Worksheet: Find out what your difference is worth

Most businesses argue price from their own side only. This sheet runs five customer interviews and turns each difference into dollars, in the customer's numbers. It builds the Competent step of the check:

For major segments we can name the customer's next-best alternative and what we offer beyond it.

Step 1. Pick the five

Sales will offer the friendly accounts. Include one you lost and one that pushes hard on price. Cover more than one region.

#	Customer	Segment	Region	Won, lost or at risk	Interviewer (not the account manager)
1
2
3
4
5

Step 2. The interview (one hour)

Context and who they are (10 minutes). Their business, their other suppliers, their terms.
What they expect from a supplier like us (25 minutes). For each attribute, ask what minimum, standard and excellent look like.
Their next-best alternative (10 minutes). If we stopped supplying tomorrow, who would they use, and what would change?
The price test (10 minutes). If standard service costs 100, what would they pay for minimum? For excellent?
Close (5 minutes). The three messages they would give us.

Do not leave the question sheet with the customer. It travels.

Step 3. The value table, one per customer

Attribute (lead time, reliability, range, credit, technical help)	Their minimum need	What we give	What the alternative gives	Worth to them a year ($)	How they worked it out
e.g. Delivery lead time	Three days	Next day	Five days	$40,000	Two fewer site delays a month at their crew's day rate

Step 4. Roll up by segment

Segment	Next-best alternative	Differences worth most	Worth per customer a year ($)	Our price gap to the alternative ($)

If the worth sits well above the price gap, you have room to price. If it sits below, you are charging for something the customer does not value.

Done when: for each major segment you can name the next-best alternative and state in dollars what you offer beyond it.

Adapted from our own value interview guide (PSP, 2003).