In a recent strategy engagement, I was helping an industrial company develop its enterprise value proposition and translate it for their priority markets. During the research and discovery phase of the project, I came across an interesting conundrum: some of the most valuable work the company did prevented problems their customers never had to experience.

Of course, this is ultimately a good thing, but it does present an interesting problem: how do you help customers recognize the value of something they’ve never experienced?

When an organization is really good at what it does, some of the work that makes it good can be difficult for customers to identify. What the customer ultimately experiences is a smooth engagement, but it may not be apparent how much judgment and preparation went into making it smooth. What could have taken decades of experience to perfect can end up looking fairly straightforward. Which isn't to say that value wasn't created, but the connection between the work and the outcome (or, said another way, the value the customer experiences) may not be obvious.

In these scenarios, it is up to the company to make the connection explicitly.

Before the Contract

In this particular example, much of the value that my industrial company client creates happens before the outcome. It is created before the customer even signs a contract. Because of this, it's useful to think about Michael Porter's idea of the value chain. In simple terms, the value chain is the set of activities a business performs to create and deliver value to its customers. Looking at those activities individually helps you understand where that value actually comes from.

One of the things that I heard repeatedly from both internal stakeholders and external customers was how valuable the pre-project site walk was. For the industrial company, it was an opportunity to see what the project would actually require, to ask questions, and to develop a more complete understanding of the work before committing to a scope and a price. Identifying those requirements early helps reduce the chance of discovering, once the project is underway, that something important has been left out.

But there were other benefits too. It gave the customer an opportunity to see the company's expertise in action. They could see how knowledgeable they were. They could see how the team approached the project, what it paid attention to, what it felt was important, and which questions it asked. All this contributed to a sense of trust that began developing long before anyone signed a contract.

And yet, the value needs to be made explicit. Recognizing the team's expertise isn't necessarily the same as understanding how that expertise contributes to fewer surprises later.

Make the Value Visible

It's useful to separate when the value is created and when the benefit is experienced. For this example, we might look at it like this.

• During scoping, the team applies its judgment, identifies requirements, and resolves uncertainties.

• During the buying decision, the customer can see that expertise and begin to trust it.

• During execution, the customer benefits from that earlier work through fewer avoidable surprises.

Knowing that, you can start to think about the job of the enterprise value proposition as connecting what the company does with what the customer experiences, regardless of when they experience it.

A customer may never see every complication your team anticipated or every omission it caught before work began. But they should understand how that preparation contributes to the experience they’re paying for. A smooth engagement can look like an easy project. Part of your job is to help the customer recognize when it was your expertise that made it easier.