Bag The Elephant!: How to Win & Keep Big Customers by Steve Kaplan
About the Book:-
Paperback: 188 pages
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (March 4, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0761145249
ISBN-13: 978-0761145240
Table of Contents:-
Foreword John E. Pepper - Chairman & CEO (retired), Procter & Gamble
Preface: A Word from Steve Kaplan
Part I. Your Elephant Is Waiting
Chapter 1: The Third Path: Achieving Lasting Growth and Profits
Chapter 2: You've Got to Believe: Elephants Need You, Too
Part II. The Secret Life of the Elephant
Chapter 3: The Big-Company Focus: Learning to Think Like an Elephant
Chapter 4: What to Know About Elephants: Who, How, What, and When
Chapter 5: Embracing the Bureaucracy: Making Their Red Tape Work for You
Part III. Romancing Your Elephant
Chapter 6: Drawing Up Your Hit List: Finding Your Best Big-Company Prospects
Chapter 7: Knocking on Doors: Making That First Solid Contact
Chapter 8: Matching the Prospector to the Prospect: Putting Your Best Face Forward
Chapter 9: Face-to-Face with Your Prospect: Preparing Yourself and Your Pitch
Chapter 10: Standing Up to Your Elephant: Negotiating from Your Strengths
Chapter 11: Recruiting Great Champions: Courting and Cultivating Your Inside Sales Rep
Part IV. Leveraging Your Elephant's Power
Chapter 12: Keeping Your Champions Cheering: Treating Your Friends Right
Chapter 13: Taking the Inside Track: Building Strong Alliances
Chapter 14: Putting Your Elephant to Work: Other Ways a Big Customer Can Help You
Part V. Five Killer Mistakes
Chapter 15: Mismanaging Client Expectations: He Said, She Said
Chapter 16: Fumbling Client Crises: Blindsided by Sudden Catastrophe
Chapter 17: Operational Explosion: Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
Chapter 18: The Elephant Trap: All Your Eggs in One Basket
Chapter 19: Losing Sight of the Numbers: Up Cash Creek Without a Paddle
Afterword: Beyond Bag the Elephant!
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About Nellie
The Difference Maker Inc.
Index
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From getAbstract.com
- How a big client, an “Elephant,” can help your business grow
- How to select and win a big client
- What is required to manage and build a major account
- What “five killer mistakes” to avoid when a high-profile client rules your revenues
One big account, a heavyweight “Elephant,” can generate enough sales volume to make your company a success. Your reputation in the market will soar if you get a huge, well-known customer. But how do you go big-game hunting? Steve Kaplan can tell you, because he has a bank vault full of elephant gold and a business focused on helping others bag similar game. He explains how to identify your target, develop a customer within that corporation and build your business. He also warns you about common mistakes people make once they “bag an Elephant,” including mismanaging their business because they have a cash cow, er, elephant. getAbstract recommends this very good book on sales, with its realistic methods for success, rundown on risk and true-to-life reasons for failure. The text is easy to read, the style is fresh, and if the elephant metaphor loses some punch after a while, the pachyderm illustrations are a good comedic addition.
About the author
Steve Kaplan is CEO and founder of a Chicago company that provides business tools for firms of all sizes.
Firnando Chau Review
I personally enjoy reading the Part V. Five Killer Mistakes!
1) Mismanaging Client Expectations: He Said, She Said
2) Fumbling Client Crises: Blindsided by Sudden Catastrophe
3) Operational Explosion: Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
4) The Elephant Trap: All Your Eggs in One Basket
5) Losing Sight of the Numbers: Up Cash Creek Without a Paddle
Chapter 15: Mismanaging Client Expectations: He Said, She Said
15.1. He Said, She Said
- When an expectation that could not be met, clients would questions if they should give the business to the competing companies!
15.2. How Does It Happen?
- Vast majority of salespersons tended to over-promise during the selling phase!
- Most of the time, however, this comes back to bite them!
- More often or not, the unrealistic expectations that salespeople set are about things the customer did not bring up and does not even care about!!!
- But once the customer has been led to expect a particular outcome, she'll hold the company accountable!
15.3. Fire Prevention
There are seven ways of preventing ourselves from over-promising the clients. Basically, the goal should be to acquire for the company a reputation of over-delivering - and to get the reputation, we need to under-promise, while still presenting an attractive over to the client!
- Think before you speak
- Cut yourself some slack
- Define Success
- Stay Hands-on
- Perfect your processes
- Communicate promises
- Pre-Chart Over-deliverables
Chapter 17: Operational Explosion
17.1. Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
17.2. Success2 = Failure
17.3. What's Happening
17.4. Mock Elephant Plan
Step 1: Bring the Gang
Step 2: Review Operations
Step 3: Anticipate Problems
Step 4: Communicate
Step 5: Include Costs in Quote
Step 6: Have a Backup Plan
- Ability to identify as many potential minefields as possible and have backup plans for them, can make the difference between an operation disaster and a healthy, growing business.
About the Book
Steve Kaplan's Bag the Elephant, is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Business Week bestseller that has received praise from around the business community:
"Steve Kaplan's elephant strategy is right on the money, as long as you're willing to roll up your sleeves and go to work."—Daniel M. Snyder, Owner, Chairman of the Board, The Washington Redskins.
"Kaplan shows you how to think BIG, act BIG, and win BIG."—Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling.
"A terrific read! From now on, when I think about building business and sales, there's no way I'll ever forget the Elephant."—Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.
Bag the Elephant is all about how smart businesspeople can woo and keep those all-important elephants—the big, make-or-break customers. Like its companion, the New York Times bestseller Be the Elephant, it is filled with dynamic advice and real-life examples, delivered in an energetic, straight-shooting fashion that gets right to the core of its powerful idea—how to land the account that will put you over the top. Here are six keys to achieving the elephant mindset and understanding the big customer. How to map and use a big company's red tape to your advantage. Why the elephant needs you as much as you need it. Preparing yourself and your pitch. How to negotiate with elephants without losing your profit margins. And how to avoid the five killer mistakes, from mismanaging client expectations to losing sight of the numbers.
For small business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, and sales people, stalking and landing an elephant can be the most profitable adventure of your life, and Kaplan explains everything you need to know.
From the Back Cover
Bag an Elephant—and Begin the Most Profitable Adventure of Your Life
It's the strategy, it's the nuts and bolts, it's everything smart businesspeople need to win and keep those all-important Elephants‚ the big make-or-break customers that can dramatically increase your revenue, profits, and success. Packed with dynamic advice for all sales professionals, small-business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives:
- How to map and use a big company's red tape to your advantage
- Why the Elephant needs you as much as you need it
- Six keys for successful big-customer focus
- How to negotiate with an Elephant without giving away your profit margins
- How to avoid the five killer mistakes, from mismanaging client expectations to losing sight of the numbers
Foreword (From inside of the Book) by John E. Pepper - Chairman & CEO (retired), Procter & Gamble
I found Bag the Elephant! How to Win & Keep BIG Customers to be a very practical and accessible presentation of how to successfully develop a long-term relationship with big clients. This book will help prepare you -and those on your team- for long-term success. It tells you how to understand the culture and the organizational structure as well as other things you need to know about your major clients. It provides ideas and techniques for developing your prospect list, making winning presentations, creating champions inside your client, and negotiating the contract. It presents a value-oriented approach for building alliances, serving the clients' needs, and dealing with crises. Not least, it helps you avoid mistakes that can derail you.
This is not one of those how-to books that tries to teach some mechanical formula or addresses issues from 40,000 feet. Rather it addresses a range of important strategic success factors with substance and straightforward language. What makes this book especially valuable is its reliance on personal and relevant stories growing from Steve Kaplan's personal experience and their presentation in a highly conversational style.
Procter & Gamble benefited significantly from Steve's experience, his ideas, and his creativity. He and his company (SCA) provided services to a large number of our brands operating across several of our divisions. During the seven years that Steve worked with P&G, he contributed insights into both our processes and our programs. He contributed to productive change within our market research, marketing operations, productions, and purchasing areas. He also supported several new product introductions with his ideas and techniques.
If you gain close to the benefits that we at P&G did from the experiences and concepts which Steve communicates in his new book, you will find this a very worthwhile read.
John E. Pepper joined Procter & Gamble in 1963. He was elected group vice president in 1980, joined the board of directors in 1984, was named president of P&G in 1986, then served as CEO and chairman (1995-1999) and as chairman of the board (2000-2002). He has served on the boards of Xerox; Motorola, Boston Scientific Corporation, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, as co-chair of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and as chairman of the United States Advisory Committee for Trade and Policy Negotiations. He is now vice president for finance and administration of Yale University.
