The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry
About this book
The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. But customers can be fickle, markets shift, and competitors are ruthless. So how do you ensure a steady flow of repeat business? The secret—no matter what industry you’re in—is finding and keeping automatic customers .These days virtually anything you need can be purchased through a subscription, with more convenience than ever before. Far beyond Spotify, Netflix, and New York Times subscriptions, you can sign up for weekly or monthly supplies of everything from groceries (AmazonFresh) to cosmetics (Birchbox) to razor blades (Dollar Shave Club).According to John Warrillow, this emerging subscription economy offers huge opportunities to companies that know how to turn customers into subscribers. Automatic customers are the key to increasing cash flow, igniting growth, and boosting the value of your company.Consider Whatsapp, the internet-based messaging service that was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion. While other services bombarded users with invasive ads in order to fund a free messaging platform, Whatsapp offered a refreshingly private tool on a subscription platform, charging just $1 per year. Their business model enabled the kind of service that customers wanted and ensured automatic customers for years to come.As Warrillow shows, subscriptions aren’t limited to technology or media businesses. Companies in nearly any industry, from start-ups to the Fortune 500, from home contractors to florists, can build subscriptions into their business.Warrillow provides the essential blueprint for winning automatic customers with one of the nine subscription business models, This book also shows you how to master the psychology of selling subscriptions and how to reduce churn and provides a road map for the essential statistics you need to measure the health of your subscription business.Whether you want to transform your entire business into a recurring revenue engine or just pick up an extra 5 percent of sales growth, The Automatic Customer will be your secret weapon.Table of ContentsIntroductionPART SUBSCRIBERS ARE BETTER THAN CUSTOMERSChapter 1: TheNew500-Year-Old Business ModelChapter 2: Why You Need Automatic CustomersPART THE NINE SUBSCRIPTION BUSINESS MODELSChapter 3: The Membership Website ModelChapter 4: The All-You-Can-Eat Library ModelChapter 5: The Private Club ModelChapter 6: The Front-of-the-Line Subscription ModelChapter 7: The Consumables ModelChapter 8: The Surprise Box ModelChapter 9: The Simplifier ModelChapter 10: The Network ModelChapter 11: The Peace-of-Mind ModelPART YOUR SUBSCRIPTION BUSINESS FIELD GUIDEChapter 12: The New MathChapter 13: The Cash Suck vs. The Cash SpigotChapter 14: The Psychology of Selling a SubscriptionChapter 15: Scaling UpChapter 16: Reflections