Value is a tory that is told with customers across the customer journey, from pre sales through to customer success. In this post Ibbaka Chief Value Officer Karen Chiang tells the story of the Ibbaka customer value journey. She provides an approach relevant to all B2B SaaS companies. This is a follow up from Karen and Rashaqa Rahman’s PeakSpan Master Class: The Value Narrative – Integrating Value & Improving Engagement Across the Customer Lifecycle.

Value models are the way to connect the different business processes that deliver the customer experience. What is a value model? How are they used? In this pot we connect the dots.

Value based pricing is the key to sustained growth in B2B SaaS. But having a value model and a value based price is just the beginning. You have to be able to communicate that value in a value story. The form of the value story evolves over the customer journey.

More and more B2B business are using conjoint studies to inform packaging and pricing. But conjoint studies were originally designed for B2C and caution is needed in extending them to B2B. Structured interviews using a value story can provide more actionable insights.

Value ROIs and value models are best communicated as a story. This is the ‘Art of Value Storytelling’. One approach to value storytelling uses ‘the hero’s journey.’ The hero of the customer value journey is not you or your software. It is the customer. Value storytelling makes the customer the hero of their own story.

Value is central to the design, sale and support of B2B software. Sophisticated ways of understanding and measuring that value have been developed, from basic ROI calculators to sophisticated Economic Value Estimation models. But at the end of the day, we are human, and humans respond to stories. Converting value models into value stories is key to communicating value.