Previously I wrote about how providing value to customers means taking responsibility for their success, and I outlined four principles I follow to help assure value for my customers.
In this post, I want to expand on my comments on Geoffrey Moore’s article. Moore mentions three levels of transformation for adding value within this evolution of service processes: Infrastructure Transformation, Operating Model Transformation and Business Model Transformation.
Ideally, world-class service providers will employ the first and second models (Infrastructure and Operating Model transformation), help their clients implement these changes and help them achieve successful business transformation.
For Sales & Marketing Enablement, service providers should consider the following requirements for an Enablement Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
- An Enablement IaaS should provide vendors with support for all sales cycle activities, including Prospecting, Discovery, Value Proposition and Negotiation.
- An Enablement IaaS should help vendors’ sales organizations adopt the customer’s perspective. This means they must align their sales cycle activities with the Customer’s Buying Cycle, including the Customer’s:
- Burgeoning market & solution awareness (matching Prospecting with Awareness)
- Consideration of market / vendor alternatives (matching Discovery with Consideration)
- Evaluation of Alternatives (matching Value Proposition with Evaluation
- Justification of vendor selection and project (matching Negotiation with Justification).
- An Enablement IaaS must include processes and a framework for:
- Demand Progression (from first prospect contact to Closed Win)
- Solutions & Industry Marketing
- Sales Operations & Methodology
- Sales Enablement (e.g., Enablement Training and Delivery)
- The Enablement IaaS should allow for the ever-changing external factors of Market Conditions, Industry Trends, Solution Strategies and the Competitive Landscape.
In terms of Operating Model Transformation, an Enablement Service should bring this Infrastructure to their customers, teach them how to employ it and stand with them as they transition their operating procedures to include the new framework. An Enablement Service offering needs to shoulder the responsibility of the customer’s success. The service provider must take on the “hard work” of staying with the customer throughout their Infrastructure change, and also work with them during their Operating phase as a trusted advisor for Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), Sales Opportunity Reviews and Coaching and regular sales training.
Finally, an Enablement Service provider should support Moore’s third paradigm shift: Business Model Transformation. In this third transformation, Moore mentions companies such as Uber who have developed new business models – e.g., crowd-sourced transportation – that have disrupted traditional business models such as taxi services.
If you are a new company providing such a disruptive service, or if you are a company being disrupted by new services, you need to have comprehensive Go-to-Market strategies and tactics that enable your sales and marketing forces to succeed in this evolving landscape.
Ideally, an Enablement Service provider will bring their customer:
- The Infrastructure for new models
- A roadmap for implementing and/or transitioning to the new model
- Implementation services for the new model
- Ongoing operational support before, during and after the transition to the new business model
Does your company claim to offer a service? How are you providing value to your customers to back it up? Do you have the Infrastructure, Operating Model and Business Model to make you and your customers successful?