Surviving and thriving in the modern world of business, means determining, defining and delivering a competitive value proposition to your customers.

As I work with sales teams both in South Africa and abroad, I am amazed how quickly they respond to the question, “Why should I buy from you?” with a somewhat vanilla “because of my personal service.” Whilst service is to be commended, the research shows that that customers tend to punish bad service more readily than they reward delightful service. Delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty, rather reducing your customers’ effort –the work they must do to get their problem solved- does.