“You don’t realize how much you need this until you actually do the work”, this was said by Vala Zulfiu, Marketing & Communications Specialist at Sensative AB about the value tree workshops they had with Carin Madsén Kollberg a few months earlier. She accompanied Carin at the Marketing and Sales network to talk about and shared her experiences from working with value proposition design and how it has helped the team at Sensative.
Carin Madsén Kollberg
Carin Madsén Kollberg came to our network to give us an introduction on how to define product’s different values and structure a tree. “When we communicate about a product, we are often good at describing the product’s values on a high level and the functions down in the product, but not how they are linked. The tree creates these connections and can be used to, communicate with customers in a better way to create trust”, Carin said.
Carin used a special water bottle as an example during the workshop for everyone to focus on when finding the values. “Customers are looking at the product in different ways. Some are interested in technical features, other in what gains the product will give or what it can bring as future possibilities. In this workshop we will put them together”, Carin said. “When you have built your value tree you can pick out the “right” values that help the customers with their challenges. “What you pick and highlight depends on the customers and their needs. You need to focus on the problems in that customer’s type of market”, Carin said.
“When talking to customers they will find appeal in different aspects of the value tree, like value or realization. You can see how it is all linked together, and so can they, but they might be persuaded by different values.”
Creating a value tree is a continuous job
“It is important that you bring a diverse team to the table when you do the value tree, so that they represent different parts of the organisation. Do it in at least two sessions, so that you will have time to reflect between the sessions”, Carin said.
Now it was time get to the practical parts of the workshop! We started by writing down all the benefits of the product, then grouped them into two categories; closer to the product or closer to the customer. The next step was to group the benefits into realisation, features, concept and values.
“When you have done this, you will have a tool where you can create the right messages to your different customer groups. Focus on your customer’s pains and gains, because if you can fix those you will more easily connect with the customer”, Carin explained.
Vala Zulifu, Sensative
“You must do this work continuously, you need to have a review process in place. The markets are changing so quickly and you need to be agile. But if you have learned the tool, you can make the updates continuously. The features might change and develop, but the customer values are less likely to change as often. With the tree, the values are connected to why we can say these things, you can follow the chain. Many companies are good at talking about customer values and the features, but there are usually steps missing and this is where the tree can help you”, Carin finished.
“After doing this value tree workshop we decided to take some time to make a communications plan that complements the marketing plan and that makes sure that our departments align. And having it in a visual way helped us a lot as an organisation”, Vala said.
The workshop was appreciated by all participants and some members in the network talked about coming together and helping each other to make create a value tree for their companies. Are you interested in finding out more about value proposition design? Find out more in the book “Value Proposition Design” or contact Carin for support.
Workshop marketing and sales network
About our speaker
Carin Madsén Kollberg has a unique background as both computer scientists and communicator and long experience as Project Manager and in communicating technical solutions, both external and internal. You can contact her at +46 709 302 684 or cmk@crossroad.se.
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