Your offer is not evaluated based on what you believe!
During strategic reviews conducted with our clients, one observation remains: too many organizations establish their strategy based on internal assumptions rather than on the reality of their customers' situation.
Before even evaluating the different strategic choices, we ask the teams to identify the customer value criteria and competitive positioning. The expected result is simple: a perfect alignment.
It’s not the case!
A Limited Perspective
More often than not, teams encounter a disconnect. They have limited knowledge of their customers’ actual jobs, pain points, and benefits. Worse still, members of senior management themselves may disagree on fundamental value criteria.
During a workshop, one client mentioned to us: “I realize that we have limited knowledge about our customers. It's hard to admit, and it has a significant impact.”
How is it possible to establish a clear strategy, ensure its execution, and align the entire organization when you are unable to identify the unique value to be created?
The price paid for building a competitive advantage on an illusion can be significant.
It is more than necessary to go out and meet your customers, users, and non-users.
It's about observing, asking questions, and listening.
This initiative, this "customer safari" where your team becomes market anthropologists, is a source of concrete teachings. This is the moment of truth that allows you to identify what truly creates value.
The reflection that follows will enable you to make the necessary trade-offs between what you believe is essential and what the market is willing to value.
A Framework to Anchor Value
The exercise can take the following form:
- Establish the initial interpretation of the value criteria.
- Explore a representative sample of customers and non-users.
- Highlight the key elements that emerge from the observations.
- Document the gaps in our offer - Review what is valued and what is not in order to create or consolidate value.
- Document the positioning of competitors' offerings on these criteria.
- Evaluate the present differentiation (or lack thereof).
- Establish options to be evaluated in order to create unique value.
- Conduct tests and validate the conditions for success.
- Evaluate the key impacts on strategic choices and the business model.
- Choose and establish an action plan.
With concrete data reflecting the reality on the ground, it is possible to eliminate preconceptions and approximations. Strategic decisions are then anchored in the reality of value creation for customers.
By carrying out this exercise in collaboration with the various teams and incorporating other key considerations such as the analysis of weak signals and trends, you also promote collective strategic thinking and the sharing of a common vision.
During your next strategy session, don't waste time debating opinions.
Require that customer reviews be validated before the workshop. Frame the exercise by reaching out to customers in advance. You'll maximize the richness of the discussions and focus your energies directly on reinforcing the desired differentiation.
This review of your positioning should be a regular habit and a condition for the success of your strategy.
Have a great week and good fieldwork!
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