In B2B markets, suppliers of nonstrategic products and services tend to assume they have only two options for landing sales: stressing their offerings' unique characteristics and competing on price. The problem is, the features touted often don't matter to purchasing managers, and neither do price concessions. How, then, do you win their business? The authors' research with 46 companies points to a solution: After meeting the customer's basic specs within an acceptable price range, give the purchasing manager "a justifier"--an extra that provides obvious value to the business. A car-leasing company, for instance, might offer the option to cancel a number of contracts without penalty, or a delivery service might print customers' logos on their envelopes. The justifier provides a clear-cut reason to select one supplier over others and breaks the tie among the finalists on the short list. To uncover justifiers, you should explore how customers use your offerings, learn about their priorities and those of their customers, and look at ways to integrate your offerings with other suppliers'. The right justifier can win you more business--and even help you launch a new one.

Infosys is a highly respected, India-based information technology (IT) software service provider, established in July 1981. The ramp-up of the company has been particularly spectacular during the last several years, starting from 1995. The initial business model related to labor arbitrage and was based upon differential wage rates for IT professionals in India and the developed countries. The boom of the late 1990s, catalyzed by the Y2K-related problems, resulted in opportunities that the company capitalized upon. Today the company serves clients drawn from global 2000 companies. Based upon its strong ethical and principled approach, execution excellence, relentless quest for quality and customer satisfaction, the company had astounding financial success and became a darling of the stock markets both in India and the United States. Notwithstanding its successful track record, Infosys has over the last several years, proactively been applying itself to a fundamental question of identifying the drivers of success for the next 10 years. Infosys has been deeply concerned about leveraging its current strong position, to evolve into a much stronger company, so as to ensure continued growth and success in the long-term. The case presents the challenges that Infosys has been grappling with, and invites participants to come up with creative solutions, going forward.

Examples of consumer value propositions that resonate with customers are exceptionally difficult to find. When properly constructed, value propositions force suppliers to focus on what their offerings are really worth. Once companies become disciplined about understanding their customers, they can make smarter choices about where to allocate scarce resources. The authors illuminate the pitfalls of current approaches, then present a systematic method for developing value propositions that are meaningful to target customers and that focus suppliers' efforts on creating superior value. When managers construct a customer value proposition, they often simply list all the benefits their offering might deliver. But the relative simplicity of this all-benefits approach may have a major drawback: benefit assertion. In other words, managers may claim advantages for features their customers don't care about in the least. Other suppliers try to answer the question: Why should our firm purchase your offering instead of your competitor's? But without a detailed understanding of the customer's requirements and preferences, suppliers can end up stressing points of difference that deliver relatively little value to the target customer. The pitfall with this approach is value presumption: assuming that any favorable points of difference must be valuable for the customer. Drawing on the best practices of a handful of suppliers in business markets, the authors advocate a resonating focus approach. Suppliers can provide simple, yet powerfully captivating, consumer value propositions by making their offerings superior on the few elements that matter most to target customers, demonstrating and documenting the value of this superior performance, and communicating it in a way that conveys a sophisticated understanding of the customer's business priorities.

Infosys Technologies Ltd. provides a full range of IT and consulting services. One of Infosys' major customers is Prairie Four Square Insurance (PFS). PFS maintains extensive and mission critical IT systems across the United States. Relentless pressure from Wall Street to cut costs dramatically prompted the PFS senior management to outsource offshore portions of its IT maintenance activities. A PFS "white paper" had indicated that the purchasing department was one area where IT could make significant contributions in lowering operating costs. PFS managers decided to forego their traditional "best of breed" approach to outsourcing in favor of a pilot test of single sourcing. Thus, PFS managers bundled all activities related to procurement process re-engineering, vendor selection, Ariba software customization, system installation and maintenance into a single project. PFS managers narrowed candidates for the project down to two consulting firms (i.e. Excalibur and Merrimac) plus Infosys. A win for Infosys would enable it to not only grow its share of PFS business but also expand the scope of its market offerings. Successful completion of the project, in turn, would increase the likelihood that PFS would turn to Infosys for other end-to-end IT solutions.

In this article, authors James Anderson, professor at the Kellogg Graduate School, Northwestern University, and James Narus, associate professor at the Babcock Graduate School, Wake Forest University, illustrate several ways in which suppliers can figure out exactly what their offerings are worth by creating and using what they call customer value models. Field value assessments--the most commonly used method for building customer value models--call for suppliers to gather data about their customers firsthand whenever possible. Through these assessments, a supplier can build a value model for an individual customer or for a market segment, drawing on data gathered from several customers in that segment. Suppliers can use customer value models to create competitive advantage in several ways. First, they can capitalize on the inevitable variation in customers' requirements by providing flexible market offerings. Second, they can use value models to demonstrate how a new product or service they are offering will provide greater value. Third, they can use their knowledge of how their market offerings specifically deliver value to craft persuasive value propositions. And fourth, they can use value models to provide evidence to customers of their accomplishments. Doing business based on value delivered gives companies the means to get an equitable return for their efforts. Once suppliers truly understand value, they will be able to realize the benefits of measuring and monitoring it for their customers.

No matter how much inventory a wholesaler carries, when a customer places a rush order, the essential item is often out of stock. No matter how many services a dealer provides, what a customer needs is often one that the dealer has never supplied. And no matter how hard a distributor tries to beef up its capabilities, when a customer has an emergency, the distributor often lacks the skills to respond. A number of companies are experimenting with ways to make their distribution channels more flexible and responsive. They have realized that by sharing resources in novel ways, they can take advantage of opportunities that they could not exploit alone. Business dynamics and emerging technologies make this new approach both essential and feasible.

Virtually all managers are aware that the key to winning in the market today is tailoring one's offerings to the needs of each customer while maintaining low costs and prices. But most manufacturers have focused only on the products themselves, largely ignoring another element that differentiates a company's offerings and has a huge impact on costs and profits: services. Instead of tailoring their packages of services to customers' individual needs, many suppliers simply add layers of services to their offerings. The authors have found that suppliers usually give customers more services than they want at prices that reflect neither their value to customers nor the cost of providing them. But some companies are realizing that they can lower the cost of providing services and use them more effectively to meet customers' needs, gain more business, and enhance profits. From the authors' study of the best practices of those companies, they have developed a model for providing flexible service offerings.

To improve distributor relations, manufacturers must start by understanding distributor needs. This is accomplished by monitoring distributors - getting into the field and talking with them. Field sales reps must also talk among themselves. Some companies conduct market research studies to zero in on distributor needs. Others establish distributor councils where distributors meet with manufacturing executives to talk about ways to improve distributor programs. Once manufacturers identify distributor needs, manufacturers must work to build partnerships with distributors.