March 8, 2006

But, Does that Benefit Matter to Your Customer?

There's a great article in the latest Harvard Business Review on the subject of Customer Value Propositions.

The article addresses the importance of being disciplined about understanding your customers, so you can make smarter choices about where to allocate scarce resources.

We all fall into the trap of telling our customers about all of our benefits, when - in fact - only a handful of benefits may really matter to them.

There's an interesting chart in the article describing three kinds of value propositions:

One kind consists of all the benefits that customers receive; one communicates the benefits that represent points of difference with the competition; and the third is called "resonating focus," because it concentrates on the one or two points of difference that will deliver the greatest value to the customer. This last value proposition is most powerful, but it obviously requires customer value research.

It's so easy to get caught up in benefits. "What about this?" "Did we tell them about that?" "Hey, we have this that noone else has?" "And don't forget this!"

But all that matters is what matters to customers. Find out. Keep finding out. And then focus on those specific benefits. That's where the action is. And the profit.

Retreat Reflections

We had a Culture Retreat yesterday. We reviewed the values of our firm and discussed them in context with each individual's values. It was a wonderful way to reaffirm what we stand for, and to get to know one another better.

Our guide through the process, Sheila Campbell, provided several stimulating exercises, one of which was that each of us drew a "crest" in which we illustrated what we value. She often does the same exercise having people construct collages.

Our business speeds along. We are forever fighting deadlines and rushing to accomplish something better than anything we've done before. We work very closely together and know what each of us brings to the table and relish the opportunities to share our skills and collaboratively come up with smarter, more creative solutions.

But, who are the people who hold and share these skills? Yesterday's exercises - and the entire day - gave us insights about each person. And I think we all came away even more grateful that we get to work with one another every single day.