The Knowledge Framework

The key is that this critical sales & marketing knowledge is managed in a single, and most importantly; simple, Knowledge Framework that reflects the way that sales and marketing organizations should think and communicate when they are trying to sell solutions.  This elegant Knowledge Framework (see diagram) consists of four interlinked Topics that are also categorized by markets, stakeholders, and key competitors

• The specific Customer Needs that are solved by a company’s solutions
• The specific Underlying Issues and problems that must be addressed by the customer in order to solve those Customer Needs
•  Solution Value Scenarios which describe how customers use a one of the company’s solutions to solve a particular Customer Need
• Capability Value Scenarios which describe how customers use specific Key Capabilities of a particular solution solve a specific Underlying Issue. These Capability Value Scenarios also include knowledge on how a capability is different from the competition and why that differentiation helps solve that particular issue. This ability to reflect the concept of “Differentiated Value” is one of the most powerful features in ValueMapper.

Topics contain multiple Knowledge Pages (one for each Customer Need, Underlying Issue and Value Scenario) that are dynamically generated based the specific selling situation. The beauty of this simple Knowledge Framework and the concept of situation specific Value Scenarios is that it aligns marketing and sales organizations around a common and more explicit view of various aspects of the Customer’s Need while it institutionalizes both the outside-in thinking process and the tactical fundamentals that make a solutions based marketing and sales strategy a success.