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Why do we need to create new value (propositions and execution abilities)?
- We have to sell more!
- We want to beat the competition!
- We need to improve our products!
- We need new products!
- We need higher quality and better service!
- Our company needs to improve (or create) its "image", clarify its "mission."
- To find a new customer base! A new market!
- To get more customers! To increase our market share!
- We want higher profits!
- We need to cut costs!
- To attract new/better/more people!
- We have to cut prices!
- We want customer loyalty!
- ...and more!
Business people use these phases all the time to describe their “world of competitive stress” when they attend meetings, gather around the water cooler, or just have impromptu one-on-ones with coworkers. They occur in everyday business discussions.
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When do we need identify our choices and needs for new value (propositions and execution abilities)? During...
- Marketing strategy sessions.
- Sales strategy sessions.
- Corporate strategy sessions.
- Business cycle discussions – upturns, downturns, and emerging markets.
- Discussions involving product problems.
- Discussions involving customer acquisition, problems, and loyalty.
- Financial and budget evaluations.
- Partnership and alliance development and merger and acquisition evaluations.
- Personnel discussions, about quantity, training and skill needs.
- Infrastructure and tool evaluations.
- Competitive analysis sessions.
- “Product” discussions, ideas either for new or improvements.
- ...and more!
This is when, in the day-to-day of business activities, companies actually think about, plan, talk about, create, and implement added-value initiatives. It’s a constant activity because we have to create value during our businesses’ growth, flat, and down times!
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Five Basic Rules to Creating Value
Value Propositions that produce results customers expect are the engines of growth!
Put together your Value Propositions with the results customers expect to experience in mind. Your company’s success depends on it. The Value Principle states:
“Value Propositions - solutions, benefits - promote growth only when customers consistently experience the results they expect!”
Value opportunities are found in risks and constraints!
When looking for Value Opportunities, look at the “risks” customers take and the “constraints” they face in purchasing and deploying your company’s products and services. Risks, like your quality levels not matching your customer’s quality goals and constraints, like their internal policies and standards.
Value Opportunities include alleviating risks and moderating constraints!
Value is temporary!
No customer value - benefits and activities - lasts forever! Constantly look for New Value Opportunities, new competitive edges, and new abilities! Constantly look for new markets!
Your competition will!
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What is “Sticky” Value?
It’s the extraordinary value that keeps your customers glued to your company!
It’s the value that sets your company apart from its competition! It’s the unique value proposition “sticky points” that keeps your customers perpetually buying from your company!
It’s this unique value - the benefits your competition didn’t discover but you did - that alters your customer’ buying “needs.” It’s the solution your customer didn’t know existed until you showed them it could be done! That’s because your company knows - through constant contact - your customers’ value needs!
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And just what are business people actually saying when they make such statements? “We have to improve our Value Propositions (VP) and our ability to execute!”
For example, “We have to sell more” implies asking:
- Do we have enough value for our present and potential customers and, if not, what new or different value do we need to identify? How do we change the “proposition (VP)?”
- If we need new or different value in our product and services do we have the capability to create it? Do we need different or enhanced skills? In other words, “Can we execute?”
- Do we have the infrastructure, resources, and time to deliver the new or different value? In other words, “Can we execute?”
These value focused questions, and more, need to be answered in order to eventually “sell more.”
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For example, during “sales strategy sessions” we need to develop answers to the following questions:
- What’s our present value proposition (VP) and is it optimized for our sales goals? What new or different value do we need in order to “sell” effectively?
- If we, sales, treat our territories and accounts like our “own businesses,” what value (sales service product) do we need to create?
- How are we going to deliver the sales service product? How much time will it take? Do we have enough sales specialists?
Sales groups need to answer these questions in order to determine what “Value” they require for successful strategies!
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Value can have surprising origins!
One of The Value Principle’s Rules is “Results can only be accurately predicted if we know our customers’ businesses - their goals, operations, customers, competitors, and industries.”
Once learned, you will be surprised at the value opportunities that can be found to help your customers become more successful! For example, if your customer is weak in managing their finances and your company knows how to make it strong, value added, function, wouldn’t it be valuable to you and your customer to help them improve? Your company doesn’t have to produce the service, just point to a trusted resource. Your goal is make sure your customers perform well enough to continue buying and that they recognize your company as a valued business resource.
Value is the propositions offered and the abilities to produce them!
Customers directly see value in the products and services, the “visible” propositions, you provide. But they don’t see, for example, your company’s specific skills, processes, and ability to manage resources that produces the results. But if your company doesn’t “execute” well in these areas (plus others) your customers will eventually feel the effects in missed deliveries, higher costs, and response times that lag in meeting their needs!
Value opportunities lie in products and services, the “tangible,” and company operational abilities and assets, the “intangibles” that affect the “tangibles!”
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It’s the value that goes way beyond the competition’s “price cutting” strategy that is employed to persuade customers to switch! It even makes it impractical!
For example, can your company help recruit the qualified personnel your customers need to be efficient and effective using your products and services? Do your Sales Reps help their clients keep up with industry, technological and general business advances? Does your support department offer “proactive” service that pre-empts the problems your customers may encounter (again, because of close customer contact, anticipation is common)?
That’s “Sticky Value!”
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