Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers are Transforming Business Together

PRE-COMMERCE: How Companies and Customers Are Transforming Business Together

We are entering the era of Pre-Commerce where customers make their own decision to buy or support a brand before the transaction, which makes it extremely important for businesses to learn about their customers in today’s social media-driven marketplace.

In his new eye-opening book, PRE-COMMERCE: How Companies and Customers Are Transforming Business Together (Jossey-Bass, March 2011, 978-0-470-92844-8, $29.95) Bob Pearson offers a roadmap that shows companies how to directly engage and learn from their customers.  Pearson, a Fortune 500 veteran and frequent speaker, blogger, and columnist, argues that far too much of the discussion (and writing) regarding E-Commerce is focused on the transaction or sale, and that companies are missing the boat. Pre-Commerce explains how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers go about making their purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves, and why they choose to support certain brands above others.

In PRE-COMMERCE, Pearson writes from his experience working with both the C-suite and front line innovators, a necessary, effective view point since very few books about social media for businesses are written by authors tightly networked within C-level leadership.  He concludes in his new book that the best ideas are often free, and contrary to popular belief, the technology investments companies need to interact and engage with customers are rarely a cost issue.  Pearson claims that the main issue is getting top-level executives to actually adopt a new way of interacting more directly with customers.

This informative, important read shows what executives must do to recreate the way their companies engage with and learn from their customers, employees, and competitors.  PRE-COMMERCE offers:

• A step-by-step process for leaders to apply this knowledge to begin transforming their companies, right now
• Interviews with over 25 Fortune 500 executives, including special side-bar interviews with Michael Dell and Marc Benioff
• And shows how to build internal employee networks and how to take your first and most significant steps to integrate social media throughout your company

This eye-opening, informative resource is a must-have for top executives wishing to connect and learn more about their customers in today’s social media-driven market.  With Pearson’s extensive experience as a leader of Dell’s global social media team dealing with C-suite executives, and his current role as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies around the world, he brings a unique knowledge to the era of Pre-Commerce.