Every brand, company, and/or organization must deliver a clearly articulated value proposition to the market, regardless of what

the entity actually offers. This article is written for those looking to build both defensible and differentiated product and service offerings via a proven process. This methodology was created by us at the Growth Management Center and is referred to as The 3D Value Management Framework. Its important to know the history behind The Growth Management Centers, or GMCs creation of the 3D Value Management Framework as it provides valuable context. The framework was initially developed during a project for a client organization that differentiated their product in the marketplace by coupling the product they sold with a superior service offering. The challenge given to GMC was to assist the client in designing a system to methodically structure their organization to deliver true value to their customers. The value had to stem from the clients market offering and be clearly articulated to the target market. Being an organization that had grown primarily via acquisition the client suffered from a fragmented approach to delivering value throughout the organization with each division and office continuing to operate in a silo, and not benefiting from the strengths of the now larger organization.

It was critical that GMC worked with the client to maintain what made each acquired division attractive in the first place all while designing a value management system that brought consistency and structure to the organization. This was necessary in maintaining the clients overall brand promise and reputation. The 3D Value Management Framework is what emerged from this client engagement and we have since evolved it to be a valuable tool to any organization looking to better understand and formalize their value offering.

Here how it works: 1. It begins with the process to formally define how your organization creates value. Clearly articulate how the product or service you offer creates value for the customer, define the essence of what your organization does.

2. Next, you must develop your value by refining it in a manner that resonates with customers wants and needs and then communicate that value to them in an efficient and effective manner. 3. And finally, your organization must deliver that value. Whether literally placing the tangible product your organization offers in the customers hands, or assembling, training, and equipping a team to deliver from your now defined and developed menu of services. Each of these three steps considers the primary tasks involved in living up to your organizations value proposition. By formalizing the process of Defining, Developing, and Delivering the value in a sequenced and methodical manner an organization can consistently provide value to the market. Please note that this is a high-level perspective and each of the three steps contains a good deal of detail under each in order to be effective. Lets dive into each of the three steps to better understand how they work. 1. Define the value considers five major buckets. Product, Service, Brand, Price and Incentives. These are stated in no particular order for sake of the framework. The order does however matter when crafting the framework for your organization. Well get into that in just a moment. 2. The combination of these 5 buckets construct the defining elements that you then mustDevelop to suit the

wants and needs of your customer. Dependent on the complexity of your value offering is the degree to which refinement or customization of the defined value (your product or service) is necessary. After refining, or tailoring that value to the customers needs it is then packaged and communicated in a manner that resonates with the customer or target market. There is a whole lot that happens in each of these two sub-steps. Often folks call these activities marketing. 3. When the value is all buttoned up, sold, and/or ready to be used it must then beDelivered to the customer. The mechanism to deliver is contingent on the nature of the value being transferred to the customer, but by now I think you get the gist of this. Lets put the 3D Value Management Framework to work to see how it could be applied for an insurance broker. Insurance is a prime example of an organization which can benefit from the 3D process, as insurers typically encapsulate a basic product, the insurance policy, with value creating (thus differentiating) services. Brand, Price, and Incentives matter in this market as well.

DEFINE
First, lets define the value. This starts with gathering information via a thorough business environment assessment. We consider the carriers brokered and the insurance products they offer, the third party administrators

the broker manages, the renewal process the broker leads for their clients, and so on. All these value creating elements feed into the value proposition of the broker. In the brokers 3D Framework we focus on Service as it is the differentiator for them. Insurance policies for the most part are generic and so a large portion of the value offered by the broker stems from their service offering. Having this first column defined helps us visually understand how the broker defines the value they offer. We can then work on building these five elements out further to encompass all best practices of the broker, identify value add partnerships, and gain clarity on the services provided. Further we are now armed to justify a Market Value Pricing strategy which may or may not have been the case beforehand. By having clearly defined value generating activities the broker can set prices that are optimal to both customer and company in a competitive market context.

DEVELOP

Having the value clearly defined sets us up for the next stage. Develop the Value. We develop the value by refining it as needed on a per-market or per-customer basis. For a B2B insurance broker a proposal must be tailored to meet the customers needs, not just adjusted based on a basic market segmentation table. By having clearly defined value generating services the broker can approach a customer in a superior manner as all activities are demonstrating value to the prospective customer. Activities such as conducting a needs assessment so that the broker can better understand the type of insurance coverage the customer actually needs. After the value has been refined it is then communicated by the broker in a manner that resonates with the customer. This means the broker now knows who to send what to, and it is communicated in a manner and tone that resonates with the receiving party.

DELIVER

So its a good day for this broker and the customer has chosen to purchase the policy. Hooray! Now its delivery time. This is a common point in the value chain where a break-off occurs for many insurance brokers. The high-touch, high-quality experience led by the producer mustnt end here; the addition of the brokers service team must seam just that an addition to the value providing team (producer) already in place. Moving forward, the producer plays a slightly different role, but is still involved in maintaining an appropriate level of dialogue with the customer as the year goes on. This aids the process at renewal, ideally, if the broker has been delivering appropriate and agreed to services all year, the renewal will be a snap, and so long as pricing is at an appropriate level will almost completely ensure the broker renews with the customer for another year!

In conclusion
So thats the 3D Value Management Framework from a 50,000 foot level. Its a powerful tool we keep in our quiver at GMC. Feel free to apply it to your own organization to better understand how you provide value to your customers. And of

course, if you need a guide at any point along the way feel free to contact me at anytime!