The full title of this book by Cindy Barnes, Helen Blake & David Pinder is
“Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition: Managing Customer Experience for Profit“.
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I rated this book as Four Stars. This means it is Good and Well Worth Reading.
Here is my book review.
A detailed look at value propositions for big companies
I’d better begin by clarifying what the authors mean by a value proposition because it may not be quite what you think if you use value proposition and unique selling point interchangeably.
The book says “A value proposition statement is a clear, compelling and credible expression of the experience that a customer will receive from a supplier’s measurably value-creating offering.” (page 22)
It goes on to quote Michael Lanning from Delivering Profitable Value (another favourite book I need to review) to say:
“A value proposition is:
- about customers but for your organisation;
- not addressed to customers but must drive these communications;
- articulates the essence of a business, defining exactly what the organisation fully intends to make happen in the customer’s life.”
The chapter titles are descriptive and take you through the authors value proposition builder approach. When I read some books, I feel that the authors are holding back, I didn’t have any of those reservations with this book.
Here are the chapter titles:
- What do you really think about customers?
- What is a value proposition?
- The value focused approach
- Creating your value proposition
- Value proposition builder: market
- Value proposition builder: the value experience
- Value proposition builder: offerings
- Value proposition builder: benefits
- Value proposition builder: alternatives and differentiation
- Value proposition builder: proof
- Value proposition template and value proposition statement
- Message development
- Implementation
- Starting and sustaining
- The value focused enterprise
I thought I was going to love this book but I didn’t.
It starts strongly but the more I read, the more detached I felt from the process the authors are advocating. I don’t really understand why although it is written for much bigger businesses than I deal with.
It’s also written with a strong technology theme and an extensive look at Intel. My preference is to avoid technology companies because I’m not technical and instead focus on service based differentiation.
The book doesn’t build on the customer value ideas that have influenced me – Michael Porter, Bradley Gale, Robert Woodruff, Cliff Bowman, Thomas Nagle and David Swaddling.
I’d rate it at the 3.5 stars level, perhaps 4 stars on a good day. It is staying in my library and perhaps I will return to it one day and find more value.
It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
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