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20 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

customer thinks less significant, if it means putting less effort into issues which they
believe to be vital. These priorities will therefore have an impact on product, proc-
ess, people and price decisions later in the planning process. Chart the result of this
work on a matrix.

Customer value statement

Criteria group Criteria Customer ideal Priority
e.g. quality, or ease of use e.g. zero faults
Product or service e.g. ease of ordering
What you supply e.g. after-sales support e.g. standard contract for
to your customer all items
e.g. competitive e.g. single-number help desk
Process
How you deal with e.g. lowest price available
your customer

People
The quality of the
people who deal
with the customer

Price
The cost of the
product or service
to the customer

Idea 10- Know thine enemy

If you have a lot of competitors you may have to choose a few key ones to analyse.
There are many sources of competitive information. You should obtain your com-
petitors' brochures and promotional material to understand what they believe are
their strengths and how they present them to customers. Relevant trade journals