calling all cash cows

B2B Customers Want Specific Things and Have Special Needs. Your competitors may be workingh hard to provide these. This Makes the Cash Cow Products More Fragile Than We Think.

Making a comprehensive list of all the business customer needs is challenging, but here are 40 to get you started. They are organized in this order: inspirational, individual, ease of doing business, Functional and tablestakes. An important thing to remember when selling to businesses - It’s really people buying from people…Many buyers act a bit like consumers during a B2B deal.

Inspirational Value and Purpose

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of FOLLOWING A VISION as a value driver for business revenue. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of FOLLOWING A VISION within a revenue plan.

    Vision

    Do your products and services follow a vision that synchs with the business customer?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of OFFERING HOPE as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of OFFERING HOPE within a B2B revenue plan.

    Hope

    Are your products and services inspirational and offer hope for future accomplishments?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Social Responsibility

    Do you follow policies that self-regulate against concerns for social issues like environmental, digital consumption, health, addiction, etc?

Individual Value (Career and personal)

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of CAREER NETWORKING as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of CAREER NETWORKING within a B2B revenue plan.

    career - Network Expansion

    Does buying your products and services offer long term opportunities to connect with others and build lifting relationships?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of CAREER MARKETABILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of CAREER MARKETABILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    career - Marketability

    Do buying your products allow purchasers and users to increase their hard performance skills and marketability?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of CAREER REPUTATIONAL ASSURANCE as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of CAREER REPUTATIONAL ASSURANCE within a B2B revenue plan.

    career - Reputational Assurance

    When dealing with your company, do purchasers and users enjoy a reputational lift?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of DESIGN AND AESTHETICS as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of DESIGN AND AESTHETICS within a B2B revenue plan.

    personal - Design and Aesthetics

    Do B2B buyers feel as though they have obtained a panache lift from owning your stuff?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT within a B2B revenue plan.

    personal - Growth and Development

    Similar to marketability, does buying your products and services help others improve their soft skill development?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of REDUCED ANXIETY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of REDUCED ANXIETY within a B2B revenue plan.

    personal - Reduced Anxiety

    Is it important for users and owners of your products to feel less anxiety?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of FUN AND PERKS as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of FUN AND PERKS within a B2B revenue plan.

    personal - Fun and Perks

    Business to business sales are really often people buying from people. Do customers of yours enjoy some fun and more interesting experiences?

Value Elements That Make You Easy to Do Business With

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of PRODUCTIVITY AND TIME SAVINGS as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of PRODUCTIVITY AND TIME SAVINGS within a B2B revenue plan.

    Productivity - Time Savings

    Many products and services put emphasis on saving time for business customers. Do yours?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of REDUCING EFFORT as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of REDUCING EFFORT within a B2B revenue plan.

    Productivity - Reduced Effort

    Some products and services targeted to business customers help reduce effort – allowing more time spent on important tasks. Do yours?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of DECREASED HASSLES as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of DECREASED HASSLES within a B2B revenue plan.

    Productivity - Decreased Hassles

    Are your customers feeling worried about future hassles?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of INFORMATION SHARING FROM SALES as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of INFORMATION SHARING FROM SALES within a B2B revenue plan.

    Productivity - Information

    Products, Services value drivers are important. And, information sharing from your sales approaches are a big value element – improving the customer experience.

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of AUTHENTICITY AND TRANSPARENCY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of AUTHENTICITY AND TRANSPARENCY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Productivity - Transparency

    Are your products and services authentic and do what you say they will do? Are transactional elements of your sales transparent? No hidden gotchas?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of PRODUCT AVAILABILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of PRODUCT AVAILABILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Access - Availability

    How hard is it to get your products and services when a customer needs them? 

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of VARIETY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of VARIETY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Access - Variety

    Do you make customers buy more than they need? Do they have just the right selections?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of CONFIGURABILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of CONFIGURABILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Access - Configurability

    Business customers are scrapy. Can your products be configured in the field to be used in creative ways? Does the configurability teach your organization?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of RESPONSIVENESS as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of RESPONSIVENESS within a B2B revenue plan.

    Relationship - Responsiveness

    Business customers are demanding to require quick response times from sales, technical experts and after sales service teams. How is your organization on this?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of EXPERTISE as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of EXPERTISE within a B2B revenue plan.

    Relationship - Expertise

    Does your customer facing team (sales, tech support, aftercare) bring expertise that is helpful to sustain a business relationship with your customers?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of COMMITMENT as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of COMMITMENT within a B2B revenue plan.

    Relationship - Commitment

    Are you committed to the long-term applications of your products. Does your support team and repair/parts availability help reduce obsolescence?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of STABILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of STABILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Relationship - Stability

    Does your organization contribute to stability for your business customers with their  scheduling, pricing, and distribution promises?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of CULTURAL FIT as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of CULTURAL FIT within a B2B revenue plan.

    Relationship - Cultural Fit

    How well does your organization fit within the cultural norms and values set by your business customer?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of RISK REDUCTION as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of RISK REDUCTION within a B2B revenue plan.

    Strategic - Risk Reduction

    Do your products and services reduce strategic plan risk for the business customer?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of STRATEGIC REACH as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of STRATEGIC REACH within a B2B revenue plan..

    Strategic - Reach

    Do you contribute to extended reach of new customers and markets for your business customer?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Strategic - Flexibility

    Do your products, services and sales approaches improve the business customers strategic capabilities and flexibility to serve their customers?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of COMPONENT as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of COMPONENT QUALITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Strategic - Component Quality

    Do the pieces and parts you provide contribute to the overall quality of the business customers products or services?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of ORGANIZATIONAL LIFT as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of ORGANIZATIONAL LIFT within a B2B revenue plan.

    Operational - Organization

    How well do your products and services help the customer to feel organized and sorted?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of SIMPLIFICATION as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of SIMPLIFICATION within a B2B revenue plan.

    Operational - Simplification

    Do your products, services and sales approaches simplify things for the customer?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of CONNECTABILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of CONNECTABILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Operational - Connection

    Do your products connect well in a “plug-in” type of way? Do customers have to buy extra stuff to connect your products?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of INTEGRATION as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of INTEGRATION within a B2B revenue plan.

    Operational - Integration

    How well do your products work with other products? Do you use open architecture standards for technology?

Functional Value - Both Economic and Performance

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of TOP-LINE PERFORMANCE as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of TOP-LINE PERFORMANCE within a B2B revenue plan.

    Economic - Improved top Line

    Do your products and services contribute to revenue growth for your business customer? Indirect or Direct?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of COST REDUCTION as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of COST REDUCTION within a B2B revenue plan.

    Economic - Cost reduction

    What is the cost to maintain and repair, cost to operate your products? What is the total cost of ownership over time?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of PRODUCT QUALITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of PRODUCT QUALITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Performance - Product Quality

    Includes performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and perceived quality.

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of SCALABILITY as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of SCALABILITY within a B2B revenue plan.

    Performance - Scalability

    Can your products or services be scaled for larger quantity, higher performance and extended outputs?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of INNOVATION as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of INNOVATION within a B2B revenue plan.

    Performance - Innovation

    Do products and services from your organization contribute to innovation improvements for your customer or their customers?

Tablestakes

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of TABLESTAKES SPECIFICATIONS as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of TABLESTAKES SPECIFICATIONS within a B2B revenue plan.

    Tablestakes - Meeting Specifications

    How accurately do your product specifications match with the business customers needs and requests for purchase?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of ACCEPTABLE PRICE as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of ACCEPTABLE PRICE within a B2B revenue plan.

    Tablestakes - Acceptable Price

    While consumers are always looking for value, they are often willing to pay more for this. Business customers are sometimes required to purchase with low price requirements. How well does your company compete on price?   

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of REGULATORY COMPLIANCE as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of REGULATORY COMPLIANCE within a B2B revenue plan.

    Tablestakes - Regulatory Compliance

    Are your products and services ‘ready now’ to meet current regulatory policies? Are they future proofed to meet future anticipated regulatory rules?

  • A CEVOH image representing the importance of ETHICAL STANDARDS as a value driver for business customers. See CEVOH.com for best practice examples of ETHICAL STANDARDS within a B2B revenue plan.

    Tablestakes - Ethical Standards

    Does your organization follow a code of conduct to exceed expectations for honesty, fairness, respect and responsibility?