The Must-Have Customer

Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got

By: Robert Gordman with Armin Brott

310 pp.

St. Martin's Press

Winning and keeping the right customers is the key to sustaining increased profitability and growth. According to Gordman, customers fall into one of two categories: core customers and opportunistic customers. Core customers are those who believe strongly enough in the service or product a particular business provides, while in contrast, opportunistic customers will make their purchases from whichever business offers the lowest price.Yet, the author introduces another classification: “must-have customers” -potential customers who have the same high-profitability characteristics of core customers, but buy from competition.In The Must-Have Customer, Gordman lays out seven steps, which, together, allow companies to identify and maintain their core customers, while at the same time, win over the elusive must-have customer. These steps can help any company create actionable, practical strategies to enable even healthy companies grow faster and become stronger.