We Are Buyers. You Are Sellers. You're Busted.

We Are Buyers. You Are Sellers. You’re Busted. The book’s narrative sounds the steadily building “drumroll” of rising buyer-seller tensions during the modern economic era. As the abuses mount, relations continually deteriorate–until they take a sharp turn for the worse during and after the Great Recession. It’s hard to be a customer without money to spend; hard to appreciate the “recovery” when the top 1% make off with all the benefits; hard to feel up about more new jobs when they pay less than many have earned for years; and futile to vote for change while big business holds more sway in Congress than either political party. Not hard to understand why this drumroll of discontent is now reaching a crescendo. Where is all this headed? A growing number of respected, mainstream observers project today’s tensions could provoke tomorrow’s civil unrest in America. Some put it even more bluntly. America has no special protection against the citizen uprisings that plague other countries. In fact, historically we’ve been very susceptible. Two attributes separate We Are Buyers. You Are Sellers. You’re Busted from other business books. First, author Dick Lee writes from the customer and later worker and voter perspectives, not looking through the customary business/governmental lens. Second, Lee’s “stream of sarcasm writing style” manages to keep a serious look at a very serious topic light and humorous–and at times laugh out loud funny. Readers can enjoy themselves while they worry.

About We Are Buyers. You Are Sellers. You’re Busted. In the U.S., our long-simmering customer anger at sellers is now merging with employee and citizen/voter resentments over how we’re treated by business. All these negative thoughts and emotions are forming one steaming pool of discontent that’s rising exponentially, begging the question: Are we ready for what comes next? Author and longtime student of customer behavior Dick Lee poses this and other important questions about looming civil unrest in America in his controversial new book. Although an exponentially growing number of us are ready to “blow,” allowing our pent-up anger and rage to escape, few in business or government worry about the consequences. Corporations in particular are supremely confident they can keep a lid on us. But a growing number of notables including former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Harvard Economist Kenneth Rogoff, financier and investor Nick Hanauer and author and economist Thomas Piketty agree that unchecked income inequality in the U.S has the power to unleash repressed citizen discontent, leading to civil unrest. In fact, financier, .1% member and original Amazon.com investor Hanauer ups the ante: You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising…It’s not if, it’s when. In his book, Lee tracks the slow but steady development of the animosities we now hold towards business, but he does so first through customer eyes and then from worker and voter perspectives. Reminiscent of Studs Terkel, Lee finds reality in the hearts, minds and faces of ordinary people–rather than the powerful or influential. He gives these everyday Americans a chance to speak their minds, and much of what they say should deeply disturb business and government leaders both. Although the content is heavy and serious, Lee has written We Are Buyers in his customary “stream of sarcasm” style that will keep smiles on reader faces and may require a few “laugh breaks” along the way. But the book’s warning could not be clearer: business and government must start without delay reversing the damage done to our citizens, our economy and our democracy. Otherwise, history will prove right those who see domestic clashes on the horizon. Life in the U.S. could take an ugly turn. This is Lee’s fourth book, including the industry best seller, The Customer Relationship Management Survival Guide. He also contributes to many web and print journals. Lee holds a BA from Reed College and an MBA from Suffolk University. __________________

Dick Lee has been writing, speaking consulting and researching on the customer side of business since the 1980s. While he started as a solo voice drowned out by conventional business thinking that puts buyer interests a distant second to seller priorities, by the late 1980s Dick’s and other voices began persuading progressive elements of the business community that not only do customers matter but seriously considering customer wants and preferences would unlock new economic opportunity for sellers. During the 1990s and 2000s, businesses trying to incorporate customer considerations into their thinking went through the “alphabet soup era” of SFA (sales force automation), CRM (customer relationship management), CEM (customer experience management) – all intended by business to bring them closer to customers. But for all the money companies invested, Dick realized their efforts were producing but meager results, while buyers continued growing more hostile. Little of this was working. He realized economic, political and social forces were pushing buyers and sellers apart faster than increased seller customer-sensitivity could bring them together. He also realized there’d be no “negotiated settlement” between buyers and sellers – with buyers unable to trust sellers and sellers unwilling to even consider curbing hostile business practices. This had become a power struggle. That’s when Dick discarded attempts to create win-win among buyers and sellers and became a full-throated customer advocate. He still believes buyer-seller comity is achievable, but only among smart sellers that believe the only sustainable route to high profitability runs through the minds and hearts of customers. Unfortunately, smart sellers remain in short supply. Lee has written three previous books, including the business best-seller, “The Customer Relationship Management Survival Guide.” He has also co-authored and published several customer research studies, including the landmark, “Customers Say What Companies Don’t Want to Hear.” His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and numerous other business journals and on National Public Radio’s Marketplace. Dick Lee graduated with an MFA from Reed College, Portland, Oregon and received an MBA from Suffolk University in Boston.