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Mix it and miss it

7th of November 2012 Article by Pedro Chidichimo

Senior management is responsible for reallocating resources from low productivity areas to high-growth areas. Our companies will be successful in the long run if we are able to anticipate change, adapt and seize upon market opportunities. Pedro Chidichimo of Diversey, which is part of Sealed Air, writes his latest exclusive blog for ECJ.

Our customers in the facility management and hygiene industry are not all in the same business. An office building is very different from a hotel, a hospital, or a food store. In the next few months, I am going to give ECJ readers some tips for running a successful business that can be applied across organisations with very different needs.

Today, let me focus on the common aspects that make up a winning value creation approach. Building service contractors need to develop customised value propositions for their different targeted customer segments as a way to maximise their value for their stakeholders. This will be achieved through three key areas:

1. Design and develop sector value propositions for each of your target customer segments. How do your customers measure their customers' value? In my opinion, it is critically important to appoint a dedicated sector-focused team, charged with the responsibility of designing the customised value propositions.

2. Deploy a value selling training programme for your sales force and invest in migrating from a product/service sales organisation to a value driven company. Innovation is many times about new processes that customers find consistently useful, or information that helps them address their business challenges.

3. Develop and deploy consistent data management platforms to measure and report the value created. Help your customers develop new standards and processes and support them in their leadership roles in their industries.

4. Communicate with the industry, customers and partners through an advertising campaign. Your salesforce just can't be everywhere, and external communication is a good way to promote your differentiation and expertise. Think of the campaign of the famous consulting company and the way they create value for their customers...

Based on my experience working with some of the largest and best-known international brands, as well as numerous smaller businesses to help them introduce continuous improvement into their cleaning processes, I have learned that defining and communicating value in a meaningful way is a key driver of success.

In the fragmented and hyper-specialised industry in which we operate, specialisation is the key to success. We need to identify the key capabilities, resources, and relationships that are the basic ingredients of value creation for our customers, and mix them in the way that is right for them.