CROs Need to Fully Embrace Customer Value Management

This pandemic has dramatically transformed the way we do business around the world. There are changes that are short-term in nature and others that will be with us for a long time as part of the new normal. The crisis has challenged fragile supply chains, complex organizational structures, and the selling operating model across many sectors. Although the worst might be behind us, CROs must redesign their go-to-market strategies to adapt to the new normal and continue to grow. And one of their redesign priorities to integrate customer value management (CVM) in their practice, in their process, and in their mindset. The imperative to compete on customer economic value has never been greater. With over 16,000 SaaS companies targeting the market at the same time and competing for customer mindshare, there is a need to project outstanding crisp value proposition and to differentiate by systematically demonstrating ROI, economic value, and value realization. This is the best way to stand above the rest of the competition when you consider that an average company already use 58 sales-related apps, according to the latest Productiv report on the SaaS market. There is a lot of noise out in the market. CROs need to focus on true financial benefits and rewire their internal mindset around the critical outcomes customer want to achieve.

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Many SaaS companies have already started. They have full fledge value management and value consulting teams. They connect with sales and customer success teams. But many of these teams still manage business value assessments and ROI calculations using Excel and manual processes in PowerPoint. In a way they stand out in front of customers, but they are slow in generating customer deliverables and draining precious internal resources. At DecisionLink, we believe that the future of CVM is automated, integrated in current platforms, and focused on end-user adoption. CVM at scale is fast, automated, and agile. You become an engine of growth for your customers and the fuel in the engine is the value you create for them to help sign deals.

Consider the following points:

• CVM is a team sport which engages 100% of the CRO’s organization. Customer value is the number of preoccupations for the engaged team, which forces strong alignment and focus on critical customer outcomes.
• CVM focuses on customer outcomes and systematically engage customers and prospects on ROI calculations and business value assessments. Your team speaks the customer language, aligns with customer priorities, and supports the customer growth plan. The entire organization lives and breathes customer success.
• CVM can be fully automated with ValueCloud® to accelerate the production and utilization of all value deliverables in the sales value chain. Instead of managing thousands of business value assessments and ROI calculations manually, they are generated automatically and attached to the customer profile. The end goal is to have 100% of the customer proposals and deals sold with an ROI calculation.
• CVM must be integrated with all other major marketing, sales, and customer solutions. And ValueCloud® does just that. It acts at a connection platform from marketing all the way to customer success. ValueCloud® serves as a turbo fuel in all systems!
• ValueCloud® is a multi-functional platform aimed at enabling the go-to-market functions. This platform is backed by the DecisionLink guarantee which focuses on aggressive adoption rate when customers adopt the programs and protocol [1]. DecisionLink’s priority to customer success and monetary impact, and that cannot happen without excellent adoption rate.
• With CVM’s strong link to pricing and profit, value engineering and pricing teams can work together to connect value realization and pricing realization. We can now empower value sellers with grounded and powerful value models based on a customer’s financial outcomes.

With CVM, customer value becomes the secret sauce that connects all functions in the CRO team. That secret sauce comes with automation, integration, and an adoption program. CROs need to embrace the CVM trend and get started with the right tools. DecisionLink has already enabled hundreds of SaaS companies and their teams to become value champions and focus on customer outcomes. There has never been a better time to get started. SaaS companies and other types of firms must prepare for greater competition, greater demand for customer experience, and great requirement of value delivery and value realization. With churn rates increasing, CROs can use CVM to focus on retention, expansion, and lifetime value of customers.

Bio

Dr. Stephan Liozu (www.stephanliozu.com) is the Founder of Value Innoruption Advisors (www.valueinnoruption.com),  a consulting boutique specializing in industrial pricing, digital business, and value models, and value-based pricing. Stephan has 30 years of experience in the industrial and manufacturing sectors with companies like Owens Corning, Saint-Gobain, Freudenberg, and Thales. He holds a Ph.D. In Management from Case Western Reserve University, and has written several books, including “Dollarizing Differentiation Value” (2016) and “Value Mindset” (2017).

[1] DecisionLink Guarantee – DecisionLink, The Ultimate Differentiation