Do you know which metrics your customer cares about?
Original Publish Date: Mar 12, 2020
Let’s start with a simple challenge.
Each one of you is likely part of a company that serves different customer categories. Can you name the top 3 to 5 metrics that each customer category cares about? I’m talking about specific metrics that changes your customer’s business substantially and truly shows the value your product or service provides.
The answers I get with this question tends to be cost, quality, reliability, and so on. While those may be true; they fail to capture the nuances of the customer’s business and are often 'lazy' metrics aimed at either lumping different customers or customer categories together.
There’s an easy experiment to test this theory out.
Let’s assume your company has multiple, distinct customer groups or categories. Now look at your marketing content for the different channels. Does each channel just focus on generic metrics that doesn’t capture each customer group’s unique business needs? Or, does it communicate clearly the impact your company can make in nuanced terms with specific 2nd or 3rd order metrics linked to the customer’s business or expected business outcomes?
We can be honest here. It’s very likely the former!
We treat the concept of value differently in business settings. We seem to have a general understanding of our buying behavior or preferences at a personal level. Yet, somehow, we discount each customer group’s buying preferences or at least the nuances in large part.
I want to focus this write-up specifically on B2B business situations. Although, I’m sure there are few lessons applicable to the B2C world too.
How do you communicate value?
The value you generate for any customer group needs to speak to the business situations they encounter. And you can’t just stop there. You also must show how you’re better than any of the alternate solutions and there’s one more piece to the puzzle.
You must show how you impact your customer’s business using specific metrics that “move” their business. These metrics like I mentioned earlier can’t be generic to the point that they’re offered as lip service. These metrics need to quantitatively identify how their business will change overnight if they were to choose you to help them out. These metrics need to be the ones that the customer also cares about hearing.
So, start with your value proposition exercise. Identify your value statements – a maximum of 3. Quantify each value statement and link each statement to a metric relevant to the customer. In case you’re wondering about which metrics to highlight for the customer; do some homework on the customer and identify the common headaches and concerns they have. The relevant metrics are normally intertwined with hurdles, pains, challenges, goals, or desired results for the customer. The metrics are always some function of time, risk, money, opportunity, safety, or effort.
Two real-world examples
A lot of companies are starting to think about metrics that 'move' their customer's business. Stated differently, these companies are paying attention to their value in producing business outcomes that the customer cares about. I want to share two different real-world examples in this section on how this philosophy of business outcomes can be applied to two different types of stakeholders - investors, customers.
Example #1 – Informing investors about your ESG credentials
Equinor – formerly known as Statoil – started out as an oil and gas company focused on assets around Norway. Now they’ve gradually rebranded themselves into an energy company and are also actively expanding their renewables portfolio.
Equinor’s expansion into renewables doesn’t mean that they’re giving up their productive, cost efficient oil and gas assets. Like many energy majors, they’re being mindful about their carbon footprint, tackling emission challenges while being profitable with their continued work on carbon intense endeavors. How do you communicate this to a segment of the investor community that’s eager to judge you by your Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) credentials?
The answer is straightforward – show your investors your impact in easy to understand ESG outcomes or metrics.
Equinor’s efforts in support of the Paris Climate Agreement are around “cutting emissions from oil and gas activities” and “investing ambitiously in renewables”. The following metrics highlight their decarbonization efforts and development of low-carbon solutions.
Expected production capacity from renewables by 2026 (4 to 6 GW)
Capture and storage of CO2 in tons (23 million tons so far)
% of R&D budget dedicated to low-carbon and energy efficiency (25%)
Example #2 – Helping customers quickly get up to speed in a crowded marketplace
Any newly formed entity – be it a startup, subsidiary, etc. – always finds it hard to survive the first couple of years when they’re trying to make inroads into markets that have a deluge of competitors. Any opportunity to stand apart goes a long way. Furthermore, the new entity always has the burden to show at least a minimum number of case studies or project successes before they get any attention from a wider pool of potential customers.
TillerStack offers Field Service Management (FSM) software for companies around Europe that deliver services as part of their normal operations. Their website lists the clear benefits of their solution from the customer’s perspective right down to the following metrics and outcomes.
Always meet SLAs – outcome: 2X increase in technician productivity
Lower service operating costs – outcome: 47% reduction in travel time
Increase customer satisfaction and retention – outcome: 38% reduction in time to fix
Key Takeaway
Articulate your value in a unique manner for every customer or customer group that you come across. Link it to specific impacts on their business. Develop case studies to show how you can deliver on those business impacts. In the end, it’s all about speaking to a customer in a way that’s relevant to their situation and showing value that removes any guessing work from their side to weigh the available choices against each other.