Unleashing Customer Value

Buyers are challenged with the 'what-to-invest-in' decision and expect sellers to help (a) quantify the value of their solutions in a transparent way and (b) measure value realized post solution implementation. Sellers seek a credible way to respond, while differentiating their solutions from competitive alternatives.

To bridge this buyer-seller 'expectations gap,' author John Porter makes the point that all buyer-seller interactions need to be based on business value. There has been an overall evolution in the concept of business value over the last years. Originally, when it was relatively straightforward to map a product capability to a specific problem, this evolution began with technical Product / Feature Selling and little or no business value discussion. As problems became more complex, buyers and sellers relied on Solution Selling to scope requirements and design more sophisticated solutions. As competition stiffened, a Generic Value Selling model appeared — where sellers provided buyers with generic examples of the value achieved by other organizations.

But these generalized value propositions were not specifically relevant to each organization; they did not always account for industry, geography, size, or use case variations. This led to Specific Value Selling methodologies that enabled value to be quantified and customized for each opportunity. Agile Customer Value Management completes this evolution. Specifically, CVM brings organizations to the level of Differentiated Value Selling — where value is quantified for a specific project including differentiation from other alternative uses of budget such as direct competition or alternative uses of capital.

Author John Porter focuses on WHAT this role is, WHY it is important, and HOW it bridges the "expectations gap". He provides insights and best practices that will help establish the required agile Customer Value Management (CVM) environment and unleash the power of the Value Practitioner as a key