Every business relies on the Value it can deliver to customers. The more Value, the more successful the business.
Organizations with Competitive Immunity provide Unique Value. To better understand what that means, let’s take a closer look at:
- Value Elements.
- Value Levels.
- Unique Value Considerations.
Value Elements:
Operating Procedures
Customers value organizations that are easy to work with, and systems and procedures that make the process of getting what they want better, faster, and/or cheaper.
Quality
Customers value high quality in products and services, as well as quality processes and systems to obtain those products and services.
Premium Service
Customers value special treatment and continually going beyond the expected to provide extra levels of service.
Price
Customers value prices that allow them to reduce their overall costs, and continual efforts to reduce prices. Price also includes the Customer’s total purchase costs (training, installation/adoption, change costs, etc.)
Time
Customers value organizations that can save time or provide them with extra time for other initiatives. Customers demand the smallest possible interval between their need and when it is met.
Value Levels:
- Unrecognized Value
Value that the Customer either dismisses or does not recognize. This may require educating the Customer to move to the next level, or changing the offering.
2. Expected Value
Value that the Customer assumes “comes with the package.” This is Value that represents the basics for being in the market, and does not command a premium price.
3. Unexpected Value
“Surprise me” Value that an organization provides to a Customer. Though it can provide a brief competitive advantage, it comes with a risk. Customers will almost immediately move Unexpected Value to Expected Value, requiring the organization to continually find new offerings. And today’s Unexpected Value can be quickly replicated by competitors.
4. Unique Value
Value that is unique to the organization and establishes clear differentiation from the competition, a “value proposition” that determines the distinct products, services, and resources that cannot be easily replicated by a competitive initiative.
Unique Value Considerations:
Providing Unique Value requires the consideration of some important guidelines.
- The Customer determines your Value, not you.
You can define it, plan for it, work toward it…but you can’t determine it. 2. For that reason, banish the phrase “Value-Added” from your lexicon. Nothing is “Value-Added” until the Customer says it is. Simon Sinek puts it this way:
“Value is not determined by those who set the price. Value is determined by those who choose to pay it.”
- Value requires honest appraisal.
You have to take a hard look at what you consider your Value to be, and a willingness to accurately assess what your Customer wants and needs. This includes unrecognized needs as well as how the Customer determines what is valuable to them.
- Selling Value can be difficult.
There are many people in Customer organizations who can buy a commodity, but a lot fewer who can buy Value. Those who can are located higher up in the Customer organization. What’s important to a person at a senior level is very different from what’s important to the product evaluator, who is often just trying to get the best price.
- Providing Unique Value requires thinking beyond delivering products and services.
You must determine how your offering can complement the Customer’s key business strategies. How can you help them achieve their Critical Success Factors? How can you help them gain and retain Customers? How can you help them create Unique Value for their Customers?
- Unique Value can lead to Enduring Value.
Unique Value can evolve into being “in business with one another” for the long term. This Enduring Value is typically difficult to quantify, but very important in sustaining the relationship. It is the “Value-in-use” that results from a long-term relationship.
- Beware of Value Shortcuts.
- Offering discounts selectively to hold business that has started to go elsewhere.
- Introducing new promotions, terms, conditions, and offers to confuse and cloud up the market.
- Beefing up customer service by adding people to fix screwups and expedite delayed shipments. Throwing bodies at a problem only paints a veneer over basic service-process problems.
- Delaying capital investments and adjusting accounting methods to portray quarterly financial results more favorably.
- Introducing “new and improved” products that are new in form, but not in substantive ways that are of consequence to purchasers (also called “Extending the Brand”.)
All of these Shortcuts fail to address the real issue: the lack of clear, well-understood Value for the customer.
And in Conclusion…
Creating Unique Value can be a challenge, but it is essential to achieving Competitive Immunity and the long-term, high reward Customer relationships that go with it
Success Authorities can help you discover how to create Unique Value. For starters, here are some key questions to consider:
- What is (or could be) your Unique Value, and can you sustain it?
- What elements of Value can you focus on to create Unique Value? (Operating Procedures, Quality, Premium Service, Price, Time)
- What characterizes the optimal Unique Relationship with your best customer?
- What makes the Process of buying from you unique from your competition?
- How can your People create and provide Unique Value?
The effort to seek Competitive Immunity through Unique Value is not for everyone. But for those leaders and organizations willing to set off on the adventure, it can change the game forever.