“Who’s it for?”

“Perhaps it makes more sense to begin with a hurdle you can leap. Perhaps it makes sense to be very specific about the change you seek to make, and to make it happen. Then, based on that success, you can replicate the process on ever bigger challenges.
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Your promise is directly connected to the change you seek to make, and it’s addressed to the people you seek to change.
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As soon as you ask yourself about the change you seek to make, it becomes quite clear that you have no chance of changing everyone. Everyone is a lot of people. Everyone is too diverse, too enormous, and too indifferent for you to have a chance at changing.
So, you need to change someone. Or perhaps a group of someones.
Which ones?
We don’t care if they all look the same, but it would be really helpful if you had some way to group them together. Do they share a belief? A geography? A demographic, or, more likely, a psychographic?
Can you pick them out of a crowd? What makes them different from everyone else and similar to each other?Throughout this book, we’ll return to this essential question: “Who’s it for?” It has a subtle but magic power, the ability to shift the product you make, the story you tell, and where you tell it. Once you’re clear on “who it’s for,” then doors begin to open for you.”

Quantas empresas têm a resposta a esta pergunta “Who’s it for?” definida de forma clara, sem espinhas?

Muito poucas!

Esta semana, quando debatíamos o tema da proposta de valor e de quem são os clientes-alvo, no âmbito de uma formação sobre o balanced scorecard, mais uma vez surgiu a ideia de que não se pode ser tão pragmático e escolher clientes-alvo, porque os mesmos clientes uma vez são preço e outras vezes são serviço e outras vezes são inovação/design.

Veio-me logo à cabeça o exemplo da Dow e da Xiameter. Uma mesma empresa ter duas marcas, cada uma dedicada a um segmento diferente. Os produtos que existem na Xiameter também existem na Dow, embora com marcas diferentes, porque o serviço associado e as condições de compra são completamente diferentes. Se eu arriscar e comprar um bilhete para o Alfa e pagar 20 dias antes de o usar vou ter um desconto. Se eu o comprar no último minuto pago o preço completo. O produto é o mesmo, o cliente é o mesmo, o contexto do cliente é diferente, logo condições diferentes.

Recordar:

• Preço-baixo from Carlos da Cruz

Trechos retirados de “This Is Marketing” de Seth Godin.

Ainda acerca da segmentação

Ainda acerca da segmentação:

"If you find out that 20 percent of your customers consume 80 percent of your service time, have you incorporated that into how you set priorities, how you treat these customers, and how you price your products and services? You can look at the extremes, too. Which customers are clearly the price buyers? You have them. Every company does, and they will make up a good chunk of your customer base. Who are your value buyers, the ones who recognize the value you provide and are willing to pay for it? A good place to start is to assume that 15 to 20 percent of your customers are value buyers. Figure 4.5 gives more clues about what kinds of segments you may have within your market. 

A third common segment is speed and convenience. In some cases the company has a separate division by segment (such as Allstate; see figure 4.6).[Moi ici: O como eu gosto do exemplo da Xiameter vs Dow]

 They avoid confusing the two divisions. Sometimes your brand can't cover more than one or two segments. Trying to stretch a brand across too many segments will muddy your message. You have to make these brands and segments as watertight as possible. If you don't, you risk giving some customers cheap products with state-of-the-art service for too low a price."

Na sequência de "Em que situações ou contextos" pensar: em que situação/contexto um cliente insere-se no segmento do preço? e no segmento da qualidade e do valor? e ...

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

Configurar como deve ser

Continuando a leitura de "Monetizing Innovation" de Ramanujam e Tacke, depois de "Segmentar como deve ser", os autores propõem: configurar como deve ser:

"But first, a clarification: Our definition of product configuration refers to the decision of which features and functionalities will be included in a product. In some industries, like software and tech, product configuration is also referred to by the term packaging. By bundling, we mean combining a product or service with other products and services.
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Product Configuration Done Right.
Doing product configuration right means you design a product with the right features for a segment—that is, just the features customers are willing to pay for. This is a core tenet of designing new products that will succeed in the marketplace. Too many features lead to feature shock products, especially if your customers are not wild about those features. If they are wild about them and you didn't realize it, you design a minivation. Products with features that customers won't pay for wind up undead.
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By having their feature sets tailored to each segment's needs, value, and WTP, each offering finally had a distinct value proposition. The design of these products also minimized the chances they would cannibalize one another, since customers clearly saw what they gave up at the lower price points. [Moi ici: Como não recordar a beleza da solução Dow vs Xiameter] The way we like to put it is that the company established clear "fences" between its products. Customers only get a low price if they go without extra product or logistics services; the company can offer a low price on this product because value and costs are lower."

E na sua empresa... que configuração faz?

Um exemplo de renúncia estratégica

Alguns exemplos concretos do que é ter uma estratégia, fazer escolhas e renúncias, optar entre a riqueza ou a saúde (recordar "Não esquecer os "mas"") em "Design For The Outcome You Want":

"Joe is an electrician, he has four children and his wife works full time, so he purposely doesn’t work 9 to 5. [Moi ici: A principal renúncia que faz, o que automaticamente determina as escolhas dos clientes-alvo e do tipo de serviço que presta. O contrário desta estratégia é estúpido? Claro que não, é onde está a maioria dos profissionais. Uma escolha que não é estúpida e uma escolha que lhe define um segmento menos ocupado pelos concorrentes, e com um tipo de serviço mais provável no qual se pode especializar.] He’s designed his business to serve people who need an emergency call out service that operates after hours, when all of the other electricians in his area have gone knocked off for the day. Joe’s mobile phone number is the most visible thing on his website and that, along with his hours of operation are the main calls to action. Because of this he only gets relevant calls and doesn’t have to field enquiries from the kind of customers he doesn’t want to work with."

Esta mensagem é interessante e merecedora de reflexão:

"In the end the constraints of the system the company has put in place creates a better experience for their customers." 

 Não para todos os clientes, mas para os clientes-alvo. Como não recordar o exemplo da Xiameter, uma campeã de constrangimentos:

Preço-baixo from Carlos da Cruz

Que renúncias é que a sua empresa faz deliberadamente?
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Não faz nenhuma renúncia?
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E quais são os resultados?
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Se precisar de mudar...

Previsão acerca do futuro das vendas

Recordar o caso da Xiameter e da Dow como exemplo do que são as vendas transaccionais e as vendas consultivas.
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Assim, é fácil enquadrar esta previsão "1 Million B2B Sales Jobs Will Vanish by 2020 [New Research]":

"Order takers vão ser dizimados."
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"Consultants vai aumentar a sua necessidade"

"In addition to changing sales models, he also suggested reexamining business models. "The reality is a lot of B2B companies we talk to are getting out of the product business entirely -- they're now doing services," he said."

E a sua empresa, em especial se é uma PME que não pode competir com as ofertas comoditizadas e automatizadas, como se está a preparar para esse futuro? Qual é a aposta estratégica?

"Why Segmentation Matters" (parte I)

Foi já há alguns anos que, via Nirmalya Kumar, conheci o caso da Dow e da sua marca low-cost Xiameter.
Agora em "Why Segmentation Matters" de Linda Trevenen encontro mais alguns tópicos sobre o tema:

"In their segmentation of the market, they [Dow] learned that not all customers had the same set of needs. Some required more service than others, some valued innovation more than others, while others were trying to improve the profitability of their own businesses. They also learned that one segment no longer needed the added value of service, innovation, or a broad product assortment of the silicone products they purchased; instead they just wanted the best price.
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Dow had been treating all these customers the same, yet each of four identified segmentss required a different bundle of benefits. It became painfully evident to their managers that they were providing expensive services to some customers who did not even need them. Therein lies the most critical reason why segmentation matters in business - profits can be lost by treating all customers the same in terms of their pricing.
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customer heterogeneity supports the existence of demand-based segments from which firms can generate greater profit by shaping different offerings and prices for segments than by providing the same offering and price to the whole market.
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Instead of offering their products and services at the same prices to all customers, they created different offerings for the needs of the different segments."

E a sua empresa, que segmentação faz?

Continua.

Quem são os seus clientes-alvo?

"Who Are Your A-list Customers?"
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"Each business has, or should have, an A list of its most valuable customers and prospects, but also a B, C, and D list. (Moi ici: E a sua empresa tem?) But too often, companies, especially growing companies, lack focus and cast a wide net to attract new customers. (Moi ici: Tão comum... há isso de clientes-alvo não se aplica ao nosso caso. Todos os clientes são bem vindos!... E tem a certeza de que não está a perder dinheiro com esses clientes? Trabalhar para aquecer não é um bom modelo de negócio.) They end up spending valuable time and resources on C- and D-list prospects and miss opportunities to cement long-term relationships with their A-list customers, who not only bring valuable business but also provide important endorsements to their friends and business colleagues.

It’s worth spending time as a management team to develop your own A list. We recently did just that, using a simple, three-step process that has given our team renewed focus on the customers that will drive our business in the long term.

1. Define the key drivers of long-term customer value.

What makes a customer more or less valuable to your business? Is it their size, their ability to spend, or their past behavior or relationship with your company? Are there specific demographics that link to customer value? In our business, where we work with management teams to make growth companies more valuable, we created a “mindset” criterion as one of the characteristics that make a customer valuable. Define the three to five drivers of value for your business. (Moi ici: Pode começar pela lista de clientes actuais, conjugada com a lista de produtos actuais, e fazer um ranking dos clientes em função do quanto se ganha com cada um deles. Depois, investigar se há algum padrão que reúna os mais rentáveis, para procurar subir na escala de abstracção e conceptualizar qual a vantagem que está por detrás desse desempenho superior. A partir do ranking é possível desenhar a curva de Stobachoff para a sua empresa e ter uma imagem para determinar onde colocar as fronteiras do A, do B, do C e do D)

2. Create a comprehensive list of customers and prospects.

While most companies try to maintain a robust customer pipeline, we find that many don’t proactively develop a “long list.” Instead, they create a partial list that is mostly reactive to customer or prospect inquiries. (Moi ici: Uma das lições que aprendi com o estudo, que faço em paralelo com a actividade profissional no terreno, é a de que tantas e tantas lacunas que os comentadores de bancada julgam ser uma prova provada da incapacidade dos empresários portugueses, não são mais do que lacunas generalizadas que acontecem com empresários de todos os países. Recordo tantas "guerras" com empresários que sem actividade comercial, mantinham as fábricas abertas sustentadas com base na reacção a pedidos de proposta de clientes. Cada comercial contratado era uma vitória, cada colaborador transformado em comercial era uma lança em África) If you are broader in developing your long list, you’ll be better positioned to identify the most valuable customers and prospects in your market.
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By investing the majority of time and resources to your newly defined A-list clients and prospects, you’re likely to have more success developing valuable, long-term relationships–relationships that should pay off for years to come. (Moi ici: E também, um esforço concentrado para mudar a abordagem junto dos clientes B para os transformar em A. Demasiadas vezes a rotina toma conta das relações comerciais, talvez uma nova abordagem possa ser vantajosa para ambas as partes ... recordar a Xiameter, por exemplo)

Clientes não como entidades estatísticas mas como gente de carne e osso

Primeiro a descrição da situação de partida:
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"Developing a winning go-to-market model isn't easy for incumbent suppliers, because few are well positioned to provide what demanding customers want: simple, low-cost support for some needs and deep knowledge and collaboration for others. The basic transaction costs of suppliers are too high for them to compete with the no-frills specialists ... And they don't have enough industry-specific "solutions" expertise to compete with businesses that are setting new standards for value-added sales and service.
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This "stuck-in-the-middle" scenario is playing out across a wide range of industries, from advanced materials and chemicals to information technology and telecommunications. It can leave companies vulnerable to attack from both sides. More than one global supplier has recently lost a substantial share of its revenue both to Asian attackers with far lower costs and to genuine solutions specialists offering faster, more sophisticated service."
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Depois, uma proposta de abordagem:
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"Rethinking the approach
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More specifically, to cut costs and enhance the customer experience, companies should take three steps:

• Identify the company's full range of sales and service situations, from simple transactions to complex consulting arrangements
• Build a high-quality, low-cost platform of sales support and service processes for interactions that cut across all customers; this "lean backbone" typically encompasses efforts to supply customers with information as well as order entry, fulfillment, training, and after-sales service
• Develop affordable standard modules (or high-touch overlays) for situations where customers value additional sales or service support enough to cover its cost; these modules might include teams of industry experts, application-development teams, and "hunting" teams to focus on acquiring new customers"

Por exemplo:

Recordo o exemplo da Xiameter.

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"Companies should thus begin rethinking their approach by deciding exactly what type and quality of sales and service interaction they must provide to their various customers." (Moi ici: Claro que os autores escrevem para a realidade americana, com corporações, com empresas com multi-sítios capazes de produções dedicadas por unidade fabril, por divisão. Para a PME portuguesa há que fazer algum esforço de tradução... estou a imaginar a aplicação a uma empresa prestadora de serviços... a relação pode começar pela compra de hardware, pode evoluir para a prestação de serviços de manutenção e culminar em vendas consultivas que resultam em projectos de co-criação)
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Gosto muito da figura que se segue, mais uma vez, evitar abordagens iguais para todos... é impressionante a quantidade de negócios que vejo as multinacionais perderem em Portugal, por terem políticas tão rígidas e independentes do tipo de clientes:

Como encontrei há dias nos escritos de Byrnes, é preciso ter mais do que uma cadeia logística, em função do tipo de clientes-alvo.
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"Incumbents needn't remain stuck in the middle. To escape from it, they should rethink their customers' requirements, build a lean backbone to meet shared sales and service needs, and establish standard, high-touch overlays to satisfy more exacting demands cost effectively."
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Trechos de "Transforming sales and services"