Creating & Delivering Your Value Proposition: Managing Customer Experience for Profit

by David Pinder, Helen Blake, Cindy Barnes

Overview

In recent years, developing a value proposition has become a prime consideration for businesses. A value proposition is an analysis and quantified review of the business benefits, costs and value that a company can deliver to prospective customers and customer segments. Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition provides guidance for business leaders demonstrating why having a strong value proposition is so important for a company. This practical new title shows readers how to build, deliver and harness value propositions to create profitable growth for a business, by utilizing the experience of clients and customers. Featuring global case studies and examples, Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition is an essential guide to understanding and developing a value-focused strategy for all senior practitioners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749455125
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	11/28/2009
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Cindy Barnes is the founder and CEO of Futurecurve, a management consulting firm.  A product and service innovator and strategic business developer, she gained practical experience at leading organizations such as Capgemini, where she created the value proposition function and led business development.

 
Helen Blake is a marketer and business developer and has held senior positions in a number of the world's largest consulting firms, including Accenture and KPMG.  She is currently on the board of Futurecurve.
 
David Pinder is a leading communications specialist. He has worked in sales and marketing roles with Procter & Gamble, Hertz Corporation and Forte Hotels, and now provides value-creating business writing support for some of the world's leading companies, including Accenture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction 1

1 What do you really think about customers? 5

Introduction 5

What do you really think about customers? 7

The lessons of childhood 9

The experience of now 10

Technology and customer power 14

USP, FAB, VP, POP/POD: analysing the alphabet soup 16

Client-focused, not client-run 18

2 What is a value proposition? 21

Why do you need to build a value proposition? 23

Some definitions 24

Exploring the value proposition concept 28

Value = Benefits minus Cost 28

Introducing the Value Proposition Builder™ 30

Focus 33

From top level to specific 33

To sum it up... 37

3 The value-focused approach 39

The value-focused enterprise 40

Value creation, alignment and decision making 42

Strategic intent 44

B2B service and solutions providers and the consultative selling imperative 52

Strategic value pathway: customer intimacy. Sales mode: consultative 55

4 Creating your value proposition 59

5 Value Proposition Builder: Market 61

Analysing your market 61

Define the specific group (s) of customers to target 62

'Narrow and deep' beats 'broad and shallow' 63

Understand how to enter those markets 64

Critical thinking 65

6 Value Proposition Builder: The value experience 67

Focus on customer experience delivers profit 67

The value of research 68

Ascertaining what the customer values 72

The value interview 73

Summary 78

7 Value Proposition Builder: Offerings 79

Step 1. Categorize your current portfolio 80

The whole product or whole service 82

Map to the Value Pyramid™ 83

Profitability 85

8 Value Proposition Builder: Benefits 87

Expected benefits 88

Augmentedor additional benefits 89

Potential benefits 89

Translating benefits into messages 89

Value experience is critical 90

The value difference 91

9 Value Proposition Builder: Alternatives and differentiation 93

Assessing alternatives and differentiation by looking at substitutes 96

What's your difference? 98

To sum it up... 100

10 Value Proposition Builder: Proof 101

Total cost of ownership (TCO), return on investment (ROI) and cost-benefit (C-B) 102

TCO 103

ROI 107

C-B 107

Summary 108

11 Value proposition template and value proposition statement 109

Completing the VP template and creating your VP statement 109

Intel, and an exercise in getting your head around value propositions 116

Timelines 122

12 Message development 125

Don't throw your money away 125

Augmented benefits 126

Creating a message framework and hierarchy 127

Summary 131

13 Implementation 135

Four constituencies, one goal - alignment of value 136

What does it all mean for sales and marketing? 141

Tools to help sales people create value 143

Offering management 156

New strategic tools 166

14 Starting and sustaining 171

Are the conditions right? 171

Starting the process 173

Building your value proposition 174

Create your value proposition template and write your value proposition statement 177

Ways to use your value proposition 177

Sustaining the lead 179

And finally... 180

15 The value-focused enterprise 183

Check the rulebook. It's different now 184

Decision making, value creation and the CEO paradox 185

Decisive value-creating companies kick sand in the face of ditherers 187

Capability gaps and unwritten rules sabotage value creation 189

We've got a great solution! Where's the client? 192

Orchestrating alignment - the way to value 193

Don't discount human nature 194

Where have we got to? This looks like a new planet 197

Appendix A Back to the future 199

Early 19th century: customer misinformation - the hype of 'mere marketable qualities' 199

Mid- to late 19th century: customer distraction - make trade, not war 200

Late 19th to early 20th century: customer enchantment - night becomes day 201

Early to mid-20th century: customer manipulation - you are what you own 201

Second half of the 20th century: customer domination - producers and retailers rule 202

Mid-1990s onwards, and accelerating: customer power - finally, it's the customer's turn 203

Appendix B Example value proposition for Intel (partial) 205

Index 209

Editorial Reviews

"[A] careful look at value propositions... As a reference guide for salespeople and managers, the book provides valuable information." -- Book News

From the Publisher