Customer Value Proposition - Crafitti's 5 Stage Model

How You Sell? - What Stage of Customer Value Proposition is your Company!

Every company wants to sell its products, services or whatever it wants to sell to the customer in the best possible way. Where is your sales messages - where is your customer value proposition - is a big question that is not easy to answer. 

In fact, companies do not have a way of saying - how we sell and how we can move ahead on the sales and marketing messages. The Following Model gives five stages of Customer Value Proposition and also what it takes to really create the Technology Epiphany.

Stage 1:     All Benefits Described with All services

Description:  The suppliers list every perceived benefit delivered by their product or service. This method requires a standardized list to be prepared for all customers in all scenarios;

Problem/Effort/Constraints: This leads to  benefits assertion without any actual benefit to the target customers, and hence an issue as customer has to think about how all these benefits asserted actually will help him meet his need.

Stage 2:   Favorable Points of Difference 

Description:  Based on the customer's awareness of alternatives, this requires the supplier to have knowledge of alternatives to his own offerings. The proposition is for the supplier to articulate the ways in which his offering is different (and better) to the alternatives.  

Problem/Effort/Constraints:This leads to what is called the value presumption – an assumption that points of difference articulated by the supplier are beneficial to the customers. 

Stage 3: Resonating Focus

Description:  The suppliers need to make their offerings superior on key elements of value that are most relevant to the customers. The supplier's offerings must demonstrate and document their superior performance. In addition, the offerings must clearly display the supplier's sophisticated understanding of their customers' business problems.

Problem/Effort/Constraints: This requires a deep effort to understand the customer need - through an effort intensive often opaque process of developing customer Insight.

Stage 4: Proposal of New Meaning

Description: Meanings result from interaction between user and product/service. This is a Proposal to your clients (who are people) about new ways in which the work/product/solution/service need to be defined/viewed/used/crafted. This requires creating altered propositions to the client and has three stages of Listening, Interpreting and Addressing 

Problem/Effort/Constraints: Lot of effort and knowledge from variety of sources - Listening is not what every company does - however companies that create Listening systems perform much better. The Inventive Thinking/Design Thinking is needed to be enmeshed inside the supplier DNA - it is long term assimilation and requires extreme effort. 

Stage 5: Technology Epiphany - The Creation of WOW!

Description: When radical innovation of technology synergizes with radical innovation in Meaning - WOW gets created. When companies create Novel technologies and combine with "new often hidden meaning of new technology" - WOW or technology Epiphany (a usually sudden realization of essential nature or meaning of something) emerges and sweeps the markets.

Problem/Effort/Constraints: Requires very deep technology development capability along with ability to create new proposals of meaning. However, it can also be crafted by companies that interpret new technology in new ways to create WOW.

SO IF YOU REALLY WANT TO  CREATE WOW pursue Technology Epiphany else be in the continuous struggle of All Benefits assertion!!!