B2B companies create value by building products and services that either reduce costs or grow the revenue of the businesses that are their customers. Here is how B2B companies can use the Amazon PR/FAQ process to do this:
When writing a PR FAQ, start with customer needs and work backward from there. The objective is to pinpoint a specific problem affecting a particular segment of customers. To do this, at Amazon, we worked continuously to gain an in-depth understanding of our current and prospective customers’ behavior, needs, and problems.
For B2B companies, where the customer is a business, their “problems” include speed, quality, safety, compliance, efficiency, scale, and ultimately, cost and revenue.
When I read PR FAQs authored by clients at B2B companies who are new to the process, the documents typically list various customer benefits, such as higher quality, greater automation, fewer errors, faster turnaround times, better decision-making, and improved levels of compliance.
These benefits are listed without any accompanying analysis or quantification. The best practice is to quantify the benefits and break them down in terms of your customers’ projected revenue growth or cost reduction. This objectively assesses the relative value of each new product idea, enabling the team to save time by focusing on big ideas rather than pursuing small ones.
For example, let’s say that one of your product benefits is automation. Automating a task aims to improve quality and/or reduce manual effort. Breaking this down further, the business benefits of increased quality are reducing rework and waste (reducing labor and materials costs) and/or improving revenue (customers will pay more for a more reliable or higher quality product). Where automation reduces manual effort, businesses experience a direct reduction in labor costs.
These benefits can and should be quantified by creating a simple model at the beginning of the PR FAQ process. Early in the PR/FAQ process, this model doesn’t need to be perfect. It should be:
→ Simple: Use assumptions and quick math to gauge the size of the opportunity.
→ Customer-informed: Base your estimates on actual insights, such as labor hours and wage rates.
Ultimately, the PR/FAQ should show exactly how much value it creates in terms that matter to your B2B customers: cost savings or increased revenue.
If you are interested in using the PR/FAQ process in your B2B company, learn how from our new PR/FAQ Mastery class: https://lnkd.in/gAvaHc5M
