Ask anyone if they know who their customer is and they will answer, somewhat indignantly: “Yes, of course I do!”. But do they? With organizations constantly changing and becoming more complex, it is getting more and more difficult to figure out who is the customer. The traditional value chain turns out to be a complex value web in which most of us get entangled. Job titles are not longer covering the actual activities people are doing, the number of stakeholders and influencer has increased, and buyers and users are not longer the same. All this makes it harder to figure out who you should listen and talk to. In this session we look at how to define the value web and gain insight across the value web (e.g. the different stakeholders in the customer purchasing funnel)? How do you deal with opposite and conflicting interests? And how these insights translate into your innovation and communication strategy? This will be demonstrated on the basis of real case studies.

1. “Who should we talk to?”:
How insights help you to gain understanding in a
complex value net, without entangling yourself?
Dr. Pamela ZH Pauwels
Philips Healthcare

2. Introduction of End User
Driven Innovation Process

3. Some teething problems
Innovation teams sometimes disconnected
from sales team or the other way around
Team continued to focus on the traditional
buyer(s)
Confusion about who the end-user is

4. • How to innovate and find
focus without setting
ourselves up for failure?
• How can insights help us to
be better at redefining the
buying & usage process?

6. Who is ‘customer’?
• Who are crucial in delivering your business goals?
• Who are these different stakeholders in the value
chain? What are the relationships between them?
• What is the context ?
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7. Typical Key Players
End User
The End User is the last person in the stakeholder chain to experience a difference or effect
from the product/service
Key stakeholder /user
The key stakeholder is the person with the most to lose and most to gain from the problem we
have identified (insight) and the benefit we offer. They are normally the one who mentions this
insight first and can articulate most detail about the problem so for this reason .
Customer
The customer is the person or group of people who purchases and pays the bill for the
solution based on the insight. They may be the key stakeholder, but do not have to be
Other stakeholders or users
It is good to have an understanding of who the others that influence the flow of decision
making. With others we refer to experts, opinion leaders, government, patient association, etc.
If they do not recognize the problem (insight) or agree with the solution they may boycott it.
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8. Changing our approach to researching
the market
• Harvest knowledge in the organization first
• Exploring your innovation ideas = first step of the selling
process
• Accessibility vs. Status vs. Method
• MR in B2B = Balancing (Research Method +
Communication + Co-creation)

9. Case study:
Patient Monitoring Takes Measure Of New Stakeholder
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10. Case Study
Bringing benefits to all players in the value chain

11. Case study:
Picking your first points of contact differently

12. 3 things you should remember
• Slow down before accelerating
• Take in account the holy trinity:
buyer – (end) user – key influencer
• Start with the end in mind

13. Thank you for
your attention
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