A few years ago, I mentioned to my parents that my car needs cleaning. In reaction, my parents told me about the new car wash service that they started using. There is a place, about a 15-minute drive from where I live, that sells a monthly car wash subscription. The subscription allows you to drive through the car washing machine for an external wash as many times as you’d like every month, use the vacuum cleaner yourself for cleaning the inside of the car, and a discount if you’d like to upgrade to them washing the car for you both in and out. 

They went on to explain how valuable it was for them – my father would drive there at least once a week, drive through the machine, and then vacuum the car, clean all the garbage, and make sure it was gleaming. It was such a pleasure for them to drive in a clean car. They tried to convince me to try the service, but I immediately said no.

For me, juggling between family life and running a business, driving 15 minutes somewhere just to clean the car is an absolute ‘no’. I can’t even imagine going through the hustle of cleaning it myself. 

My parents kept mentioning it to me every now and then, and I kept saying that it was not for me. But at some point, when I was around, I decided to get my car cleaned. As I went into the office to pay I saw again that they sell a subscription. At that moment it hit me: I didn’t need my car to be super clean all the time. Most of my problem is with the outside dust, the inside is kept relatively clean (we don’t allow the kids to eat in the car, and it does magic in that sense). For the external dust problem, the only thing I need is to drive through the machine. 

I tried the subscription, and have been using it for a few years now. But I use it very differently than my parents.

Whenever I feel my car is too dirty, I find an occasion when I anyway need to be in the car. It could be during a long phone call, or when I need to drive my kids somewhere, and I simply drive there. I drive through the machine without talking to anyone. I don’t even stop to dry the water leftovers, and continue with my busy day right away.

It doesn’t clean my car perfectly. The inside is kept in whatever state I keep it in other ways. The outside is mostly clean, but some stubborn stains might remain, and since I don’t dry the water leftovers there could be some marks on the windows. But it does the trick for me. That’s all I need. During COVID I even used it as an afternoon activity for my kids. Drive there, go through the machine, drive back, and the afternoon is almost over 🙂

The car wash service is the same service. Me and my parents use the same plan. But we use it very differently and the value we get from it is very different.

Your product is probably much more complicated than a car wash machine. Do all of your customers use it the same way and for the same purpose? Likely not.

Here is a quick way to crisp the value proposition for each customer profile.

Reminder: This is the second article in a 3-part guide about the value assessment framework:

• Part 1: Value layers
• Part 2: Value assessment
• Part 3: Addressing the gaps

The Value Table

As I explained in part one of this guide, value has multiple layers: you need to define the value, deliver it, and make sure it’s perceived properly by your customers. 

As you can see in the example I shared above, different customer profiles likely have different needs.

So we are going to create a simple table (preferably in your favorite spreadsheet tool) with the following columns:

• Customer profile name
• Customer profile description
• Value definition
• Value delivery
• Value perception

Now you can start filling the table, where each row represents a different customer profile.

If you are in B2B, the profile is most likely a market segment (company sizes, industries, etc.). If you are in B2C it’s usually different personas.

The description of the profile is important because you want to create a common understanding of what you mean. For example, when companies say that they want to start selling to enterprises, everybody nods. But while both could be considered enterprises, companies with 1,000 to 10,000 employees usually have very different needs than those with 10,000 employees and up. 

If you don’t know what your customer profiles are, go over the list of existing customers and segment them into archetypes. Then use a separate row for each archetype. In the description, you can include examples of such customers so that everyone understands what you mean.

In the value definition column, describe for each profile what is the value that they need as you see it. Remember that value is not features, it’s what it allows your customers to do, achieve, and feel.

In the value delivery column, describe for each profile how you deliver that value (in a nutshell – e.g. automatic reports).

In the value perception column, describe for each profile what you know about their perception of the value. It could be both qualitative (like customer quotes) and quantitative (like renewals, NPS, and usage metrics).

Value Assessment

Now that the table is ready, let’s get to the actual assessment. You will be asked to rate yourself red, yellow, or green in each of the value columns. Simply color each cell in the table according to its rating.

Value Definition

Your rating for the value definition should take into account the following:

• How well is the value defined? Is it talking about features or outcomes?
• How confident are you that this is what your customers really need?
• Is it significant enough?

To get a green rating, you need the value to be well defined, describing outcomes and not features (and not outputs either, the report is not the value), have at least some confidence that the value as it is defined here is something that resonates with customers, and be extremely honest with yourself as to whether or not this value really matters.

You can have a very accurate value definition, that is well articulated, and even resonates with customers in terms of seeing themselves in it when you talk to them about it, but it isn’t important or significant enough for them to buy or use your product.

Your goal in value definition is not to be accurate, it is to find a meaningful value proposition that your customers would really want to pay for. Therefore, you should try to avoid the bias of describing here the value that you think your product delivers. Instead, try to forget about the product, and describe the value that your customers want in an ideal world.

Value Delivery

Your rating for value delivery should reflect your honest belief on whether or not your customers really get the value that you defined (assuming it’s a good one). You might have entered this analysis with one value in mind – the one that your product currently delivers, for instance – but in the previous part you realized that your customers need something else, which would of course impact your rating (since the current product most likely doesn’t deliver the value that you just defined).

Note that value delivery isn’t limited only to the product itself. There are other ways to deliver value, like with processes, content, white-gloving customers etc. Your assessment of the value delivery should take into account all of them.

Value Perception

This is a tricky one, since you wouldn’t always know. You might need to stop and go interview customers to get their side of the story. But start the assessment with how you think they perceive the value you defined.

Note that this can be lower or higher than the value that you actually deliver, because delivering the value is only one part of creating the value perception.

Assessment Guidelines

A good assessment requires that you are extremely honest with yourself. The whole point is to identify blindspots, but if you are unwilling to admit that they exist, you wouldn’t find them.

If you find it difficult to create a table that looks bad, simply don’t share it with anyone. It will provide you good insights nonetheless.

On the other hand, it would be extremely valuable for you to debate the content of the value assessment table as well as the rating in the various cells with people that might see things differently than you. Try including marketing, sales, customer success, and the CEO in the discussion.

Ideally, this should be a group exercise. People need to hear each other’s opinions and debate the right answer in order to create alignment. Remember that misalignment is most likely there anyway, not surfacing it isn’t going to help you.

This analysis will most likely highlight quite a few gaps that you need to address. Next week I’ll talk about how to address them.