Happy New Year and welcome to 2025!
As Customer Success leaders, there’s no better time to reflect on what truly drives meaningful outcomes for our customers. While retention and expansion often dominate the conversation, the true foundation of success lies in value realization—helping customers see measurable, meaningful outcomes from your product or service.
This year, I challenge you to make value realization your guiding principle. Let’s explore why this matters and how you can embed it into your Customer Success strategy.
Value vs. ROI: What’s the Difference?
Many leaders mistakenly equate value with ROI. While they’re interconnected, they serve different purposes.
- ROI asks: “Is this investment worth it?
- Value asks: “How is this solution helping us succeed?”
Together, value and ROI create a powerful narrative of your product’s overall impact. ROI demonstrates financial credibility while value connects your solution to broader organizational and personal goals.
The SOP Value Model: Different Dimensions of Value
To deliver value effectively, you need to understand the different dimensions it encompasses. The SOP Value Model helps you break value into three different levels:
- Strategic Value
- Focus: Strategy and long-term business outcomes, like market growth or competitive differentiation.
- Audience: Economic buyers and decision-makers.
- Time Horizon: Year or more.
- Operational Value
- Focus: Optimizing processes and systems for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
- Audience: Champions, influencers and project owners.
- Time Horizon: Quarters.
- Productivity Value
- Focus: Enhancing task-level efficiency and resource utilization.
- Audience: End users.
- Time Horizon: Immediate to months.
Why It Matters:
The SOP Value Model is a practical tool to ensure your messaging and engagement resonate with every stakeholder in your customer’s organization:
- Strategic Value resonates with executives who care about long-term business goals.
- Operational Value appeals to managers looking for efficiency and process optimization.
- Productivity Value engages end users by showing how your solution makes their day-to-day tasks easier and faster.
Pro Tip: Knowing which tier of value matters most to a stakeholder helps you tailor your messaging, making it more relevant and impactful.
Register for the Value Realization Masterclass
You asked for this and I’m excited to deliver! Join me for an in-depth masterclass where we’ll unpack the Value Realization Framework and explore how you can apply it to your organization.
The Value Realization Framework: The Foundation of Revenue Growth
📅 Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2025
🕒 Time: 11 AM to 12:30 PM ET
📍 Location: Virtual (Zoom Link provided upon registration)
What You’ll Learn:
- Differentiate Value and ROI: Understand the critical distinctions and their importance in customer success.
- Proven Frameworks: Discover methods to map and showcase value, even with limited customer data.
- Hands-On Value Mapping: Create a tailored Value Map for your product or service.
- Storytelling Toolkit: Learn to communicate value and ROI effectively to drive trust, retention, and revenue growth.
2025 is the year to elevate how we define and deliver value. By focusing on value realization, you’ll strengthen customer relationships, unlock growth opportunities, and demonstrate the critical role Customer Success plays in driving business outcomes.
The SOP Value Model and the distinction between value and ROI are just the beginning. During the masterclass, we’ll explore how to operationalize these insights through the Value Realization Framework, equipping you and your team with the tools to drive measurable impact for your customers and your business.
I can’t wait to explore this with you and help you make value realization the cornerstone of your strategy this year.