5 Ways to reimagine your Customer Success journey through Customer Value Management

Prior to July 20, 1969, many people imagined it could be possible to send a person to the moon, but it seemed like an impossible dream. It took math geniuses working in unison with other experts to harness data, utilize advanced technology, and prepare brave astronauts for that incredible event to happen in real life.

Fast forward to today and as we expand space programs to explore other planets, some people are talking about a day when humans may even live on Mars—truly a new frontier.

Back on Earth, businesses are learning about another new frontier: customer value management (CVM). Now a $2.6 billion market, CVM opens new possibilities for the future of value selling, increasing revenue, and taking customer relationships to a new level.

Based on my experience in the industry, here’s how to make the most of your CVM investment.

• Company-wide education and training: Make sure to take the time for everyone to understand why customer value is important and how they can participate in creating and maintaining a CVM-centric culture for achieving customers for life. Invest in quality training that will help all prepare to engage with a customer value-first mindset.

• Agree to agree: Have early discussions with your customers to learn which customer value metrics they value most and the results they hope to achieve so you have a mutual understanding. These could be things like increasing sales win rates, accelerating deal velocity, reducing the need for discounting, reducing churn, and increasing revenue.

• Guessing versus knowing: A customer value hypothesis, when done correctly, takes the guesswork out of building business cases for achieving your goals. The business cases provide the financial proof your buyers need for optimal success. Differentiate from competitors by having true business outcome-based conversations rooted in financial improvement.

• Measure and report: Track, quantify, and communicate the business outcomes to ensure solutions support initial CVM commitments and deliver on expectations. Carefully review and recalibrate efforts as needed to achieve the desired results.

Following the steps above can lead to exceptional achievements. I speak from experience: My company experienced 900 wins influenced by CVM-generated business value assessments. In addition, IDC predicts that “By 2026, B2B companies will use AI interactions and analytics technology to deliver personalized journey engagement, eliminating 40% of marketing and sales human touchpoints.”

Let that sink in for a moment. We’re now well into 2022. In just four more years, 40% of marketing and sales human touchpoints will be eliminated. What will that mean for company leaders?

We are rapidly moving toward the next AI and analytics frontier. I’d like to close by sharing five key ways to leverage AI and analytics to reimagine your customer success journey through CVM:

1. Empower your sales team with the means to convey the economic value of your company’s products and services using metrics and data to show precisely how they can attract, win, and retain customers to grow their businesses.

2. Enable your customer success team by giving them the means to quantify and demonstrate the customer value realized over time and on a consistent and continuous basis.

3. Equip your marketing team with the means to develop assets such as customer case studies, infographics, and other marketing materials that include data from your CVM repository to highlight success metrics achieved.

4. Support your operations team with the CVM data to help determine the various levels of operational technologies and educational programs needed for achieving the business goals.

5. Finally, facilitate your finance team’s efforts with CVM ROI data and business case information to reduce risk, reduce the cost of sales, and gain achievement insights.

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Tim Page, DecisionLink CEO, is on a mission to transform customer value into a strategic asset.

Original post here.