Customer Value Management: The Key to Enterprise Transformation and Value Creation

Even before the pandemic, companies have started to understand the importance of becoming data-driven and customer-centric, adopting a value-based pricing model, and developing a digital strategy for a competitive edge. However, during the unprecedented 2020 crisis, many enterprises were forced to accelerate these initiatives, but not everyone had the level of digital maturity necessary to execute them. 

Today, as the business world settles into its new reality, companies are looking to expedite their digital marketing initiatives and invest in strategies and solutions that will help them convert customers, increase sales, add more value, and futureproof their business.

In this endeavor, customer value management is essential, as it can help companies engineer more value for customers based on real data rather than speculation.

Capturing the customer value journey

Before delving deeper into customer value management, it’s essential to remember and recognize the importance of the customer value journey, which is a process potential customers undergo before buying from you. From the brand awareness phase to the multi-buyer and brand promoter phase, it’s up to you to guide the customer on this journey and help them not only perceive the value of your brand but enable them to create more value for you. 

The customer value journey consists of several key stages, with the first ones focusing on brand awareness, engagement, and conversion, and the other ones focusing on transforming the customer into a multi-buyer and brand advocate or promoter. At each phase and touchpoint, you have an opportunity to collect data that tells you how customers derive value from you and how they can also generate it for you.

In theory, this sounds like a pretty simple and straightforward process. However, in practice, it needs to be supported and solidified by a robust digital marketing strategy that attracts buyers and creates the opportunity for you to interact with them and capture their perceptions of value.

Enter customer value management

If you want your digital marketing strategy to be truly effective and gain complete visibility into the customer value journey, you should consider incorporating customer value management applications that not only capture valuable data but also enable you to manage all aspects of the customer value journey based on said data.

At its core, customer value management is a best practice for measuring value drivers, enabling you to refine your value proposition and create a sustainable competitive advantage. Combined with customer relationship management (CRM) practices, customer value management is an effective way to create value-centric conversations with your customers at every touchpoint.

In more recent years, the concept of customer value management has expanded beyond methodology, becoming a software solution that enables companies to create actionable intelligence based on value data which includes firmographic information and insights into purchase history, customer behavior, lifetime value, transaction value, referral value, influencer value, market share contribution, customer profitability, and more.

Based on this data, companies can identify which customer segments are worth pursuing and investing in. This knowledge is extremely important for a targeted digital marketing strategy that makes sense from an ROI perspective. Likewise, analyzing this data can also help you create a customer value metric for your measurement strategy.

Enterprise-class customer value management

Modern, enterprise-class applications of customer value management support advanced capabilities that help companies capture insights into the value promised, delivered, and derived while also enabling them to accelerate, automate, and scale certain processes to quantify value and create assets that nurture the potential buyer on their customer value journey.

In other words, customer value management helps companies unlock differentiated value selling, enabling them to build and convey the right value message to the right buyer at the right time. Additionally, deploying a customer value management solution can also help companies:

• Achieve a higher Net Retention Rate and shareholder returns by reducing discounts or increasing deal size and velocity;
• Deliver value analysis that buyers rely on for price justification;
• Automate traditionally manual request for proposal processes;
• Create value-based assets such as case studies from a central repository that contains real, quantified proof points from customers;
• Develop relevant and compelling content using value-based data;
• Ensure customer success by monitoring and delivering value as promised during the sales cycle.

From executive management to marketing, customer success, and partner relationships, customer value management transforms the entire enterprise into a customer-centric organism that reinforces value-based messaging and execution throughout the sales cycle and the customer value journey.

Considering that a scalable customer management platform enriches the value program by helping to develop content relevant for internal account teams, sales teams, and customer segments, it’s a good idea to incorporate such a solution to take your digital sales and marketing strategy to the next level.

So, when looking to deploy a customer value management solution that is comprehensive and robust, make sure it meets the following key requirements:

• Support for the complete customer engagement cycle, including value discovery, value delivery, and value realization;
• Business case customization features;
• Single source of truth or master repository of value data;
• Value model configuration and customization features;
• Value realization measurement;
• Seamless integration with your enterprise CRM and other tools.

Conclusion

Implementing a customer value management program is the key to understanding how customers perceive value and using that understanding to continue creating value in an increasingly digital world. 

By utilizing a software-enabled platform to make sense of value data, generate highly relevant content, and deliver the promised value, you will set yourself apart on the market, creating a competitive advantage and making yourself the top choice for both new and returning customers.