Posted 3/31/15
Recently Michael Lanning was interviewed by Brian Carroll, Executive Director, Revenue Optimization, MECLABS Institute, for the MECLABS MarketingExperiments Blog. Brian asked Mike, as the original creator of the Value Proposition concept in 1983 while a consultant for McKinsey & Company, about the evolution of this concept over the past three decades. Their discussion, on “Real Value Props, Direct from the Source,’ is here.
We helped a large electronics manufacturer’s distribution arm greatly improve sales of a key high profit category by discovering that an order-management change strongly demanded by reseller-customers (and the Sales Force) was actually irrelevant to meeting the resellers’ actual, non-obvious order-management needs.
P. Kotler, Distinguished Marketing Professor, Northwestern: “Delivering Profitable Value defines the corporate mindset that will distinguish the new millennium’s winners from the losers. Michael Lanning’s book should be required reading….”
N. Rackham (leading expert on Sales Force effectiveness; speaker; author Spin Selling and other): “Lanning created arguably the most important concept in history of marketing – the value proposition – and takes his seminal ideas deeper and further…[He] could justly be called the father of value delivery…[his] work has had enormous influence – not least on [my work].”
B. Lich Senior Vice President, Eastman Chemical Company: “…hired DPVG…several projects…very impressed with methodology & people…most dedicated, driven consulting team we’ve worked with. …coupled with intellect & diverse experience was a true asset.…In one project, after Day in the Life interviews across the chain, completely revised our segmentation and focused on [a new] solution…repositioned our new product…developed quantified value propositions for each participant in chain…net result: $50M growth opportunity with early success at major multi-national customer.”
C. Darnell (Former Vice-Chairman Lighting Science Grp, and Vice-Chairman Lithonia Lighting): “Our experience with DPVG was super good…extremely successful leading us into right Value Delivery Systems…DPV itself is a WOW! Concept…Invariably, discovery takes place…far better than normal interviews, sales calls, or dealing with complaints”
F. Vleugels (Former CEO Unipetrol, Div Mgr, Eastman Chem): “…got more than hoped… ‘out-of-box’ thinking we always want but rarely get…Many talk ‘integrated strategies’ but this work produced one…finest strategy work I’ve seen in my career…”
F. Geyer (GraphLogic Advisor, former CEO V-Brick, EVP Anacomp, SVP Texas Instruments): ”…my career was profoundly affected by…the DPV concepts…My success in transforming businesses [importantly] based on the new mindset, insights, & tools I acquired.”
Dr. W. Fraser (Former Chairman, Managing Director, Kodak Australasia): “We used the DPV course and its powerful concepts, extensively…found it outstanding – one of the very best management courses I’ve ever encountered…”
