“It’s time for
companies to rethink their growth logic and strategy,” according to Christoph
Senn and Mehak Gandhi, authors of the new book, Triple Fit Strategy: How To Build Lasting Customer Relationships And Boost Growth.
The authors
affirm that there would be much more value if companies no longer operated in a
transactional buyer-seller relationship, but instead as a singular team. A team
where buyer and seller can collaborate on decisions around planning, execution,
and resources like they were one company.
“Today’s business
customers don’t just buy products and services; they buy expectations,” explain
Senn and Gandhi. “What the customers want is the commitment of and access to
the supplier’s total operation. They want problem-solving and creative thinking
to keep their business ahead of competition. They want partners.”
In the book, Senn
and Gandhi forge an entirely new path for business that embraces a 360-degree customer-centric
approach, and they lay out the Triple Fit Strategy framework where
customers are at the heart of three core “fit” areas: planning, execution,
and resources.
The Triple Fit
Strategy helps sales and business leaders better understand the health of their
customer relationships and allocate resources for faster breakthroughs.
Triple Fit
Strategy:
1. Planning.
This level comprises three building blocks—strategies, relationships, and
communication—and indicates how closely a company’s strategic direction is
aligned with the customer’s. A company must assess the degree to which its
sales team takes the customer’s strategy perspective into account and figure
out how to use it to develop a joint three-year vision. The sales team must
build and maintain multilevel contacts that promote stable relationships and
communicate relevant information the customer needs for effective
decision-making.
2. Execution.
Also composed of three building blocks—solutions, processes, and systems—this
level shows how effectively suppliers execute the joint strategy by developing
unique solutions and services that create value for customers; executing
processes efficiently along the value chain; and implementing adequate systems
for IT, financial, and legal support.
3. Resources.
The three building blocks here are people, structures, and knowledge. This
level indicates whether the supplier has the necessary resources to support
customers, including trusted advisers with a customer-centric mindset; an
adequately customer-centric organizational structure; and a dynamic learning
environment for new-business generation.
Through their
decades-long research, Senn and Gandhi reveal that companies who apply the
Triple Fit Strategy contribute ten times more to their customers' success and
can double account values in less than three years.
The book draws
from extensive training and advisory work with Fortune 100 and global companies
(Microsoft, Coca-Cola, GE, BASF, Sonos, Best Buy and more), including Danish
shipping giant Maersk, which unlocked hundreds of millions of dollars in new
business opportunities using the Triple Fit Strategy with a New Zealand-based
customer.
With a database
of 10,000-plus cases, Triple Fit Strategy introduces an entirely novel
approach to business. Complete with practical steps to invite your customers
and stakeholders into your company’s internal process, businesses will also be
able to better evaluate customer relationships and allocate resources for
faster breakthroughs.
In short, Triple
Fit Strategy can transform companies and future-proof their processes while
unlocking new sources of growth.
_____
Christoph Senn
is an adjunct professor of marketing at INSEAD, one of the world's leading and
largest graduate business schools. He is also Codirector of the INSEAD
Marketing & Sales Excellence Initiative (MSEI).
Mehak Gandhi is
the Head of Research at Valuecreator, Switzerland, where she designs and
implements B2B growth accelerator programs and next-generation sales
organization strategies.
Thank you to
the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.
