Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets

Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets

by James C. Anderson, Nirmalya Kumar, James A. Narus
Released November 2007
Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 9781422103357

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Book description

Do your salespeople feel under extreme pressure to retain accounts or gain new business at any cost? If so, you may be leaving big money on the table. Consider the integrated-circuit supplier representative who lost $500,000 of potential profit on a single transaction, just to “win” a deal that he would have closed anyway at the higher price.

Do not make price concessions. Become a value merchant instead. In this authoritative book, James Anderson, Nirmalya Kumar, and James Narus explain how companies in business markets can use customer value management techniques to estimate the value of your market offerings, create value propositions that resonate with your customers, and maximize the return you will get on the superior value that you deliver.

Drawing on extensive research and detailed case studies of companies like Sonoco, Tata Steel, and Quaker Chemical, Value Merchants will change the mindset and behavior of your executives, sales management, representatives, and marketers—as well as your customers.

Table of contents

  1. Also by the Authors
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Table of Contents
  6. PREFACE
  7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  8. ONE - Value Merchants
    1. Customer Value Management: A Progressive, Practical Approach
    2. Enhancing Business Performance with Customer Value Management
    3. Overview of the Book: The Path to Superior Business Profitability
  9. TWO - Conceptualize Value
    1. Defining Customer Value in Business Markets
    2. Points of Difference, Parity, and Contention
    3. The Three Kinds of Customer Value Propositions
    4. Customer Value Propositions and Superior Business Performance
  10. THREE - Formulate Value, Propositions
    1. Hypothesize Present and Potential Valuable Points of Difference
    2. Conduct Qualitative Research to Refine the Value Proposition
    3. Construct Value Word Equations
  11. FOUR - Substantiate Value Propositions
    1. Conduct Customer Value Research
    2. Demonstrate Customer Value Through Value Calculators
    3. Demonstrate Customer Value Through Comparative Tests
    4. Document Actual Customer Value Provided
  12. FIVE - Tailor Market Offerings
    1. Offer Naked Solutions with Options
    2. Refine Targeting
    3. Become More Flexible in Offerings
    4. Tailoring Market Offerings: Dow Corning and Xiameter
  13. SIX - Transform the Sales Force into Value Merchants
    1. Value Merchants Versus Value Spendthrifts
    2. Salespeople Who Are Able to Sell Value and Want To
    3. Fostering Value Merchants
    4. How Milliken Transformed Its Sales Force into Value Merchants
  14. SEVEN - Profit from Value Provided
    1. Obtain a Fair Return on Superior Value
    2. Manage Pricing as if Profitability Depended on It
    3. Siam City Cement Prices Insee Tong for Value
  15. EIGHT - Prosper in Business Markets
    1. Achieving Superior Business Performance
    2. Getting Started with Customer Value Management
    3. Continuing to Provide Superior Value
  16. APPENDIX A - Relating Customer Value and Price
  17. APPENDIX B - PeopleFlo EnviroGear Pump Customer Value Model
  18. NOTES
  19. INDEX
  20. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Product information

  • Title: Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets
  • Author(s): James C. Anderson, Nirmalya Kumar, James A. Narus
  • Release date: November 2007
  • Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
  • ISBN: 9781422103357