If your job description includes creating new services or products that become profitable, you know how hard your job is. You have infinite ways to fail and only a few to succeed. So, let’s explore why you are working so hard.
What makes creating new services or products so complex?
A successful launch means customers will buy enough of your offering to cover development costs and produce an acceptable gross margin. Why, then, will customers buy what you are selling? Ian Dainty, the well-known Sales Coach, says that B2B customers buy for all or some of these reasons:
- Performance improvement
- More opportunities
- Competitive advantage
- Risk mitigation
- Personal wins
When I think about this list at a higher level, I combine the first four into a single category: getting their work done better. And the last item is also getting their job done better, but their job is to further their career. Prospects only make a purchase decision when they perceive the decision helps them do their job better. And the things that contribute to doing a job better are the only things that create value.
What is value?
Value is usually defined as:
Value = Benefits – Costs
We know how to quantify and manipulate costs (selling price + implementation costs), but how do we measure benefits? The answer to this question is much more complicated than we would think based on the simplicity of the equation. The rest of this post will explain why it is so difficult.
Why is it so difficult to quantify benefits?
There are numerous reasons why creating new services and quantifying their benefits is next to impossible. Here are the most important.
- They are based on the buyer’s perception of the improvement to their jobs. Perceptions are individual and cannot be generalized to a large group without making some errors.
- Perceptions are based on what is happening with the buyer when he concludes. For example, if they are under tremendous pressure to succeed and the company culture punishes failure, the buyer’s attitude is to avoid risk and disbelieve any value arguments.
- This one happens unexpectedly. Something totally unexpected arises in the business and dramatically changes the buyer’s perception of the value to be created. As the buyer’s circumstances change, so do their perceived benefits.
When I was the Americas VP of Service for a large multinational company, I was occasionally called by the CEO and told, “You cannot share what I am going to tell you. Tomorrow, the XYZ business will announce purchasing a business in the U.S. You need to be there at 8 AM to meet with the employees and explain how their Service department will be integrated into your existing business.” You can imagine what that would have done to any purchase plans I worked on.
- Changes come randomly and can be everywhere with no rhyme or reason. This means the seller can never feel comfortable that the buyer will not change their mind about your offer before signing the contract. And maybe not until the check is cashed.
- Perceptions are influenced by cost, both absolute and relative. Total cost is your offer. It informs how people think about the value they will enjoy from purchasing your stuff. If the buyer feels your request is too high, she may feel her coworkers will think she overpaid, no matter how beneficial the value is. Or, if the offer appears too low, she may have second thoughts because “how good can it be if the price is so low?”
Relative cost is the price of your offer compared to offers for alternative ways to get their job done better. Too high, and she feels she is being cheated; too low, and she is concerned the quality will be crap.
Once you understand these potential issues, consider the realities of B2B purchasing today. For all but the most basic decisions, many businesses now have a “purchasing committee” or a “value analysis committee” of about six members representing different disciplines or departments. And each one will be influenced by the above five points. Since one of the jobs of individuals in larger businesses is to avoid personal risk, each member has their own agenda and value criteria. This may be why many, if not most, purchase decisions today lose to “do nothing.” In any case, you and your team will have to work with the individual members of the purchasing committee to guide them to a common understanding. Or, at least, a point where they can sit down together and come to a decision that works for all of them.
Conclusion
Today, many businesses have Value Pricing and Value Selling experts on staff to help the Sales, Service, and Marketing departments prepare their stories to be understood and accepted by the most significant buyers. If you are fortunate to have these people available to help you, you would be a fool not to take advantage of their skills and expertise.
I wish you great success as you create new services that make customer value!
To read more about creating new services, click here. And another related article is Why People Buy Your Products and Services
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your creating new service efforts for your customers, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.