Reviews
"This is an IQ test: You can suffer through years of marketing and selling experimentation, or you can read this book and understand exactly what you have to do."
Guy Kawasaki, author of "The Art of the Start"
"What an accessible and valuable business book! Unlike the latest fad-in-a-book from some cloistered MBA professor, Zhivago's Rivers of Revenue provides practical ways to generate revenue that any businessperson can use. Rather than complex theories, this book provides substance. I only wish I had come across Zhivago and her ideas when I was starting out in the business world. Better yet, I wish the book had been out several years ago at the time I was a VP Marketing at a publicly traded company. I could have used one copy for me and one for the CEO!"
David Meerman Scott, author of "Eyeball Wars," and author of the upcoming book, "Cashing In With Content"
"I expected another dull business book full of the dry prose that puts one to sleep after three pages. What I got instead was a book that grabbed my interest immediately. Reading it gave me goose bumps. I finished the book in two days and spent the following weekend jotting down ideas on how to make my business better. "
Dianna Huff, DH Communications
"Written in a conversational style, like that of a patient and supportive friend, Rivers of Revenue reads more like a blog posting series than a business book. Kristin Zhivago teaches...how to find what your customers want and need in the way of products, services, and customer support. Your customers will enjoy buying from you. Highly recommended for business owners, corporate managers, and sales and marketing professionals. "
Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World
"Rivers of Revenue is a fountain of solid practical advice to maximizing one's profit and building a sustainable customer base."
Midwest Book Review
"Using tangible examples and concrete, actionable steps, this book provides a blueprint for companies to chart the communication course during the buying cycle. It teaches how to apply the core principle of good marketing: answering the buyers' questions at the right time, in the right medium, to their satisfaction.
"Zhivago's book will forever change the way you think about marketing."
Anneliese Kellner
Global Marketing Manager
Kudos Information Ltd.
In a review written for Impact!, the marketing communications newsletter for the
Society for Technical Communication
"I devoured your book like a Thanksgiving dinner. Swelled and content from the meal of information, I slept easily. Already today I have returned to it, snacking on paragraphs, phrases, and examples. I will continue to do so for quite some time. This book contains 336 pages of intelligent, usable, realistic, pertinent information."
David Jackson, President
David Jackson Remodeling
"Rivers of Revenue is certainly not the average self-help book.
"Zhivago does not mince words and does not waste time making promises about how this book will change your life.
"Instead, she stresses that change is always good...It is up to us to recognize the possibilities that come with change and explore them until we find a place where we can carve our own niche."
Soroya Brantley
The Network Journal
"Loved your book!!!! Awesome!!!!!"
Bill Harrison
FreePublicity.com
"I love it! Zhivago helps readers 'get in the revenue flow' no matter what is happening in their markets or the economy in general."
Melody Campbell
Small Business Guru
"Kristin has always been way out ahead of most marketing observers because she fuses the 'art' of marketing with actual revenue generation...[bridging] what should never have become two worlds to begin with.
"Her latest book, Rivers of Revenue, reflects this fusion in a refreshingly unique way. It's part parable, part thesis and part implementation guide. The best books always cause you to rethink the fundamentals...this is definitely one of those books."
Scott Anderson, CEO
Rescued Revenue
"A highly practical—and provocative—handbook on how to 'think like a buyer' in order to increase your sales. It's gotten rave reviews."
Debbie Weil
WordBiz Report
"This is one of those books I wish I'd written....a must read for any entrepreneur.
"It describes a step-by-step system to ensure that your river of revenue never dries up. Zhivago begins from the premise, popularized by Six Sigma, that focusing on the customer is the key to success. And while this is hardly revolutionary, it's amazing how many organizations don't do this. What Zhivago's book does is to take this basic premise and give us a recipe to make it work. It's filled with great advice about creating brands and the importance of keeping promises to the health of the brand.
"The book is also refreshing in that it covers every conceivable product from candy bars to software. By segmenting audiences and products into those that require light, medium, heavy or intense scrutiny, she pretty much covers the entire spectrum, and offers great advice as to how to market and sell in each category.
"It's written in a wonderful clear style and is filled with good and bad examples of the principles she's talking about."
KD Paine
The Measurement Standard
"A textbook about how to think like a buyer and a reminder that people ultimately want to spend their money."
Robert Plain
The Jamestown Press
"For those readers who own a business, sell a product, offer an identifiable service or work for a corporation that does, this book is priceless and filled with ideas and tools that can truly make a difference.... The methods described in this easy-to-read and highly educational guide can help both the smallest mom and pop business and the biggest multinational corporation to thrive, even during the toughest economic times."
Marie D. Jones, Curled Up With A Good Book
Read her entire review
"Engaging and surprisingly quick to finish. I keep referring to it for ideas. This one is a keeper!"
Charles Knapp, PMCP PPM
PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne Product Management
Charles' full review
"An excellent resource for potential small business
owners...Rivers of Revenue
is a map to a vast reservoir of refreshing, life-giving sustenance."
FearlessBooks.com
"Rivers of Revenue is likely to rank as the year's most important marketing guide."
Jeffrey Tarter, Editor, Softletter "I really like this book. Great advice. I read
it in one sitting. That's a compliment."
Harry Newton "An original, creative approach to business strategy, Rivers of Revenue takes universal, essential principles and makes them personally relevant."
Steffi Aronson Karp, Marketing and Public Relations "Even the sunniest of optimists understand that, sometimes, finding new sources of revenue is just plain difficult. Kristin Zhivago, author of Rivers of Revenue understands this, too—and has some advice. Zhivago's new title offers guidance on focusing in on the client's perspective instead of the seller's, and how to interview prospects and customers to find out what they are looking for and the sacrifices they are willing to make. Zhivago tells the fable of the dried-up revenue river to propel her guidebook, using the decisions made by the three fictional families living along the river to draw parallels to the most effective (and ineffective) approaches to today's changing market."
Emmy Favilla
"A new book by long-time technology marketing consultant
Kristin Zhivago, called Rivers of Revenue: What to do when the money
stops flowing, lays out a step-by-step revenue generation system that
turns traditional marketing and selling on its head.
"The method laid out in Rivers of Revenue is
built upon the customer's buying process rather than on conventional
marketing and selling processes.
"One of the most powerful concepts in the book is
the categorization of the world's products and services into four categories
of Buyer Scrutiny."
Robert Nelson, Editor, "I give it a 10." Doris Coates, a reader
"A new book, written by a veteran of roiling
technical and consumer marketplaces, reveals a step-by-step revenue generation
system for people wrestling with falling sales, career changes, and product
obsolescence. Rivers of Revenue will empower those who want to successfully sell their ideas, skills,
products, or services.
"Whether they own a company, work in a company, or
are thinking of starting a company, readers will discover Rivers of
Revenue to be an educational, energizing and life-changing tool. The
book revolutionizes the revenue-generating procedure by turning the traditional
selling process on its head.
"Instead of focusing on selling from the seller's
perspective, it evaluates selling from the customer's point of view, as
a buying process. Anyone with a dream, whether it is the desire to climb
the corporate ladder, start a business, create more revenues for an existing
business, or simply to make the world a better place, can benefit from
this book."
The Fearless review
The Softletter review (pdf)
TechnologyInvestor.com
Strategy Analytics
DestinationCRM.com, September 24, 2004
CMO Council's "Marketing Magnified" newsletter
Review
in Marketing Magnified
Fairfield County Business Times
"Follow the Leaders on the Road to Success"
August 2004
"We are reading Rivers of Revenue to each other as we are driving cross country and we're almost through it. It's a great, no-nonsense, practical guide to business and marketing.
"Kristin's position throughout the book totally honors the customer—no trickery, no pandering or belittling. Don't you wish you could see more of that these days? Just honest information (facts) that answers the client's/prospect's questions. It's well-written and easy to read and understand...a lot of common sense in one package.
"I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to grow their business."
Kathy Kulaas
Holographic Repatterning Practitioner
"What a magnificent, refreshing, back-to-basics-for-the-marketing-world book. I loved it.
"It's as appropriate for the freshly minted MBA as the young ambitious CEO (I say 'young' because nobody becomes an 'old' CEO without following these rules).
"My copy is now scribbled over with notes and underscores everywhere. This ought to be required reading for aspiring IPOs, and issued by the SEC."
Keith Bates
President
Keith Bates & Associates
"Rivers of Revenue is excellent; very thoughtfully written and thought-provoking."
Clare Hart
President and Chief Executive Officer
Factiva
"After reading the fable—which, by the way, makes a good bedtime story for grandchildren—I got really involved in the depth of your vision and I am happy that I ordered the book.
"Not only is it good for me (even though I thought I knew it all, as I have 35 years of experience in the export business and product development), but for my daughter as well, who is visiting from Italy.
"You have the natural ability to put a very complex problem on a single plate and invite your reader to eat it. It's like simple, healthy food from an old recipe. I know that it can only do me good.
"I don't know how you do it, but it is amazing."
Enrico Rosati
President
Gio International
"What I really love in this book are the insights about politics in the workplace—with 'politics' meaning making on-the-spot, astute judgements on how to behave relative to co-workers and customers."
Jay Liebowitz
Executive Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
Teem Photonics
"Fantastic book. Zhivago goes from 30,000 feet of strategy to 100 feet of tactical, which makes the book feel 'complete.' I like the approach to strategy—from the customer's perspective—their scrutiny and purchase process. And the idea of 'buyer desire' is a big takeaway."
Sam Decker
ATG/EPP Marketing & eBusiness (and author of the book "301 Do-It-Yourself
Marketing Ideas")
Dell
"Zhivago introduces an approach to defining products and then determining the right sales and marketing approach to delivering your product to market. Of particular interest are the chapters on marketing and selling strategies by type of buyer scrutiny.
"The chapters on interviewing customers and 'The Power Baton' are worth the price of the book.
"Rivers of Revenue is the Who Moved My Cheese? for marketing executives—and those who want to be."
Steve Johnson
Instructor
Pragmatic Marketing
"I'm now on Chapter 6, "Understanding the Buying Process," and totally inspired by this book! I see great opportunities ahead for my business."
Lynn Larson
Owner
Satori Stables
"I love it! My biggest aha from Rivers of Revenue so far has been about branding. I really got it in a new way when I saw it as the customer's experience.
"I also like the simple clarity. The messages are very accessible, both in language and content."
Gail Noble Glanville
Holographic Repatterning
Certified Practitioner
Recent articles by Kristin Zhivago
An article in CMO magazine entitled "Escaping the Metrics Pit," October 2004
An article in Product Marketing magazine entitled "Product Managers and Marketers: Who Does What," Jan/Feb issue, 2005
To see more reviews, go to Amazon.
