10.  Companies will grow if they can manage their leaking buckets.  Consider making Customer Service a C-level position to capture the resources to maintain and grow the customer base. It’s far easier and cheaper to sell to the choir than poaching new accounts.  Capture customer data and learn to offer customized products and services.

11.  Migrate customers from entry level products to more profitable ones.  In the B2C world, business leaders learn quickly that building customer value is more profitable than brand loyalty. It’s about building customer lifetime value versus brands that come and go.

12.  All companies should be maximizing the value of their CRM Systems (Customers Relationship Management such as Salesforce, Siebel, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Amdocs, and SAP).  Usually it’s the IT or sales department that controls the CRM.  In B2C enterprises marketing should be given control to manage the entire customer lifecycle. Marketing, sales, and customer service should have one view to cultivate and build profitable customer lifetime value.

13.  Nokia has 60% market share of the cell phone market.  New bells and whistles are not the key.  It’s understanding customer’s perception of value and usage. In short, it’s a myth to say “Build it and they will come.” Rather, engage both product development and developer communities to invite all ideas to collaborate new product offerings.

14.  Measure. Manage. Measure. Capture and measure customer behavior and feedback.  Learn to be ahead of the curve versus always reacting.

15.  Measure and manage long term customer value.  Don’t sacrifice short term sales versus the value of a long term customer value.

16.  Avoid the pitfalls of competing for market share as you’ll start mimicking your customers and lose your identity and market differentiation.  Rather be different and maintain your competitive difference which offers the value your customers enjoy.  There’s a reason why Apple is profitable and PC laptops are commodities.

17.  The Sigmoid curve preaches creative destruction.  All products and organisms have their lifecycle of seeding, nurturing, growing, maturing, and declining. Learn the art of creative destruction and be your own best competitor.

18.  Finally you’ll need new views on measuring success. It’s customer profitability replacing product profitability. It’s Customer Lifetime Value replacing current sales. It’s Customer Equity replacing brand equity. Lastly, it’s Customer Equity Share replacing market share.