Rethinking The Buying Process - The Advantage Factor

A common area of discussion when thinking about the technology products or services we offer is whether they are must have or nice to have. We sometimes work the "mission critical" term into it to.

As I look at the evolving world of technology and its use cases, I'm questioning these long held mindsets. It seems like we should be asking different questions, particularly when technology is embedded directly into the products or services we offer. This should be done at two levels. The first is the traditional thinking, with an added layer.

Is your offering?

• Essential - Your customer's product or service could not exist without what you (or other similar competitors) offer (i.e. core to the value proposition)? (The traditional essential example in tech would be semi-conductors for computers. But the new world of digital products and services has greatly expanded the range of "essential components.")
• Critical - The business operations of your customer could not run without what you do.
• Necessary - Operations could continue, but they would be several hamstrung without what you do.
• Nice to have - There is added value, but your customer would be okay without what you do.

The next layer is simpler: Does your offering enable an advantage for your customer?

Putting it together, the top of the proverbial pyramid would be to offer an Essential Advantage. The market for this is limited--once you offer it to lots of folks it becomes just essential--but it is where winners partner with winners.

And the engagement process--buying and selling--should be different. "Buyers" should be looking for "sellers" that are more partners--collaborating on how to create the successful product. New business models, like Generative that my colleague Mark McDonald, should be applied. You aren't looking for lots of similar competitors with a well defined requirements list. You're looking for an idea partner that can enhance differentiation.

On the "seller" side, if you can enable advantage, you should be approaching prospects differently, where you aren't showing proven use cases, but showing possibilities. You're asking questions about their business model and looking at how to either fit that, or help them refine it. The pricing should be oriented toward sharing in the success--e.g. you make more when they sell more.

Essential Advantage eventually just becomes essential. That too is a partnership, but has less of a story of collaboratively building the advantage to really scaling as the market scales. There may be more competition, but the engagement model needs to continue to be about more that features--really about a more sustaining business partnership.

As we move behind the scenes, being mission critical was always the goal. I'd contend that creating advantage here is similar to Essential advantage, albeit a bit different in terms of the "creating the market" and "sharing in success" pricing. On the buyer side, if I'm looking for something that gives me an advantage, I should treat that supplier differently. This (and both areas of essential) is a truly strategic partner. I'd contend that all the other categories are at varying levels of importance, but not truly strategic. Yes, you may spend a lot of money with a vendor and invested a lot to deploy a number of their technologies, but if they aren't essential or enabling advantage in a mission critical area, then they really aren't strategic.

For technologies that are necessary or nice to have, the advantage opportunity is not as great, but it can be used more locally. Do you create an advantage for a department or workgroup that helps them perform better---making it easier for them to achieve their objectives and deliver value to the business? If so, you can help them make a business case for investment.

I realize I rambled a bit, but this is a different way of thinking about things that needs more thought. But "enabling advantage" is becoming more important than simply differentiating. And thinking about the scope of the advantage opportunity should change the way you market and sell.

Interested in the thoughts of others on this. For Gartner clients, happy to spend some time brainstorming on this with you to explore ways to change the way you entice and engage with your customers and prospects.

Disclaimer: The articles in this newsletter do not follow Gartner's standard editorial review. All comments or opinions expressed here are mine and do not represent the views of Gartner, Inc. or its management.