--- title: Your Customers See the Product. Do They See the Value? description: A strong B2B product can still lose on price. Learn how clear customer value, commercial positioning, and sales evidence support better buying decisions. image: https://www.cmosyndicate.com/hubfs/Do%20Your%20Customers%20Understand%20Why%20Your%20Product%20Is%20Worth%20More_%20(2).jpg --- [![The leading partner for financial services, manufacturing and retail](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CMO%20Syndicate%20Logo%20release%20package/1.%20Primary%20Logo/RGB/Green/CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png?width=250&height=61&name=CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png "The leading partner for financial services, manufacturing and retail")](https://CMOSyndicate.com) - [Industries](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/industries) - [Services](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/fractional-cmo-services) - [Insights](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights) - [About Us](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/about) - [Contact](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/contact) [![CMO Syndicate\_Primary Logo\_Green\_RGB](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CMO%20Syndicate%20Logo%20release%20package/1.%20Primary%20Logo/RGB/Green/CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png?width=150&height=36&name=CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png "CMO Syndicate_Primary Logo_Green_RGB")](https://CMOSyndicate.com) [![CMO Syndicate\_Primary Logo\_Green\_RGB](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CMO%20Syndicate%20Logo%20release%20package/1.%20Primary%20Logo/RGB/Green/CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png?width=250&height=61&name=CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png "CMO Syndicate_Primary Logo_Green_RGB")](https://CMOSyndicate.com) - [Industries](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/industries) - [Services](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/fractional-cmo-services) - [Insights](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights) - [About Us](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/about) - [Contact](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/contact) [![CMO Syndicate\_Primary Logo\_Green\_RGB](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/CMO%20Syndicate%20Logo%20release%20package/1.%20Primary%20Logo/RGB/Green/CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png?width=150&height=36&name=CMO%20Syndicate_Primary%20Logo_Green_RGB.png "CMO Syndicate_Primary Logo_Green_RGB")](https://CMOSyndicate.com) - [Industries](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/industries) - [Services](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/fractional-cmo-services) - [Insights](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights) - [About Us](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/about) - [Contact](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/contact) ![featured\_image](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/hubfs/Do%20Your%20Customers%20Understand%20Why%20Your%20Product%20Is%20Worth%20More_%20(2).jpg) [Lisa Bratkovich, Ani Matson, & Jennifer Welch - The CMO Syndicate](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights/author/lisa-bratkovich-ani-matson-jennifer-welch-the-cmo-syndicate) | | **0 Comments** # Your Customers See the Product. Do They See the Value? ## **B2B Value Proposition: Can Buyers See It?** A company can have a superior product, a respected engineering team, and customers who appreciate its service, yet still lose opportunities to competitors offering a lower price. The executive team may know why its offering is better, but the people making the purchase cannot always explain the advantage in terms their own organization can evaluate. We see this challenge in B2B businesses where technical expertise has developed faster than the company’s ability to communicate its commercial value. Product specifications, capabilities, and service commitments dominate the sales conversation, while the financial or operational consequences for the customer receive less attention. The result can be prolonged sales cycles, difficult negotiations, and discounts offered before the customer understands what the company delivers. For a CEO or CFO, that creates questions about pricing, margin protection, and the effectiveness of the commercial strategy. [Our fractional and interim CMO services](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/fractional-cmo-b2b) can help leadership examine how customer value is defined, demonstrated, and carried through positioning, go-to-market decisions, and sales execution. ## Why Technical Strength Does Not Always Translate Into Commercial Value Industrial manufacturers and technology providers, for example, often build their reputations on capabilities that are genuinely difficult to replicate. Their teams understand the engineering, intellectual property, quality controls, and expertise behind the offering. Buyers, however, must make a business decision about what those capabilities will change inside their own organization. A customer considering a more reliable manufacturing component may need to justify a higher purchase price against reduced downtime, lower maintenance costs, or fewer production interruptions. A software buyer may need to show improvements in staff productivity, implementation risk, or revenue retention. When the seller cannot help quantify or substantiate those outcomes clearly or effectively, the purchasing discussion can narrow to price and specifications. Harvard Business Review examined this problem in its [August 2026 article, “Do Your B2B Customers See the Value You Deliver?”](https://hbr.org/2026/08/do-your-b2b-customers-see-the-value-you-deliver)The authors describe how companies can create value that customers struggle to measure and defend internally. Their analysis reinforces an important point for leadership: evidence of customer outcomes needs to become a larger part of the commercial process. We would start by asking what outcomes the company can credibly claim, which customers experience them, and what proof exists. An attractive value proposition has to survive a buyer’s financial and operational scrutiny and create a compelling reason to buy. ## Customers Need Evidence They Can Use Inside Their Own Organizations An individual buyer may appreciate the quality of a product but still need approval from finance, procurement, operations, technology, or senior management. Each stakeholder may evaluate the purchase differently, particularly in complex B2B transactions. [Forrester’s 2026 State of Business Buying research](https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-2026-the-state-of-business-buying/) found that procurement professionals were decision-makers in fifty-three percent of business buying cycles. That finding is relevant because procurement teams increasingly participate in evaluating specifications, productivity, and purchasing economics as well as price. The sales team therefore needs material that different stakeholders can use. A maintenance leader may need evidence about reduced downtime, a CFO may require payback assumptions, and procurement may need a defensible explanation for a premium cost over alternatives. Claims should reflect verified customer outcomes, with assumptions identified clearly where evidence is incomplete. We work with sales, product, and customer-facing employees to also determine which questions most often interrupt a buying decision, then develop case studies, business cases, comparisons, and proof points that address those questions. ## When Value Is Unclear, Pricing Becomes Harder to Defend Pricing pressure is not always evidence that the price is wrong. It can also indicate that the company has not made the economic value of its offering sufficiently clear to the customer or its own sales organization. [Boston Consulting Group’s April 2024 study](https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/commercial-excellence-in-machinery-and-automation) of machinery and automation businesses found a fifteen to twenty percent revenue difference between companies with advanced or optimized commercial excellence and those at an initial or basic level. The comparison covers coordinated marketing, sales, pricing, and service practices rather than isolating any single intervention, and it does not establish that a better value proposition alone produces those results. The commercial lesson is that positioning and pricing need to be supported by consistent decisions across functions. If marketing emphasizes innovation, sales focuses on discounts, and the product team prioritizes features without compelling evidence of customer benefit, the company may be undermining its own premium position. As [fractional or interim Chief Marketing Officers](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/fractional-cmo-services), we help examine which customer segments value the offering most, where commercial evidence supports differentiated pricing, and how sales teams should explain that value. Pricing authority and final price decisions remain matters for the company’s commercial and financial leadership. ## What a Stronger B2B Value Proposition Requires A credible customer value proposition begins with a specific buyer and a meaningful business outcome. Broad claims about quality, partnership, innovation, or service may describe company strengths, but they need evidence and commercial context to influence a difficult buying decision. We typically examine customer segments, purchase triggers, alternatives under consideration, economic drivers, and the evidence the company already holds. For a manufacturer, that might mean studying unplanned downtime, warranty costs, installation labor, or total cost of ownership. For a software firm, it may involve implementation time, workflow efficiency, risk, or the cost of manual processes. The next step is to translate validated insights into the commercial tools employees use, including website positioning, sales conversations, proposals, customer case studies, and account planning. A value proposition is more useful when marketing and sales apply it consistently and can adjust it to different buying situations. This work often exposes a measurement question as well. If the company cannot identify or verify the outcomes customers want, it may need stronger customer research and a more disciplined process for collecting evidence before making more ambitious commercial claims. ## Who Should Own Customer Value Across the Business? The responsibility for customer value crosses marketing, sales, product, service, and finance. Product teams understand how the offering works, customer-facing employees hear why buyers select or reject it, and finance can help evaluate the credibility of economic claims. These perspectives need executive coordination. We have seen companies struggle when each department communicates a different version of what the business offers. Marketing may emphasize a broad brand promise, sales may lead with a list of features, and customer success may hold valuable evidence that never reaches the next prospect. An [embedded CMO can work across those functions to clarify](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights/ceo-scorecard-fractional-cmo-services) which customer problems the company is best equipped to solve, what evidence substantiates its claims, and how the message should be reflected in go-to-market priorities. For the CFO, this creates a more disciplined basis for reviewing commercial investment and margin decisions. The objective is to help customers understand why an offering deserves consideration and to give employees a consistent, supportable way to explain it. # Frequently Asked Questions ## What is a B2B value proposition? A B2B value proposition explains the business outcomes a specific customer can expect from an offering and why it is preferable to relevant alternatives. Strong propositions connect capabilities with evidence about cost, revenue, productivity, risk, or other buyer priorities. ## Why do technically superior products still lose on price? Technical advantages may be difficult for buyers to translate into measurable business outcomes. When the commercial benefit is unclear or poorly supported, purchasing stakeholders may place greater weight on price, familiar specifications, or perceived implementation risk. ## How can a company quantify customer value? Start with customer interviews and validated operating data. Identify the business measure affected, establish a credible baseline, calculate the potential change, and document assumptions. Customer-specific evidence should be distinguished from estimates and generalized claims. ## How does value-based positioning support the sales team? It gives salespeople language and evidence that different buying stakeholders can use to assess a purchase. Relevant materials may include documented customer outcomes, total-cost comparisons, operational evidence, and financial justification. ## Can fractional CMOs improve a B2B value proposition? Yes. Our fractional and interim CMO services can help leadership coordinate customer research, positioning, sales enablement, and commercial measurement. We work with internal experts to identify credible outcomes and incorporate them into the company’s value proposition and go-to-market approach. # What the Company Risks When Customers Cannot See Its Value When a customer cannot understand or substantiate the value of an offering, the company may face greater discount pressure, slower approvals, and missed opportunities despite strong technical or operational performance. The business can respond by increasing marketing spend or asking sales to work harder, but those investments may have limited effect if the underlying commercial argument remains unclear. For the CEO and CFO, it is worth examining whether the company can demonstrate the outcomes that justify its market position and pricing. That assessment can reveal problems in segmentation, customer research, commercial messaging, or the information sales uses to support buying decisions. [Talk growth with a CMO](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/contact) at The CMO Syndicate to discuss how we can help your leadership team clarify customer value, strengthen commercial positioning, and support the sales decisions that affect revenue and margin. **About the Authors** **Ani Matson** Partner, The CMO Syndicate Ani has extensive strategic marketing expertise. Before becoming a Founding Partner of The CMO Syndicate, she enjoyed a twenty-year career in a broad range of leadership positions that cut across marketing strategy, digital transformation, and data analytics. Ani is a seasoned professional with current clients in the telecom, insurance, and biotechnology sectors. She has held executive positions at prestigious organizations such as the National Education Association’s Member Benefits Corporation and S&P Global’s Aviation Week Group. **Lisa Bratkovich** Partner, The CMO Syndicate Lisa is an accomplished Chief Marketing Officer known for driving significant growth for e-commerce, direct-to- consumer, and omnichannel CPG brands. With an over 30-year track record of proven results, Lisa works with CEOS and CMOs to unlock revenue and profit for large-cap to early-stage start-up brands. She has led the launch, optimization, and scale for many brands and is also an expert in subscription business models, DRTV, and celebrity-based brands. With her P&L, general management, and AI-focused experience, Lisa also helps companies better monetize their marketing efforts and internal expenditures. **Jennifer Welch** Partner, The CMO Syndicate Jennifer Layne Welch is a growth architect for ambitious businesses. With 30+ years of experience, she helps companies scale faster, align smarter, and market with purpose. Her superpower: turning brand and marketing into a commercial growth engine. Jennifer advises founders, C-suites, and PE-backed teams on how to move from reactive tactics to strategic systems. She brings clarity to the chaos—building marketing functions that drive revenue, elevate reputation, and accelerate results. Before co-founding The CMO Syndicate, Jennifer spent two decades inside one of the world’s largest companies—earning global leadership roles and building brands from the inside out. She now brings that enterprise rigor to scaling businesses across sectors.   ## Leave A Reply ## Read On #### [Growing and Transforming Professional Services Firms: The Value of Strategic Business Planning Tools The following joke has stuck with me since I was...](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights/growing-and-transforming-professional-services-firms) #### [How to Choose Fractional CMO Services for B2B Growth Having the right fractional CMO is key to a...](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights/how-to-choose-fractional-cmo-services-b2b) #### [Fractional CMO Services: Align Sales & Marketing If sales and marketing are running on separate...](https://www.cmosyndicate.com/insights/blog/fractional-cmo-services-sales-marketing-alignment) # Follow Us on Social Media [mailto:hello@CMOSyndicate.com](mailto:hello@CMOSyndicate.com) [![CMO Syndicate. 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