marketing and business today.”

With co-author Martha Rogers, Ph.D., Don has produced a legacy of international bestsellers that have collectively sold more than a million copies in 18 languages. Together, their body of work includes books such as The One to One Future (1993), which BusinessWeek called “one of the bibles of new marketing”; Enterprise One to One (1997), which received a five-star rating from The Wall Street Journal; as well as The One to One Fieldbook (1999), The One to One Manager (1999); and One to One B2B, which made The New York Times business best-seller list within a month of publication in 2001. The authors have also published the first-ever CRM textbook for university use in graduate-level courses, Managing Customer Relationships (April 2004).

With Extreme Trust, they look to the future once again, predicting that rising levels of transparency will require companies to protect the interests of their customers and employees proactively, even when it sometimes costs money in the short term.

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over 20 years ago, these authors wrote an incredibly prophetic book, actually saw part of the future and told us what would happen. It was a marketing-focused work, but it examined the way people bought things, and how businesses dealt with those relationships.

It talked about market disruption and discontinuous change, which when properly handled, is the way we grow up. But too many business are terrified of any change (which to them means an uncertain future) and want to remain the same, well, forever. And we know this does not work.

The book says it's better to take products to customers, not customers to products (selling model for physical bookstores). If this sounds familiar, it's because it is the Amazon method, which caused enormous market disruption. Jeff Bezos must had read this and used it as a strategy planning guide. It's talking about putting the "store" on the home computer- years before this was a comfortable reality.

So cool to see someone write with accuracy on how the world is changing and to see it has come true. Read this book- it will help you understand how the world has changed.

[Paul]

Recommended by Seth Godin--"took a simple truth--that it's cheaper to keep an old customer than it is to get a new one--and articulated the entire field of customer relationship management. They showed that there are only four kinds of people (prospects, customers, loyal customers, and former customers) and that loyal customers are often happy and spend more money with you."

[Lisa Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book! But, unfortunately the examples are very outdated. Over 20 years ago, these authors wrote an incredibly prophetic book, actually saw part of the future and told us what would happen. It was a marketing-focused work, but it examined the way people bought things, and how businesses dealt with those relationships.

Rating Book: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

[Gates Ouimette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another hugely valuable book in the days of the dot.bomb. This tied directly into a business partnership between I firm I was Principal at and the leading software vendor in this space, at that time (ATG, now part of Oracle). Mass market of one...

[Michael J.]

OUTSTANDING

[Jason Baer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good concept, but unfortunately the examples are very outdated.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should give this one more credit. It was way ahead of its time when it came out and reading now gives good foundation to what as become the way marketers approach customers in the new media - social media.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated, but still good.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommend. Some great morsels! I receive their newsletter & magazine. Keeps me learning!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book could have been at least 1/4 the length but the anecdotal writing style made it memorable.

[Shawn Riegsecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a groundbreaking book when it was published. It is now commonplace and probably doesn't offer much help.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book that started the field of CRM.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on direct marketing for the knowledge worker, manager, executive, or entrepreneur.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book. Way before it's time! A classic that must be read again and again to really grasp the significance. Remember when this was written-1993!