Unbundling B2B customer segments

Alex Osterwalder
April 3, 2018
#
 min read
topics
Value Proposition Canvas
Corporate Innovation
Customer Insights

In business-to-business (B2B) we frequently see clients mapping out the companies they serve as customer profiles. That’s wrong. When you sell to a company, you sell to people. Those people can be categorized into different customer types with different jobs, pains, and gains. Those categories are the customer profiles you should map. Let me explain.  

Companies don’t really buy or use your products and services in B2B. People do. That’s why it’s important to understand the most important categories of people involved in buying and using your products and services. We call that unbundling your customer. Steve Blank has a really useful distinction of "customer types” to distinguish between stakeholders involved in the search, evaluation, purchase, and use of a product or service.

Unbundling customers also applies to the family context. Think of, for example, the purchase of a Nintendo Switch: each family member involved is a different customer type. There’s an influencer and recommender (usually the children’s friends and the media), there’s the buyer with the budget (usually a parent), the decision maker (the parent or child who has the ultimate say), and the user (the kids and often the father - so much to clichés). You unbundle each of them into a seperate customer segment, identify the most important ones, and sketch out a Value Proposition Canvas with the jobs, pains, and gains for each.

Our Self-paced training course Mastering Value Proposition Design goes into more detail.

related reads

No items found.

About the speakers

Alex Osterwalder
Entrepreneur, speaker and business theorist

Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started.

by 
Alex Osterwalder
April 3, 2018
Share

Download your free copy of this whitepaper now

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
related reads

Explore other examples

Read our blog
Team member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatar
Let's talk
Whether you’re looking for more information or you’re ready to start a project, we’re ready to help.
Thanks for your interest in our solutions. We will be in touch with you soon.
Unbundling B2B customer segments
Methods

Unbundling B2B customer segments

April 3, 2018
#
 min read
topics
Value Proposition Canvas
Corporate Innovation
Customer Insights

In business-to-business (B2B) we frequently see clients mapping out the companies they serve as customer profiles. That’s wrong. When you sell to a company, you sell to people. Those people can be categorized into different customer types with different jobs, pains, and gains. Those categories are the customer profiles you should map. Let me explain.  

Companies don’t really buy or use your products and services in B2B. People do. That’s why it’s important to understand the most important categories of people involved in buying and using your products and services. We call that unbundling your customer. Steve Blank has a really useful distinction of "customer types” to distinguish between stakeholders involved in the search, evaluation, purchase, and use of a product or service.

Unbundling customers also applies to the family context. Think of, for example, the purchase of a Nintendo Switch: each family member involved is a different customer type. There’s an influencer and recommender (usually the children’s friends and the media), there’s the buyer with the budget (usually a parent), the decision maker (the parent or child who has the ultimate say), and the user (the kids and often the father - so much to clichés). You unbundle each of them into a seperate customer segment, identify the most important ones, and sketch out a Value Proposition Canvas with the jobs, pains, and gains for each.

Our Self-paced training course Mastering Value Proposition Design goes into more detail.

related reads
Webinars
Mastering value propositions
Unbundling B2B customer segments

In business-to-business (B2B) we frequently see clients mapping out the companies they serve as customer profiles. That’s wrong. When you sell to a company, you sell to people. Those people can be categorized into different customer types with different jobs, pains, and gains. Those categories are the customer profiles you should map. Let me explain.  

Thanks for your interest in 
Unbundling B2B customer segments
Unbundling B2B customer segments
ONLINE COURSe

Read more
Team member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatarTeam member avatar
Let's talk
Whether you’re looking for more information or you’re ready to start a project, we’re ready to help.
Thanks for your interest in our solutions. We will be in touch with you soon.