Acerca de alguns mitos do VBP

"VBP is not about having and maintaining the highest price. It is about pricing relative to the value you create for customers.
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So VBP does not mean switching to kamikaze pricing behaviors such as raising prices overnight.
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VBP is also not the same as premium pricing. I recommend that you avoid the word "premium" because it reinforces the perception that your prices are higher by default rather than higher because you consistently deliver superior value relative to your competition.
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VBP is not the same as total cost of ownership (TCO). You only need to look at the “C” to understand why. Offering a customer a lower TCO is purely a cost calculation, but you may deliver value in many ways beyond mere cost savings. Your products may help your customers grow their business, and that difference in revenue and profit for them has a value as well.
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The truth is that every single business has a differentiated offering and is  therefore a potential candidate for VBP. If you don't believe me, think about this: if customers keep buying from you, you must be doing something valuable. Go find it and localize it. Your source of differentiation may even be your price. No matter what it is, you have to find it and quantify it versus competition. Thinking you are good is not good enough. You also have to prove it, and that means you should not aim for huge differentials without clear proof that you can deliver on them consistently and reliably."

Trechos retirados de "Dollarizing Differentiation Value: A Practical Guide for the Quantification and the Capture of Customer Value" de Stephan M. Liozu.

Esse número não é o preço (parte II)

Parte I.
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Numa relação B2B, o cliente usa a nossa oferta como um recurso para a incorporar na sua oferta.
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Podemos desenhar uma espécie de ciclo de vida do uso do recurso pelo cliente?
Como o compra?
Como o recebe?
Como o armazena?
Como o utiliza?
Que resultados pretende maximizar com o seu uso?
Que sub-produtos tenta minimizar com o seu uso?
Que vantagens pode conseguir junto dos seus clientes por usar a nossa oferta? (BTW, o que estamos a fazer junto desses clientes para que eles torçam por nós, ao torcer por eles próprios?)
Como se livra dos resíduos?
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Ao longo do ciclo de vida, conseguimos que ele gaste menos que com ofertas alternativas? Quanto? Provas? Exemplos?
Ao longo do ciclo de vida, conseguimos que ele ganhe mais que com ofertas alternativas? Quanto? Provas? Exemplos?
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Ponto de partida para um trabalho de pricing ... não esquecer o Evangelho do Valor.

Esse número não é o preço

"Value in B2B markets is a number.
You save them money, you make them money, or you create an emotional connection with them."

Esta frase de Stephan Liozu merece reflexão.
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O que é que uma PME faz para calcular esse número?
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Esse número não é o preço.

Criação e comunicação de valor para os clientes (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
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Há dias escrevia sobre os Muggles e as folhas de cálculo. No B2B, muitas vezes temos mesmo de usar a folha de cálculo...

"It all starts with the design phase.
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People become confused about whether the customer seeks the lower price, or the lowest cost. As the aforementioned research shows, they seek the lowest cost. Thus the supplier (Moi ici: A sua empresa) must ensure that it can demonstrate how the performance of it(s) products will reduce customer costs and/or increase revenue. (Moi ici: Quantos comerciais conseguem demonstrar esta suposta vantagem? Quantos confiam na conversa, para tentar convencer os clientes? Quantos têm números, histórias, casos, que ajudem a suportar o que enunciam?) If it is unable to demonstrate this, then the term lowest price becomes the discussion point.
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The approach starts with a close look at the acquisition process, including receiving costs, payment terms, holding inventory, and unit price. When asked whether they measure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), some procurement professionels will say yes. A follow-up question usually reveals that these are the indicators being measured. These are, of course, important measurements; however, in most cases they are just the tip of "The Priceberg":
Next is the operation phase, during which the buyer uses what has been purchased, and in which the sometimes less visible costs bellow the water line come into play. Included here are factors such as how long the item lasts, how much energy it uses, and whether it can increase the throughput of what it is helping to produce, affect scrap rates, be easir and predictable to repair, and so forth.
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Finally, the buyer needs to dispose of what has been purchased. Disposal can range from being almost free to very costly; the item may even have a residual value."

A sua empresa tem esta informação sistematizada numa série de exemplos, de casos, de histórias?
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Números interessantes são os que se seguem:

"numerous studies show that the initial purchase price of an industrial application (such as a pump, fan, or gearbox) is 12 percent of its total cost. Simple put, should you focus on reducing the acquisition price of an asset, when it is only 12 percent of its TCO, or on buying a better asset that has the lowest operating and disposal cost, that covers 88 percent of its TCO? The better asset that is more "expensive" up front might just have a lower TCO." 

 Vamos construir essa informação e sistematizá-la numa série de casos?

Trechos retirados do capítulo 14 de "Innovation in Pricing"

Criação e comunicação de valor para os clientes (parte II)

Parte I.

"When a company is able to understand where value is created throughout the asset lifecycle, it can price for part of the incremental value created. But first it must understand what costs and values are incurred and generated, (Moi ici: Estamos a falar de custos e ganhos na óptica do cliente, pelo facto de usar o serviço prestado pelo produto. Isto no B2B) and where, when, and by whom.
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A true TCO analysis should explore all dimensions that affect the customer's net profit. Therefore, a wider explanation of TCO — one that looks at the difference between the next best alternative of an option, and that takes into account all increased or decreased revenue minus all increased and decreased costs over the life of an asset - allows one to determine which decisions are the most profitable.
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Thus, suppliers that are able to help their customers increase revenue, expand margins, enter new markets, sell an "upgrade option," and/or enter into longer customer relations create a benefit for the revenue side of their customer's balance sheet that needs to be measured.
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What do customers really care about: total cost of ownership and net profit, or lowest unit price? Before devoting the necessary time and investments to calculating the full TCO for a new product or customer, a supplier must first ask, "Do any of our customers still even care about value? Or in today's world, is it always about the lowest price?" Sales teams continue to send market reports back indicating that they've lost deals because the supplier's price was too high, and that the value it offers customers is not appreciated, so customers won't pay for it. In too many instances, people transpose the terms "cost" and "price." These are two completely different concepts. What customers want is the lowest total cost, since that will drive their profitability. However, if a company is unable to measure the values that it creates and how these either help increase revenue or reduce other costs, its customer will focus on unit price instead of total costs as they become conflated in the customer's mind."

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Qual o ciclo de vida do produto que vende aos seus clientes?
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Consegue calcular o TCO global?
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Num projecto BSC que terminei no mês passado, a empresa contou-me de um caso em que um cliente, por causa de ter optado pela sua opção, conseguia ter o serviço disponível durante mais horas. Quanto é que essas horas a mais de disponibilidade representam em termos de custos poupados com recursos consumidos? Quanto é que essas horas a mais de disponibilidade representam em termos de euros facturáveis? Quanto é que essas horas a mais de disponibilidade representam em termos de ausência de insatisfação nos clientes do cliente? Sem traduzir estas histórias em euros, a empresa terá dificuldade em comunicar o valor potencial extra, numa negociação com um futuro novo cliente.

Criação e comunicação de valor para os clientes (parte I)

Voltando ao livro "Innovation in Pricing", dou um salto para o capítulo 14, para um texto de Todd Snelgrove intitulado "Creating and Communicating Customer Value":

"If a supplier creates value, and if that value requires investments, then it must find a way to obtain an equitable return on that investment, or the wheels of innovation will stop.
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The companies that are best in class in value-selling realize a 60 percent higher customer-retention rate, a 17.9 percent difference in year-over-year growth in company gross profits, and larger deal sizes.
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So why is it that so many companies still adopt a market-share or cost-driven strategy rather than value-based pricing? Companies that employ a good value-based pricing strategy are 20 percent more profitable than those with weak execution on value pricing, and are 35 percent better off than those that follow a cost- or share-driven strategy.
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Companies that choose a low-priced, commodity approach to their offerings will always be at the mercy of the next competitor to offer an "'almost as good product at a lower work to capture that value. unit price." For those that do invest and create customer value, it is time to do the work to capture that value."

E a sua empresa...

• investe na originação de valor potencial para os clientes? 
• cria valor potencial para os clientes?
• o que faz para comunicar aos clientes esse potencial?
• captura valor?

Quem é que está encarregado do valor? (parte II)

Parte I.
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Da primeira vez que li Baker coloquei aqui estes esquemas. Agora ao relê-lo em "Innovation in Pricing" não resisti a voltar a colocá-los aqui, tal o seu poder.

"Cost-plus pricing
Notice that you start with the product (or service), determine its cost, mark up that cost with a desired profit to set the price, and then pray that the customer values the output at a level higher than the price they are being-asked to pay.
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Notice where the customer is in this chain of events — at the end!
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Value-based pricing inverts this chain to ccorrespond with the economic realities of the marketplace.
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Value-based pricing
This value chain recognizes that value is like beauty; it is in the eye of the beholder. It is in total alignment with the subjective theory of value. Customers do not care about your internal costs, or your profit desires. They demand value higher than the price they are paying. This inversion reveals a further fact of economic life: your costs do not determine your price; rather, your price determines your costs. This is anathema to a cost accountant, but self-evident to a pricer. A firm needs to determine, before producing a product or service, whether the price charged - based on value - will allow it to invest in the costs required to develop the product or service at a profit the company can tolerate - price-led costing. If not, it should not undertake production. The important point about this process is when costs are considered - before the product is produced, not after. This is the problem with historical standard cost accounting - it can only allocate past costs, once they have been spent.
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CVOs understand that the hardest part of this new value chain is determining value."

Isto é simplesmente revolucionário para muitas mentes...
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E na sua empresa como é que se faz?
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Sabe quem são os clientes-alvo?
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Sabe o que é que eles procuram e valorizam? Sabe quantificar e comunicar esse valor?

Quem é que está encarregado do valor?

Comecei a minha leitura de "Innovation in Pricing", editado por Andreas Hinterhuber e Stephan Liozu, a partir do quarto capítulo, "Who is in charge of value?" escrito a duas mãos, pelo grande Ronald Baker e por Stephan Liozu:
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Começo por registar um conjunto de citações. A primeira de Marx de 1865:

"A commodity has a value, because it is a crystallization of social labour. The greatness of its value, or its relative value, depends upon the greater or less amount of that social substance contained in it; that is to say, on the relative mass of labour necessary for its production. The relative values of commodities are, therefore, determined by the respective quantities or amounts of labour, worked up, realized, fixed in them. The correlative quantities of commodities which can be produced in the same time of labour are equal."

Isto está impregnado na sociedade como uma verdade axiomática que serve de suporte a toda uma geração de políticas.
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Outra citação, num sentido diferente é:

"Value is ... nothing inherent in goods, no property of them. Value is a judgment economizing men make about the importance of the goods at their disposal for the maintenance of their lives and well-being. Hence value does not exist outside the consciousness of men .... [T]he value of goods.. is entirely subjective in nature." (Ebenstein)

Outra citação:

"The value of goods arises from their relationship to our needs, and is not inherent in the goods themselves .... Objectification of the value of which is entirely subjective in nature, has nevertheless contributed very greatly to confusion about the basic principles of our science .... The importance that goods have for us and which we call value is merely imputed." (Menger 1873)

Outra citação:

"By the late nineteenth century, however, economists had given up on the notion that it is primarily labour which determines the value of goods .... This new understanding marked a revolution in the development of economics. It is also a sobering reminder of how long it can take for even highly intelligent people to get rid of a misconception whose fallacy then seems obvious in retrospect. It is not costs which create value; it is value which causes purchasers to be willing to repay the costs incurred in the production of what they want." (Sowell 2004)

Este último sublinhado devia fazer parte das leituras diárias de qualquer economista...
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E terminamos com uma famosa questão levantada por Drucker  em 1973:

"The final question needed in order to come to grips with business purpose and business mission is: 'What is value to the customer?' It may be the most important question. Yet it is the one least often asked. One reason is that managers are quite sure that they know the answer. Value is what they, in their business, define as quality. But this is almost always the wrong definition. The customer never buys a product. By definition the customer buys the satisfaction of a want. He buys value."

E, para terminar esta primeira parte, uma questão que todas as empresas deviam fazer e sobre a qual deviam reflectir:

"since price is determined by value - and now that we have explored in detail the subject theory of value, we have a better undestanding of this concept - shouldn't someone within the company be in charge of comprehending, communicating and capturing value? Al businesses talk about value, and all agree it is essential to create, and constantly add to, but who is in charge of it?
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No customer buys costs. efforts or activities, yet many businesses continue to price on a cost-plus basis. The customer wants to see the baby, not hear about the labour pains."

Quem é que está encarregado, na sua empresa, de compreender, comunicar e capturar valor?