So, I was asked by my boss to participate in a ‘Value Story’ workshop, I nodded, gave a knowledgable smile, said ‘Of course’ … then dashed off to look it up on Wikipedia. The WikiGods told me that I need a Value Proposition, and further probing took me a book called “Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition” (link below*)
In a nutshell the authors provide a multistep looped framework to build your value proposition.
Framework for building your Value Proposition, based on Barnes, Blake & Pinder's Value Proposition Builder™
Barnes, Blake & Pinder defines value in its simplest form as
Value = Benefits – Cost
Where Benefits = Outcomes & Experiences of value to the client (not the features of the offering) and Cost = Financial exposure and other factors (e.g. time, risk) that the client must ‘pay’
The thing that resonated with me was the clarification that the benefit must be seen from the clients’ point of view, whereas listing the features is your point of view.
The book has a good case study about Xerox, and although I’m not in the business of selling copiers or widgets, I have been guilty in the past of listing the features of our offering and company – in effect tooting our own horn – rather than putting myself in the client’s shoes.
Note also that the cost is not only money, if we can cost them less risk and time, then they will see value in that.
Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut to understanding the client’s needs, wants, desires and expectations of value, the best way to ‘become the client’ is to undertake research, mainly in the form of the ‘Value Interview’. I would have liked more detail/tips/case studies on this, but I guess that means it’s down to me to talk to my clients!
* P.S. The footnote in the wiki entry linked to the Google Books entry, which convinced me to buy the book … unfortunately the book wasn’t available for instant download (I needed it that day) … fortunately there was enough text in the Google Books preview for me to feel confident about contributing meaningfully to the workshop, and I actually did end up buying the dead-tree version because I had derived value from the book and thought it was only fair … but it made me wonder how many people would have been so honourable? On the other hand would I have bought the book at all if I hadn’t read the excerpt on Google Books? … This is a topic for another day.
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