VALKRE | Value Creation

Selling Problems? Your Value Proposition May Be the Issue.

There’s thousands of enterprise cloud-based apps for businesses available on Google's Apps Marketplace, Salesforce's AppExchange, and Amazon's AWS Marketplace. When you look through Google's recently updated Apps Marketplace, you realize there’s technology to do pretty much any and every business task, ranging from apps for managing projects to apps for managing customer relationships to apps for managing money. But if you search through those marketplaces, can you find an app that helps companies manage their Value Propositions?

The answer to that question is no. Yet you'll find tons of apps for expense reporting!

Just stop for a moment and think about the fact there’s technology for something as banal as managing expenses. And then when you consider the amount of investment (time and money) on managing your travel and entertainment expenses — including the system you put those expenses in, routing them to the right people for approval, tracking of reimbursement, and billing back to your customers — you’ll understand why technology is used to manage expenses.

With the aforementioned use case in mind, you’ll appreciate why we at Valkre believe it is critical to use RENDER to manage your Value Proposition, which, for a company and its relationship with customers, is the most important growth asset in business. We’ve blogged here previously that a strong Value Proposition requires rigorous defining, along with an organizational commitment to continuous improvement and collaboration with customers. All of that can be done more effectively when technology is used to bring structure and speed in managing that work.

On December 11th the Institute for the Study of Business Markets is hosting a webinar on how GE is using RENDER to manage its Value Propositions with its customers. During the webinar, GE will share how RENDER enables their company to:

• Define Value Propositions. How you get Value Propositions out of powerpoint, word docs, and spreadsheets and into a dynamic system that ensures that sales people are equipped and selling at any given instant the latest, most compelling value proposition to customers
• Improve Value Propositions. How you manage initiatives that improve the value prop and ensure that the entire organization has visibility and accountability for executing those initiatives
• Collaborate with Customers on Value Propositions. How you link all of the value prop work to voice of customer to ensure you are on the path to solving challenges critical to the customer

To see this demonstration of the SaaS platform GE and Valkre are building and using to revolutionize how they manage Value Propositions in today’s fast paced customer world, register today for the ISBM webinar by clicking here.

Valkre's Championship Chili Recipe

Regular readers of our blog know that Valkre's value proposition includes RENDER software, the Differential Value Proposition methodology, expert services and support. However, one differentiator about Valkre that is not widely knows is that we have a few master chefs in house who sometimes delight the office with some amazing culinary delights. So, since winter has peeked its head around the corner here in Chicago, we thought we would end the blogging week by sharing Jay Ablian's chili recipe that won Valkre's chili cookoff.

Here's some of Jay's comments about his chili: "My chili takes time and effort to layer in the flavors to develop a complex taste. Its not about just throwing a bunch of ingredients in a pot at the same time and boiling it for 3 hours. I know this will sound corny, but making chili is a lot like creating value for your customers -- it's an endeavor that takes dedication and attentiveness, and if you put in the effort to do it right, everyone will love what you've created!"

 

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Chili

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs of beef chuck, cut into ½” pieces
1 ½ lbs of pork shoulder, cut into ½” pieces
½ lbs of Mexican chorizo
6 ancho chile pods, seeds removed – if you don’t have pods, use 1/3 cup of ancho chile powder
2 pasilla (or guajillo) chile pods, seeds removed - if you don’t have pods, use 2 tbsps of pasilla powder
1 large white onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, diced
1 large poblano pepper
1 tbsp of cumin
1 bottle of Edmund Fitzgerald porter (you can use any dark beer but then you have to rename the chili)
1 28 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 canned chipotles, chopped finely, with adobo sauce
2 cups (or more) of beef broth
1 ½ oz of Mexican chocolate (Ibarra brand works nicely)
2 tsp of Mexican oregano
1 15 oz can of black beans

Instructions:

Cut open the chile pods, toast both sides in a hot skillet, put in a large bowl, and cover with hot water. Soak for 15-20 minutes. Once they pods are super soft, put them in a blender with just enough of the soaking liquid to puree until the consistency of tomato paste.

Roast poblano over an open flame until the skin gets black and blistered. Once the poblano has cooled, peel the blackened skin, remove the seeds, and dice the poblano.

Season the beef and pork with salt and brown in a heavy bottom pot (French oven preferable) at medium high heat. Do this in batches (otherwise you’ll get boiled meat). Remove meat from the pot and set aside.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add chorizo to the pot and cook till the chorizo starts to Render its fat. Add the onion and jalapeno. Sauté  until the onion becomes soft and translucent. Add the garlic and the roasted poblano and sauté for a minute. 

Add the pureed chiles and the cumin to the pot. Stir to incorporate in the onion mixture and gets heated through. Be careful to not allow the chile puree to burn. Add the browned meat back to the pot.  Stir to ensure meat is well coated with the chile puree. Cook for a few minutes so that the meat starts to absorb the chili flavors.

Add the beer. Bring the mixture to boil until the beer has reduced. Add the roasted tomatoes, chipotles, and beef broth. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low. Add the chocolate. Simmer for 90 minutes (or until the meat is super tender) and stir occasionally to ensure bottom doesn’t burn.

Add the beans and oregano. Cook for 5 more minutes.  Taste for seasoning. Add salt to your preference. Serve up with accompaniments of your choice -- sour cream, scallions, and tortilla chips are great additions to this chili.

What Is Your Value Proposition?

Last week our sales team was doing a demo of our software, RENDER, to someone whom we'll call an anglerfish. This demo was one of those textbook cases in the sales process where it was unclear if we were meeting with a key player or just a really nice person who could be engaging us into a middle school-like, arm's length slow dance.

I know for you sales and business development folks out there, this story isn't unfamiliar. The golden rule with a prospect is "qualify, qualify, qualify." And when your time is precious and resources are few, lead quality is the difference between a productive sales call and getting lured by an anglerfish. To cut to the chase in the sales process courtship, the leading question we should have asked upfront was, "What is your Value Proposition to your customers?"

For better or worse, every company has a Value Proposition--the actions and investments a company undertakes to provide customers what they value most and give them a reason to buy. However sometimes a company's value prop doesn't clearly communicate the benefits to customers...sometimes a company's value prop doesn't encompass what customers are asking for...sometimes a company's value prop is stale and hasn't been improving versus the next best alternative.

So back to the anglerfish. The answer to the question of what is your Value Proposition would have helped us understand whether or not this anglerfish had a pain point RENDER could solve. Luckily we were still able to figure out that defining, selling, or improving the company's Value Proposition was not one of her pain points. And rather than spinning our wheels with the wrong person, she has the influence to connect us to someone who owns value prop for the marketing organization....and has helped us get a next meeting with that person.

Understanding your Value Proposition gets to the heart of what Valkre does for companies. While most people think it is straightforward to communicate to customers, we here at Valkre argue that a strong Value Proposition requires more than some marketing copy. Instead, it requires rigorous defining, customer collaboration, and an organizational commitment to improving it if your company really wants to grow with customers.

Just a couple weeks ago, we hosted our 5th annual open house (which we called "Conversations + Cocktails"). The big draw of the night was the discussion panel, led by Valkre CEO Jerry Alderman, on the intersection of technology, marketing and sales in B2B. 

Our Value Proposition, articulated by our customers in attendance, was clear and compelling: "Valkre has given us a means to measure, evaluate, and communicate value we create for customers and a system to sustain it." If you have questions about how Valkre can help your Value Proposition, leave us a comment below.

Our Open Office Layout

We fall into the “no walls” structure like most starts-ups choose when creating a workspace. It has its share of collaboration bonuses when working on a small team. Yet Jason Feifer of Fast Company would probably disagree with our office set up. In his article, Feifer talks about the negatives of the open concept plan, explaining how that office layout affects productivity, workforce and social interactions and the distractions that come with it.

We recently had an open house which required us to move furniture for the event space, people, booze – you get the idea. Every time we consider moving a desk or getting some new piece of furniture, the idea of rearranging our space to be more efficient comes up. Yet we default to a layout that keeps us out in an open space with room to wheel around.

To Feifer’s point about open concept offices, the distractions can often be just that distracting. However, Valkre is not one for offices; even our CEO sits out in the steno pool with the developers and services guys. We have offices but we don’t use them as personal offices.  They’re used primarily for brainstorming or making phone calls with customers or significant others, and being on hold with Ventra. Now before you go losing your red Swingline staplers, or the single pair of scissors we have at the Valkre office, our developers have a different point of view towards the open concept.

Technology is the ruler of the office, not the space around you. Google Talk can be more of a distraction than a wild Michael Cardinale appearing over your shoulder. Amongst the funny gifs and complaints, developers get most of our work done in silence and effectively without walls. If you have not seen the Valkre office, our developers like it quiet and dark, especially when a deadline approaches or testing week. But you’ll often hear an uproar of comments and banter. Once the ear buds come out, the distractions (Nerf guns, remote control helicopters, and all) become full blown, and it is a welcomed change to the silent droning of keyboard clicks whispered swears from frustrated devs. Like Feifer’s Friday whiskey parties, we too will get rowdy but then again who wants to be left out of that.

Our office may change the layout if we need to, but like most start-ups, Valkre can work in an open setting. Without it, we could not talk about the latest Walking Dead or anticipated Game of Thrones episode...oh, and collaborate on the next customer solution. 

Render Gets a Spine-chilling Update

In the spirit of Halloween, this past week Valkre partook in the festivities by unveiling a new digital costume for our Render software. Version 3.4 features a slew of updates that bring all treats and no tricks for every B2B neighborhood. 

• Render now has the ability to customize the way Workspace owners present their Interview approaches and their Interview notes. Unlike a "one size fits all" costume that doesn't portray the image they promise as the night goes on, Render will now give its users the ability to change Interview approaches and Interview notes on the spot, giving you the power to show or hide any information depending on what customer you're visiting. 
• Render now lets you customize what content you want to display on your homepage dashboard, just like your decision to wear a just a mask, zombie makeup, or a full costume on Halloween.
• To make action planning after a Customer Interview easier, Render now gives you the option to create Customer tasks. These tasks are a place to build out a plan that can be shared with your customer following the interview. It's like making a plan after trick or treating to help you remember which houses had the best loot each year. 
• New Customer Improvement Plan are lists of everything your company is doing to help your customers, and you can share these plans with your customers. Think of it as preparing for next year's Halloween by mapping out where to go to maximize your candy loot and then sharing that map of houses with the best candy. 

These are just a few of the main updates Render received. Other updates include: 

• My Work Dates: My Work is now sorted on Due Date, making it easier to manage the work a user owns in the system
• Initiative Executive Owner dropdown: Initiative Owners can select users to be Executive Owners…allowing consistency and the ability to use the Executive Owner field as a Report filter
• Workspace Status Logic: The color coded bars for each step in the Workspace is based on if the work is complete.
• Faster Report Creation: When creating a report, only the last year’s worth of data is included to speed up its creation.
• Date Stamp in PDF Report Title: When a PDF Report is generated, the Date is now included on the Title Page
• Batch Administer Customer Ownership: It is easier to assign Customer Owners in a Workspace to set up the Customer Module
• DVP Administration in Workspace: Workspace Owners can now create and edit the names of DVPs without Valkre assistance
• Download Report Data to .CSV: At the top of each Report is an icon to download the Report data into .CSV format that can be opened in Excel

Let us know what you think of the new features and enhancements for Render v3.4.