We've been talking a lot recently about how to create value for customers, with a key underlying principle being the critical importance of solidifying the relationship with the customer. The depth of knowledge salespeople gain in doing so – including the customer's business pain and frustrations as well as their aspirations – allows them to tailor how they present their product or service so that the customer is able to 'picture' exactly how it will meet their needs. If they can't 'see it' they won't buy it!
We've covered this from just about every perspective for a salesperson. But today we'd like to discuss value creation before the sales team takes the product to market, that is, from the perspective of management and marketing. In fact, the process of creating value is as or more critical for management to practice. But rarely does management refer to the process as creating value – instead, it's referred to as some variant of innovation.
For some the concept of innovation can have sort of mystical qualities, that to be labeled "innovation", you must produce the next Apple or Google. But innovation does not need to be groundbreaking in that sense; it can (and does) happen in businesses every day. It also isn't constrained to creating or improving products or services but extends to improvements in processes, work environment or even communication protocols and beyond.
Some past work we did alongside a division of 3M is a good example of "regular" innovation – in other words, not groundbreaking or revolutionary, more evolutionary. It's generally well-known that 3M places a huge emphasis on innovation, and we saw this firsthand as the division conducted extensive research: on the market, the customer, their business challenges, what they were trying to achieve in their businesses, the products they used at the time, what was good or bad about them, what features/functionality were missing from products, and on and on. Each question had a purpose, to help 3M define the end user and their requirements, and that knowledge was directly applied to the development of future (and quite successful) products.
You may have noted that this process has close parallels with the salesperson's objectives when creating value for customers: Just as salespeople must develop a relationship with the customer in the process of creating value, management and marketing must do the same through every innovation initiative. At its heart, the purpose of every business is to solve human problems and meet human needs, a reality sometimes lost when the urgent is driving out the important!
Of course, by operating from a different perspective to that of salespeople, value creation by management and marketing will also bring have a different 'touch', and that's exactly why good salespeople and an effective sales process are indispensable. Through their role in creating value, management and marketing help bring products to market with value propositions that are much more apparent to customers, giving sales teams more tools to work with and better enabling the role of the salesperson.
Does your business currently run innovation initiatives? Do you think your management and marketing team could help create more value? If so give us a call on 1300 699 384 or request a complimentary consultation with a Fortune consultant. We'd be happy to discuss your situation and how to accelerate building an innovative environment.