Service, Benefit and Value

In Agile environments, and here I am not speaking about software companies per say, but more of what agile represents as a word, which is flexibility or to be more precise as per Merriam Webster, "marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace or having a quick resourceful and adaptable character" or actually being both. In an organization, either a large corporate or startup or whatever service you deliver it's a day by day process. Everyday is an opportunity to either clear your disruptors managing business to market deltas or get sucked into it. So the agile factor here is the readiness to adapt and collect feedback through pro-activity and ferociously in every step. The only way to ensure that the right energy is employed is to clearly distinguish the difference between outputs, benefits, Service and Value. The word Value, benefit, and output have been collaterally understood as the same, and when you add service or product to it, it becomes even more complex. It is important for people within organizations to understand the difference between all of them, what they mean and represent individually and combined.

As part of my job I have to create a medium of clarity between technical parties, teams, middle management and leadership to ensure the leveling of value delivery against the different outputs from the strategic vision of a particular product to a company's' strategy. Many organizations focus on the customer centricity as a major value, but fail to make the cut, simply because they fail to clearly distinguish the output of a service or product to the benefit from the value.

There is a Triangle of Success in your Product, your People, and your Customer with a nucleus of organizational culture . Only through satisfying that circle are you able to balance the Product, Benefits, value and outputs.

YOUR PRODUCT (Service) - "Your product defines your service or your service defines your product"

Whether you build tangible products or are a medium for supporting a particular customer servicing, both market your company culture and in turn your product or service. Features within a product are the things that your engineers build specifically for your product. If highlighting features were the key to closing deals, we wouldn't need sales people. we can just build a specs document and share it with different customers. Features are built to translate a purpose and therefore deliver value to whomever will be using a specific feature or service. Therefore, it is important to define your features as Valuable Features to which are facts defining the viability of your product or service. your product is your identity but not necessarily your prosperity in a given market.

YOUR PEOPLE - "Your people define the Benefits"

Benefits are the direct result of a feature. They are things a customer can accomplish because of the features or product you are offering or delivering. In mature companies a handful of benefits are pre-defined based on proper feasibility studies, matrices and customer success environments. Knowing your customer not the population is key to the successful benefits cycles. The benefit cycle involves the ability to create, innovate and evolve a business requirements in adaptation to different strategic directions filling a void in client's designated platforms. The only way to have a closed cycle is through your people, they are the ones who can identify the benefits with continuous customer interactions and collaboration; as operations, marketing or sales with the solo condition of those people working together regularly because the trend now is all those entities working in silos which creates a crooked wheel. Some may argue that sales are increasing with current strategies knowing that they have this problem. What are you risking with your increased sales?

1. unhappy people
2. high turnover
3. Lack of proper customer support
4. Selling unsupported features or requiring third party vendors that don't compliment your quality of service
5. unrealistic timelines
6. etc…

In the agile designed business development, here is where DEV-OPS strikes. the work of the Business as usual people working on different deals and in the initiation stage of any project becomes a major pillar to the success of the product or service and in turn the strategic alignment. Have your customer centricity centric to your people, because only they can build the benefits out of a product creating a market for it.

YOUR CUSTOMER (VALUE)

Value extends beyond what your product or service can do for your prospect and aligns your benefits with the prospect’s larger goals and objectives.

An example of value: The fuel-efficient car allows you to reduce overall travel expenses by 20 percent and aligns with your goal of reducing your carbon footprint by 5 percent year-over-year.

You may have similar features and benefits in each of your presentations; however, the value will likely be different for each individual prospect because it’s specific to each prospect’s objective.

Your customer defines the Value: This is the big one. This is what drives people to make buying decisions. The value is unique to each consumer. It is why your product is important to them. It is determined by the significance of the problem your product is solving. The only way to know the value of your product is to get feedback from your customers.

Example 1: A Pen.

Features: Blue ink, click to display point, clip, plastic, green, smooth outside.

Benefits: You can write notes, sign contracts, draw a picture, all with a device small enough to fit in your pocket and the ink is permanent.

Value: Green is my lucky color so I sign all of my contracts with my green pen.

Example 2: A Tire.

Features: Rubber, round, black, thick grooves, manufacturer's logo, 30" diameter.

Benefits: Allows your vehicle to accelerate around curves without losing traction and stop on a dime.

Value: My tires allow me to drive my children to soccer practice safely.

Why it Matters.

For business leaders, it matters because the three are linear. Featured services lead to benefits and benefits eventually lead to value. To build a successful business, you have to work backwards. First determine what you'd like your value to be and then build the features that will ultimately deliver that value. Only through co-created value will you efficiently and effectively descend the ascending markets.

For marketers, it matters because features and benefits have no emotional relevance but the value does create an emotional response. It's the reason case studies and success stories are such a powerful marketing tool. They give real life examples of the value that a product or service provides and they are always specific to that particular client.

For sales people, it matters because value is what brings people to a buying decision. Features and benefits are great but those can be displayed on your website. The only way to find the value is through communication with the client/prospect and finding out exactly what pain your product is solving. When you focus on highlighting the value of your product to that client, you will become more successful.

 In considering value, salespeople can easily get lost focusing on the many features of their product or service, assuming the benefits are obvious to their prospect. Or, alternatively, they talk about benefits and assume that they’ve done a sufficient job of conveying value, while they may have totally mis-alligned what customers really need at a particular stage. These common mistakes end up being very costly as they leave the interpretation of the value of the solution completely in the prospect’s hands. Having a clear understanding of how features, benefits, and value differ is important to people of an organizaiton before reaching out to customers. Build organizational growth through it's maturing culture rather than matured products of product growth alone.

Kr~

This article is published as part of The Agile Business Development Diaries -AMOP-