Today. if a B2B company is to survive, much less flourish, it must be able to achieve sustainable organic growth. And there are many resources available to help such companies develop the two primary drivers they need to do so— providing differentiated customer value and being compensated in alignment with that value.
Yet despite the efforts companies make to achieve these core competencies, many find that the “proven” approaches no longer work. There are two reasons for this. The first is that value is not static. Rather, it is the ever-changing sum of a collection of assets that relate to the needs of a specific customer in a specific transaction, and that are impacted by constantly changing external and internal environments. The second is that neither companies, nor the consultants who support them, recognize the relationship between value creation and value capture and integrate them into a holistic system.
“The problem with many sales organizations is they still operate with the same principles and techniques they were using in the 60s, 70s and 80’s. While the technology supporting sales process have clearly evolved, the traditional sales strategies proffered by sales gurus 20 or 30 years ago have not kept pace with market needs. They are not nearly as effective as they once were. and...in most cases they are obsolete.” – Mike Myatt, “To Increase Revenue Stop Selling” (Forbes, May 1, 2012)
Developing such a Value Ecosystem — that is, a business environment that nurtures real-time valuecreation and captures compensation commensurate with that value—requires a level of synergy, communication, and focus throughout a company’s food chain—from leaders to deal stakeholders to salespeople. In addition, being able to consistently design deals that are in tune with a customer’s needs, competitive offerings, and the priorities of internal stakeholders must include access to the kind of information that can accurately quantify these requirements. Few companies, however, are equipped to collect or maintain this data.
There is, however, precedent for developing this kind of system. In 1982, Keith Oliver, a senior vice president with Booz Allen, first coined the phrase supply chain management(SCM). As Oliver explained it, the goal of SCM was to view the supply chain “…not as an isolated function within a corporation, but as an embedded, cross-functional capability designed to unify and rationalize otherwise incongruent parts of a dispersed organization.” Since then, SCM has grown widely, become accepted practice, and led to immense improvements in product quality, efficiencies, supply assurance, and cost savings.
Similarly, at 5600 blue, a consulting, training, and technology organization focused on value creation and capture, we believe that these two functions cannot be isolated within the sales organization. They must also reflect “an embedded, cross-functional capability designed to unify and rationalize otherwise incongruent parts of a dispersed organization.” In fact, having spent years developing a firsthand understanding of value by executing thorough diagnostics for our clients, we’ve learned that establishing this kind of Value Ecosystem is both essential and achievable in virtually any B2B company.
To learn more, go to www.5600blue.com and request our white paper entitled,
CREATING AND MAINTAINING VALUE ECOSYSTEMS™
Helping B2B Companies Connect Value-Generating Strategies to Value-Compensating Tactics