Measuring and demonstrating value

Much of the work that I carry out is focused on demonstrating the value of our clients' offerings - through customer advocacy, influencer engagement, or customer DM. An article in this month's HBR discusses the importance of backing up any of your claims with concrete evidence, obviously something that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone working on producing customer evidence!

"Customer value proposition" has become one of the most widely used terms in business markets in recent years. Yet there is no agreement as to what constitutes a customer value proposition-or what makes one persuasive. Moreover, we find that most value propositions make claims of savings and benefits to the customer without backing them up. An offering may actually provide superior value-but if the supplier doesn't demonstrate and document that claim, a customer manager will likely dismiss it as marketing puffery.

And no one wants to be accused of marketing puffery.