The Last Link

Occasionally sharing the narration with an uncredited female narrator, Adam Grupper uses an urgent tone to good effect in this searing lesson on staying connected with customers. His approach fits the writing, which is vigorous and analytical in its intent on making CEOs take notice. The "last link," the author says, is interface management--carefully positioning and executing every customer interaction so that the company's product strategy can be totally in sync with customer needs. Sparing no detail, he gives vivid examples of disciplined positioning that works, and frightening tales of less diligent companies that lose both market share and reputation. This agitating lesson covers a lot of ground and is held together by its thoroughness and its emphasis on going that extra mile, intelligently and relentlessly. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

January 29, 2007
This book's vague title obscures its real subject: how sales people and their managers can better support corporate strategy by streamlining the sales process. Consultant Crawford urges executives to focus on what he calls "Pivotal Agreements": elements that are crucial in determining whether every sale meets broader company objectives. For example, if a sales team doesn't achieve the pivotal agreement to defer price negotiations until late in the sales cycle, prices will probably fail to satisfy profit objectives. To create appropriate pivotal agreements, Crawford recommends a "3D Model" involving data, dialogue and discipline to "close the gap" between strategy and sales. The concept is sound, and the author's warning that merely racking up a high volume of sales is unlikely to guarantee long-term profitability is well taken. But the book is larded with consultant-speak, short on concrete details and lacks examples. Three pages about the importance of "the Sales Execution Plan" explain this document's value, but don't provide a sample or show readers how to create one. The book concludes with a playlet in which executives commit sales blunders that the author warns against—a last-ditch attempt to make this tome a bit more vivid.