Despite the abundance of consulting, investments, training methodologies, and hype that focus on value - mining value, value statements, value selling, etc., - most of today's "tried and true" approaches fall short of helping B2B companies achieve a high level of competence at leveraging differentiated value for price premiums and risk reductions. This is not surprising for two reasons:
- value isn't static but is the sum of an ever-changing collection of assets that depend on the needs of a specific customer in a specific trasaction as well as changes in the external and internal environment
- companies are not integrating value creating and capture into a holistic system, nor are the consultants who support them
Defining and driving value and capturing compensation aligned with value require a level of synergy, communication, and focus through a company's food chain, from leaders through deal shareholders to sales. And consistently architecting deals that are in tune with the customer's needs, competitive offerings, and the priorities of internal deal stakeholders takes ready access to up-to-date information that quantifies these requirements - data that few companies are equipped to collect or maintain.
The growth engine in any B2B company has two primary levers:
- providing differentiated customer value
- obtaining compensation in alighment with that value
Successful execution of these key business competencies enables efficient and effective flow of value out to the market and compensation back into the company and, as such, is the foundation for sustainable growth. Yet despite the effort and investment many companies make to achieve these core competencies, many "proven" approaches no longer work. And gaining or regaining a true and sustainable value proposition is often complicated by the fact that many companies fail to see the relationship between value and compensation aligned with value as a holistic system, thus don't or can't rally cross-functional stakeholders to support this essential goal.
We recently surveyed cross-functional department heads and front-line salespeople at 55 B2B companies to assess how they are doing cross-functionally and organizationally around two key drivers of growth and profitability: value and value capture (compensation aligned with value). The results will be available shortly as well as a major announcement. If you are interested in being among the first to find out more, click on the button below.
