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Has anyone read [url=http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Theory-Good-Bye-Extraordinary/dp/0977684806]"Kiss Theory Good Bye" by Bob Prosen?[/url] Any opinionated comment is appreciated.
Unfortunately you do not find this kind of book on the shelves of German bookshops (there's no translation yet), so I can't flip through it and form an opinion myself.[/url]

Mark's picture
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But of course.

I almost loved the book, and that's high praise. It's almost the kind of detail laden book I love...but there is a lot of good in it.
There are times when Mr. Posen absolutely talks theory, but he is still pretty close pretty often to the kind of details most managers can benefit from. Things like "remove roadblocks" sounds nice, but most managers ask, "what are the right ones to remove, and HOW do I remove them?"

I liked it but not completely - let me know what you think.

Mark

cwatine's picture
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I have just finished it.

I liked the book, which is dynamic, compact and which embraces almost all the subjects.
There are good ideas and checklists about leadership, sales, finances and quality. Nothing new, just plain common sense, most of the time.

If I have to find some defects, I would say that the book is sometimes too general at sometimes very detailed. It stands between general principles and detailed checklists ...

When I finished it, I did not really know where to start with ! So ... I did not do anything ...

I think the value of the book stands more in the dozen of good ideas/questionning it will give you on every aspect of your business than in the general principles he is reapeating without really explaining how to implement them ...

I thus suppose that it is the kind of book that we keep in our drawer to take it out as soon as we need to resolve a specific problem... Then, it will be possible to judge if it is really an excellent book!

But for sure, it is worth the price and time.

cwatine's picture
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I have to say the more I go back to this book, the more I love it !

There are some lists of questions inside, about sales, customer service, finance, execution, customer loyalty, etc.

Those lists are great if you want to rate your company and each domain ... It gives you a very high expectation !

The book is compact and dense ... Very dense.

IndianaRoger's picture

I have the book and have read some of the chapters. It is one of the books I plan to take on vacation to read. Knowing your a MT podcast listener you might want to check out a the podcast interview he did with Lisa Haneberg

http://managementcraft.typepad.com/management_craft/2006/09/fireside_cha...

cwatine's picture
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Thanks !

This is the kind of book you read once and then keep not far away from your desk.

Results's picture

Thanks for discussing my book, Kiss Theory Good Bye. I enjoy reading peoples take and look forward to more dialogs. Feel free to fire questions my way or challenge any aspects. I'll gladly reply. In fact, I'd really like to know how people have applied KTGB and the results obtained.
Best.
Bob Prosen
Author
[b]www.Kiss Theory Good Bye.com[/b]

cwatine's picture
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Hello Bob,

Wow ! Thanks for this post.
Your book is just great as it is a very dense source of information.

At this time, there are two things we have done with it.

1) RATE OURSELVES and FIND OUR PRIORITY

- we used your check lists on each "department" to rate ourselves. I have translated them into French and asked our teams to rate themselves on each question.
- it helped us to think about our future improvement
- from the answers, we determined our main and only priority for the months to come

2) RCA/ICA

I have translated this part and transmitted it to my operation managers finance manager. I have asked them to read it and see how they can implement those technics in the future.
As it is NOT part of our MAIN priority for now, it has not been put in place yet.

... And I have two questions for you :

A. Any chance to see your book translated to French ?
B. Do you have any special advice for small companies (30 people) ?

Best regards,

Cédric.

Results's picture

Cedric-

It's my pleasure to assist. Thank you for taking time to translate portions of Kiss Theory Good Bye in French. My foreign rights agent will be attending the Frankfurt Book Show in October for the sole purpose of securing additional foreign rights. Thus far KTGB is being translated into Portuguese and Korean. It's my hope French will follow soon.

Great work locking in your top priority. That's a big step and very challenging for many organizations to accomplish. Now the key is to stay focused and not allow the organization to slip out of alignment. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to hold a monthly meeting/conference call with all of your direct reports to review what they've accomplished that directly supports achievement of the top priority. Then ask each one their top three initiatives for the upcoming month to ensure they remain focused. The issue is accountability. Here is an article on accountability that you may find useful http://www.changethis.com/31.04.NotDirtyWord

My advice for small companies is to focus on the following:
[list]1. Hiring the best talent you can afford
2. Recognize and reward great results. Not effort!
3. Constantly create profitable new customers
4. Provide excellent service
5. Obtain testimonials
6. Don't overburden the organization with unnecessary process
7. Run leaner than you would prefer

Hope this helps. I wish you the best of luck. Stay in touch.

Bob
Author
[b]WWW.KissTheoryGoodBye.com[/b][/list:u][/list]

cwatine's picture
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Bob-

Thank you for taking the time to answer in details.

Cédric.

Results's picture

Cedric- Hope this message finds you well and your business very strong.

Thought I'd check in to see how you have been using some of the tools and tactics in [i]Kiss Theory Good Bye[/i] to help drive results.

Best wishes.

Bob

cwatine's picture
Training Badge

Hi Rob-

Thank you for your interest in my business. It is a good opportunity to review a little bit.

Mmmm, lets see :

[i][b]1. Hiring the best talent you can afford [/b][/i]
This is key ... And I feel it is even more important for small business offering solutions with a high "service" content. So yes, we are trying to hire people who are better than us. (see point 7.)

[i][b]2. Recognize and reward great results. Not effort![/b][/i]
This one is difficult. Very hard to be negative with someone who has worked like a dog and did not succeed.

[i][b]3. Constantly create profitable new customers [/b][/i]
We are working on that now.
In the past our sales force was oriented mainly on customer satisfaction and retention, not on development. We are now moving for another organisation : customer service and exploitation have to issure loyalty, satisfaction and retention of exisiting customer.
Sales force needs to focus more on development. This is a difficult process. Difficult to have "farmers" get a "hunter" attitude !

[i][b]4. Provide excellent service [/b][/i]
We have been working on that for many years. High service, high margins.

[i][b]5. Obtain testimonials [/b][/i]
This is a great selling tool. It is were the customer satisfaction is used to help customer developement. It is the basis of development. We are now selling one testimonial Email per Month.

[i][b]6. Don't overburden the organization with unnecessary process [/b][/i]
We run on "Lean Manufacturing" process which insure fluidity in the system.

[b][i]7. Run leaner than you would prefer [/i][/b]
It has always been a choice for us to have less people but paid higher and working more than the average in our market.

So, the emphasis this year is on sales development, which is point 3 and 5 in your list.

Any specifics advices on those two points ?

Best regards,

Cédric.