Synopsis: Covers common analytical techniques for sales and marketing
Difficulty: Intermediate
I love niche books. Rather than cover a topic in broad strokes meant for widespread consumption, they target a specific kind of person and zero in on him/her. This is such a book.
But first, a major gripe; this is a LONG book. Sure, it’s thick, but that isn’t what I mean. What I’m getting at is the authors love to talk, even if they aren’t communicating. They could have said what they needed to say in probably 30% less space, and this makes for difficult reading. Data Science can make for dry material to begin with, and if you’re going to write a book about it you need to be engaging (a la John W. Foreman in “Data Smart”).
There is some high-quality material here if you’re willing to wait for it. Segmenting a customer base, market basket analysis, customer churn reduction….if it has to do with sales, marketing, and to a lesser extent customer relationship management, it’s probably here. I’ve found it useful enough to keep a paperback copy on my bookshelf and refer to it maybe once a month, but I’ve read through it a few times and there are Post-It notes sticking out the top to get me to exactly what I’m looking for without having to search.
It’s also worth mentioning that the material is all theory; there is no pragmatic instruction on how to use the models in any particular software, such as SAS or RapidMiner. You’ll have to figure that part out on your own.
So, if you specifically need sales and marketing material and are willing to dig through some extra pages to find the gems, I can recommend this book. Otherwise, save your money.