Marketing / Management

Commanding, controlling or
prevailing over all others.

Strategic programs and new partners don’t directly generate growth – value added products and
services do. The most fundamental concept here is differentiation – defining product attributes
that provide measurable benefits to customers and are unique from the competition. If you have
differentiation, you can avoid competing as a commodity (on price) and leverage the value you
provide the customer to gain higher margins.

Positioning & Differentiation

Define the current basis of competition.
Stimulate creative thinking about how customer needs (often unarticulated) can be met
with unique product attributes or support programs.
Convert sources of competitive advantage into product development and business
process roadmaps.

Strategic (Value Based) Pricing

Assess the current pricing process, customer leverage / behavior, cost of product options
and resulting margins.
Model the financial impact to the customer of unique product and service capabilities.
Create a pricing structure based on customer value and your cost to deliver – aligning
product offerings with customer segments.
Define pricing policy authority and process flow.
Develop communication tools and help implement the new prices and pricing policy.

Value Added

Stimulates critical thinking about how your current and future products add value to the
customer.
Establish the discipline that every product must have this value defined prior to design
and clearly communicated when available for sale.
Deliver the roadmap for action via prioritized R&D, Marketing and Sales programs.
Recommended pricing to capture customer value (100% of any price improvement falls to
the bottom line).
Implement any required changes in the pricing process.
Modified the customer dialog – keeping the focus on value and moving negotiations from
“beating the supplier” to discussion of constructive product and service alternatives.