Understand & Measure

In order to establish a well-defined foundation and prioritize strategic growth opportunities and challenges, the Luminas team kicked off the project by understanding the current-state perspective through interviews with key Eastman executives. This dialogue confirmed their objectives, provided insight into the leaders’ assessment on the status of their existing business and identified the perceived challenges and opportunities facing the company. From there, having identified a global glass manufacturer as the global key account to review, we conducted working sessions with key multi-functional members of the customer account team. Together, we worked to understand Eastman’s growth strategy with the account and quantify their perspective of the value delivered to the customer through products and services, and across three regions of their business – North America, Asia Pacific and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). The team at Eastman had just established their first ever long-term agreement with the account and while on a growth trajectory, the team estimated a differential value of 10% was delivered to the customer versus the primary competitor.  Here’s what this means: for every dollar the customer spent with Eastman, they received an additional 10 cents in value that they could not get from the next best alternative, or Eastman’s primary competitor.

The first stage in helping our client to develop a foundation for sustainable, strategic growth was to identify their internal perspective regarding which of their products, services and capabilities were differential and positively impacting their existing customer relationship, and to confirm internal alignment on the perceived value their customer received.

“As we considered evaluating relationships with existing customers, some members of our team were hesitant,” said Anne-Mieke Duyck, Sales Director, Advanced Materials Interlayers, Automotive at Eastman. “However, validating our company’s differential value proposition – with our customer – proved to be truly transformative. We’ve since incorporated the Luminas Customer Value Xcelerator® methodology as a standard practice to guide customer strategy and planning — we continue to realize results from the investment after four years of implementation.”

Validate

With this in-house preparation and evaluation complete, Eastman was equipped with an informed internal perspective of their customer value proposition. Next, we carried out four customer stakeholder interviews with representatives from across the predetermined customer regions where Eastman’s products and services were used in their operations. These facilitated sessions uncovered the customer’s perspective of the differential value received from Eastman. To Eastman’s surprise, much of the value they believed was realized by the customer, was not differential relative to competition. They learned that the differential value was, instead, distinct across the regions, as each region had discrete priorities and value drivers.

The customer validation interviews produced customer insight and competitive intelligence which exposed that the differential value was limited and that important steps needed to be taken to move the partnership forward. In fact, some of the drivers of differential value that Eastman had identified, were considered by the customer as “expected” or “table stakes.” Most importantly, the validation interviews functioned as the catalyst to create a roadmap that would ensure timely execution toward meeting all baseline expectations and, over time, to surpassing expectations through the delivery of differential value.

Despite the sobering findings, the investment Eastman made into gaining an authentic and fact-based understanding of their relationship with the client was a worthwhile one.

Eastman discovered that the opportunities to deliver differential value to this important customer varied by region – while supply and logistics presented the prospect for growth in EMEA, technical services and products proved to have potential in North America; and, Asia Pacific revealed significant opportunities in the areas of supply, logistics and products.

In addition, the customer responded by identifying another 13 market-specific, high-priority opportunities that were previously unknown to Eastman yet presented the prospect for the team to deliver measurable value.

It was only after Eastman demonstrated their genuine intent to cultivate a winning relationship with the customer, designed to produce organic growth and profitability for both companies, that a true collaboration was formed.

Improve

Eastman recognized the importance of maintaining a steady and open line of communication and collaboration with members of the customer’s organization who were the primary beneficiaries of value – their leadership team. As a result, the two organizations became well-positioned to maintain strategic alignment for the long term. Eastman gained visibility to the differential value they bring to their customer and the opportunity to consistently confirm their customer value proposition in order to address potential market, customer and competitive shifts.

Eastman adopted the disciplined business practice — and continues to cultivate the internal capabilities — of evaluating and measuring their customer value proposition.  One area where this new discipline has made a real impact in the organization is the global key account team’s annual planning.

“Luminas’ time with our team was instrumental in shaping the mindset in how we sell value to our customers and in gaining commitment on collaboration for future programs.  Our customers genuinely appreciated the approach that we took with the Customer Value Xcelerator,” Heather Singler, Eastman Global Commercial Director, Advanced Interlayers.

Results & Recommendations

Since the initial engagement, Eastman has leveraged quantifiable insights to turn a deficiency into profitable growth and

• achieved double-digit margin growth
• secured a second long-term agreement with the account as a result of the value realized during the execution of the first long term agreement, and
• At the end of the first 3-year agreement, the account validated 20% differential value

Validated customer value insights help organizations to identify and prioritize the key business decisions most relevant for their growth; and enable them to make those decisions more confidently. Based on the insights that were gained through CVX®, Eastman identified as their top two priorities, Customer Engagement and Differential Value Proposition (each defined in the Growth Driver Illuminator™). The team was equipped with the internal capabilities to increase customer collaboration and work together to create additional high value services.  Furthermore, they applied the new insights to continuously improve their customer value proposition through deliberate selection of products, services and organizational capabilities that provide truly differential value to the customer. Specifically, as a matter of routine, Eastman has adopted the long-term practice of calculating and communicating the differential value delivered during annual customer reviews.