UnSelling: The New Customer Experience Hardcover – Illustrated, September 29, 2014

I know a book is good when I don't realize I am turning (or swiping) the pages as I read and when the narrative and examples stick enough that I bring them up in conversation at my dinner table... That is the best endorsement I can give a book and that is the endorsement I am giving Unselling.I kept coming away with wondering why the cases we read in business school weren't this relevant and followed by such human analyses (separate from poking the obvious fun at the predominantly Harvard academics who write them). Before Unselling, the last time I read a business book that made me laugh and cry was 199-never. The authors know that businesses shouldn't be (and can't be thanks to social media) faceless and aloof, and their philosophy resonates in their writing style.In addition, this book is enjoyable to read because it is so simple -- not the duh kind of simple, but the priceless kind that has you saying dangit why didn't I think to say that (I guess that's why I didn't write the book).I have also read Unmarketing and The Book of Business Awesome/Unawesome, which were equally fantastic... All of these books are great gifts for entrepreneurs, business school students/grads, bloggers, social mediaites, and anyone who enjoys common sense and the marriage of commerce to humanity.Since my schedule is not conducive to joining a book club, but I like comparing book reviews (nerd alert), I rely on Amazon reviews to see if what I got out of a book was similar/different to others... I saw another review mentioned redundancy, and that was not my takeaway. For the few parts that included a repeat appearance, I attributed that to these authors being pros at curating what to do/what not to do cases -- it's their business to call out businesses who make silly mistakes even if the mistakes have been done before (especially if they have been done before).

The media could not be loaded.  Hi I’m Douglas Burdett, host of The Marketing Book Podcast and I’d like to tell you about the book “UnSelling: The New Customer Experience” by Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer.If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so difficult for some companies to make a sale, it’s because the purchase transaction is just about the ONLY thing they are focused on. Companies have become blind to customer service, support, branding, experiences, and even product quality.The truth is that these days if companies would focus more on everything before and after the transaction, making the sale becomes easier. Sixty percent of a purchasing decision is made before a customer even contacts you. Why do they wait so long to contact you? Because they can.They can find out nearly everything else about you and your product from the Internet, review sites and talking to friends (and even strangers) on social media. And after the sale, your customers can take to the Internet to sing your praises or tear you apart."UnSelling" is about the big picture: creating repeat customers, not one-time buyers; creating loyal clients that refer others, not treating people like faceless numbers; becoming the go-to company for a product or service, before people even need it.One other thing. I read a lot of marketing and sales books, and this book is the most entertaining one I’ve read. At times the book had me crying from laughing so hard. Seriously, my wife came upstairs and said “what is the matter with you?”Anyway, to listen to a very entertaining interview with Scott Stratten about "UnSelling," please visit MarketingBookPodcast.com

“Scott, we have a problem with social media. People keep going on there and complaining about our products. We just don’t know what to do!”“Well, for starters, how about you make a better product?”Unselling is about sales and how the rules of selling have fundamentally changed.After two fun books on the good, the bad, and the ugly of social media and customer service, Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer have given us a great and insightful book on taking the pulse of our customers and where our businesses should be aiming. These concepts of pulse and aim (you’ll have to buy the book for the definitions) tie together a lot of what Scott has been talking about online and on the Unpodcast for the last couple of years.What Unselling manages to achieve is to create a structure and understanding of why certain methods work and why others don’t. It is one of the frustrations, for example, to here about customer service failures and successes that can seem to contradict each other. Unselling provides keys to unlocking these mysteries. It also debunks a lot of nonsense that other marketers and marketing books talk about.An extremely easy read, with short chapters, this is not Scott Stratten the borderline stand-up comic and keynote speaker, this is Scott Stratten the insightful and intelligent marketer who had risen to the top of his profession (the jokes almost get in the way). While the previous books concentrated on the how and the what, Unselling is very much about the why.This is not a book for sales people, or a book for marketing people, it is a book for business people, and people in businesses, because we are all sales and marketing people now.

Scott and Allison live the experience that they write about and you can tell in this book.So many of their ways of teaching are in the examples that they use to illustrate the good bad and the ugly. They have the pulse of their market down cold in a very human way. People should get this book for inspiration and action in their worlds besides the pure entertainment value of Scott performing style.

A fantastic read that helps to remind us that we are human and we should act like humans - good humans. YOu won't be disappointed as Stratten takes you through some of the more awesome "strategies" of being human in an increasingly digitized world.

Common sense approach to marketing! Tonnes of examples bad customer service and why. One of the best books I've read on customer service and marketing.

Great book. The writing is witty. The short story examples definitely reinforce the concepts presented.

Great inspring Canadian author. Great book.