The Case for Buyer-Aligned Value Models…Part 1 of 4

The Case for Buyer-Aligned Value Models…Part 2 of 4

In Part 1 and 2, I suggested that it’s time for B-to-B marketing executives and their product marketing organizations to get serious about supporting a solution oriented sales process. The first step in making this transition is to formally adopt a buyer-aligned value model. As a refresher:

• Seller-aligned value models reflect the vendor’s point of view where purpose, value, and differentiation are defined in the context of the seller’s product or service
• Buyer-aligned value models  reflect the customer’s point of view where purpose, value, and differentiation are defined in the context of the customer’s problem

I also described the three different kinds of value models and why two (center & right in Figure 1) can support a solution oriented messaging strategy. So, what are the key differences between a hybrid and a buyer-aligned value model?

Figure 1: Three Different Value Models to Choose From
The Hybrid Value Model

An overwhelming majority of marketing organizations adopt the Hybrid Value Model when they decide to support a solution oriented sales strategy. The hybrid model combines both buyer-aligned and seller-aligned perspectives and it supports high level problem-solution messages along with more tactical and explicit feature-function messages.
 
To accomplish this, product marketing simply adds some form of problem statement or description to their existing feature-function list and then calls their product a solution. In fact the hybrid value model is often called “Marketecture” because it’s really just a cosmetic wrapper that’s applied to existing product oriented positioning and messaging.
 
As I mentioned earlier, in the hybrid model, the resulting flow of the message is both buyer centric and seller centric. The buyer centric portion is pretty superficial and goes something like this; “You have a problem, we have a solution”. This customer point of view however, is quickly followed by; “These are its features, here’s how they work, here’s the benefits, and here’s how they’re different from the competition.”  

Since the seller centric part of the model focuses on communicating value and differentiation, it’s just like all other product messaging. The customer has to connect the dots between the feature and the problem they’re trying to solve which forces the customer to translate the benefit into value.  Since value is always contextual, this lack of context in traditional product messaging is why “benefits” are different and a lot less customer relevant than “value”. More importantly, why would you want to leave that value translation in the hands of the customer?

Marketing organizations adopt the hybrid model because they don’t know any better, it comes naturally, it’s expedient, it doesn’t require much intellectual lifting, and it doesn’t force them out of their feature-function comfort zone. Unfortunately, as the symptoms below indicate, overly simplistic and superficial approaches to solution messaging have not been effective, and have had little, if any, impact on sales. They are also why most sales enablement initiatives fail to produce the desired results.

• 73% of CMOs say solution value messages are not reaching customers
• 92% of product marketers have difficulty defining the customer’s problem and it’s causes
• 90% of sales people fumble the business / solution  conversation
• 80% to 90% of marketing collateral is considered useless by sales
• 70% of the leads generated by marketing are never followed up on

Sources:  Sales & Marketing Management - American Marketing Association - B-to-B Marketing - Escaping The Black Hole - SPI International - Value Mapping Consortium

The Buyer-Aligned Value Model

The Buyer-Aligned Value Model (right in Figure 1) is the only value model that truly supports a solution-aligned strategy because it enables high-level problem-solution messages as well as explicit cause-capability messages. Explicitly aligning causes with capabilities is the most effective way to communicate an understanding of the problem as well as your value and differentiation from the customer’s perspective. This is why as I mentioned in Part 1 & 2, the buyer-aligned value model has been universally embraced by what are arguably the most solution-aligned organizations in the world…pharmaceutical companies.

The buyer-aligned value model is based on a clearly defined problem-solution map. The problem-solution mapping process requires product marketing to identify the key customer problems their solutions solve. Then they segment those customer problems by market and stakeholder and break each one down into its key underlying causes.
 
Once the underlying causes of each problem have been defined they are explicitly aligned with one or more capabilities of the company’s solutions.  When the map is completed you have two perfectly balanced hierarchies; one for your customer’s problems and one for your solutions. The resulting message flow goes something like this; “You have a problem, we understand that problem as well as its underlying causes, here’s how our capabilities solve those causes, here’s how we solve them better than our competitors, and here’s the value we deliver to your business.”  

Well constructed problem-solution maps help marketing and salespeople do a better job of communicating their understanding of the customer’s problem and how their solution can help fix it. And more importantly, by connecting the dots between causes and capabilities marketing and salespeople are able to more clearly communicate two kinds of value from the customer’s perspective:

1. A  solution’s “Generic  Value”; which is the business impact of solving specific causes in a way that’s  similar to the  competition
2. And more importantly, a solution’s “Differentiated Value”; which is the business impact of solving specific causes better, cheaper, or faster than the competition

Finally, even though they’re rarely adopted by marketing organizations, buyer-aligned value models are not a new idea for B-to-B companies. For the last several decades sales performance organizations like SPI have been teaching sales people to frame their company’s value and differentiation using cause-capability conversations. So in effect, salespeople have been taught to use the buyer-aligned model while marketing has been using the hybrid model. No wonder that ineffective messaging continues to be one of the biggest drivers of the marketing-sales disconnect.

So, if adopting a buyer-aligned value model will go a long way in closing the gap between marketing and sales and fix a lot of the symptoms mentioned earlier, what’s the best way to get started?

To be continued… The Case for Buyer-Aligned Value Models Part 4 of 4 will post Thursday, March 18.

Want to learn more about Solution Marketing and Buyer-Aligned Value Models for Sellers? Join SPI and Bob Schmonsees for an upcoming webinar: Equipping the Sales Mind of the Future, March 23. To register, click here.