“Muddling through” means “to achieve a degree of success without much planning or effort” (Merriam-Webster.com).  This term reflects the approach of many businesses, leading to occasional success but more often to uneven and disappointing results.  In this book chapter, James Anderson and Todd Snelgrove provide guidance on how businesses can achieve and sustain extraordinary success in customer value management.

To read the chapter, please visit Value First then Price: Quantifying Value in Business-to-Business Markets.

"Tiebreaker Selling," appeared in Harvard Business Review in March of 2014. In business markets, suppliers of nonstrategic market offerings often mistakenly assume that they have only two options of getting the customer’s business: stressing features that their offerings have but competitors’ lack and competing on price. Our management practice research found that this approach is most often ineffective. Taking the time to understand the customer’s business and priorities enables best-practice suppliers to identify the tiebreaking justifier – that noteworthy extra whose value is self-evident and shows the purchasing manager’s contribution to the business. To view the full article, please visit: Harvard Business Review

Why the Highest Price Isn't the Best Price - James Anderson's article on value-based pricing in business markets appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review. This article, co-authored with Professors Marc Wouters and Wouter van Rossum, provides a framework for value-based pricing. It draws on their management practice research, where they interviewed managers about their recent experience in attempting to set the price of a new or changed market offering based upon its value to target customers. Anderson, van Rossum and Wouters found that best-practice suppliers implement value-based pricing to both boost profits and strengthen customer relations. Many managers presume that each of these outcomes can only be attained at the expense of the other. To view the full article, please visit: MIT Sloan Management Review

James Anderson and Gregory Carpenter wrote the entry on Value Propositions for the Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing. The encyclopedia covers the major developments in marketing that have occurred over the last decade in: knowledge management, globalization, new technologies, services marketing and customization, entrepreneurship and emerging markets, networks and alliances, new organizational forms, and new avenues for business growth. It draws on Dr. Anderson's Harvard Business Review article titled: "Crafting Value Propositions in Business Markets". To view the full article, please visit: Harvard Business Review

Boosting the Value of Supplier Innovation for the Customer's Customer - Innovative companies fund internal research and development to give them a future edge in the marketplace. They also work closely with their suppliers in an effort to offer greater functionality and performance for their customers. However, some critical new product insights come not from suppliers and customers working together but from the customer's customers. Although the supplier may have demonstrated the basic commercial viability of their offering, uncertainty remains about the best applications and how to realize the potential value. When suppliers and customers cooperate, they can "tweak" the technology. Relatively small changes can lead to big gains in value for the customer's customers. Our recent article in MIT Sloan Management Review details how suppliers and their customers can work together to realize the potential value of the supplier's innovation for the customer's customers. To view the full article, please visit: MIT Sloan Management Review