What the Customer Wants You to Know by Ram Charan Penguin, HK$142

The customer always comes first. That rule remains important in the world of sales but, says Ram Charan, to overtake the pack these days one needs to 'think differently'. In What the Customer Wants You to Know, the author, an adviser to business leaders who has worked behind the scenes at General Electric, DuPont and Colgate, outlines what he calls 'value creation selling [VCS]'. Success should be measured nowadays by 'how well your customers are doing with your help', he writes, adding that, especially in the internet age, salespeople can no longer just be order-takers. Not everyone will be able to implement VCS, because it requires a significant investment in time and a change in ways of thinking to transform a sales force from one that engages in transactional selling to one that creates value for the customer. Charan suggests suppliers should become their clients' partners to help increase those customers' sales, revenue and profits. Which means understanding their customers' problems and trying to work out solutions. Does VCS work? There's only one way to find out.