Understanding Solution Planning: 3 Keys to Unveil the B2B Game
Before investing the resources in design and development, one of the stages is navigating the solutions which we need to provide our proposals to the clients. Your client must be eager to know what proposals can solve their problems before the contract sign-off. Moreover, the client is doing the tender to compare these proposals through the vendors.
Let us dive into the critical points of solutions planning.
The Goal of This Article
Introducing the concept of solution planning, a crucial stage that precedes the project management life cycle. This phase plays a significant role in striking the right balance between customization and standardization, ensuring the success of a B2B software project. The primary objective of this article is to help readers grasp the essential aspects and challenges associated with solution planning.
We all recognize that limited resources and budgets prevent us from achieving everything we desire. While resource and budget constraints are essential considerations, we will address these topics in a subsequent article. For now, let’s concentrate on understanding solution planning and its importance.
Point 1: What is the value proposition of your organization? Also, what kind of selling model do you want to build?
As product or project managers, it is essential to consistently align our goals with management levels, including both our reporting lines and C-level executives. Although we may have numerous ideas to implement, we must remember that our primary responsibility is to contribute to the organization. While it’s crucial to negotiate and persuade others when our ideas have an increasingly significant impact on the organization, we must also consider the overall effect on the organization. This includes:
- Target markets: Company owners must determine the challenges and opportunities associated with targeting specific markets at various stages, such as the initial, maturity, and decline stages. For instance, even within the video streaming industry, user scenarios and solution planning vary significantly across education, gaming, and medical sectors. Furthermore, each industry faces unique challenges in different countries and regions, which affects go-to-market strategies.
- Business revenue models: The company’s approach depends on the revenue generated by each client. The company must acquire more clients if each client brings in less revenue. Conversely, if each client contributes more revenue, the company can focus on acquiring fewer clients. This simple model helps gauge a company’s potential for survival and growth on a global scale.
- Decision-making core values: Understanding whether a company is product-led, engineering-led, or sales-led helps identify how the business is built. This distinction is often related to the positions th
Point 2: The role play in the game. It means what the real position is through the industry
As a B2B company, it is understandable to seize opportunities on a project-by-project basis. However, it can be challenging to define the type of services a company wishes to provide. Broadly speaking, these can be categorized into a few types:
- Product-based: In this approach, you provide a solution through a product. For instance, if a client asks you to develop a Netflix-like video streaming website, you’d agree and suggest they provide their own content.
- Consulting-based: This model includes not only a solution but also additional advice and value. Using the previous example, you might evaluate their business model and suggest a focus on mobile applications or propose the inclusion of live streaming in their services. This approach is unique because as a domain expert, you can build more based on your strengths.
- System-Integration-based: In this model, you might propose collaboration with another company, like Company A, which can provide the necessary hardware, allowing the client to focus on content. Your company could offer an end-to-end solution to foster its business model. This approach delves deeper into the ecosystem, helping the client grow their business holistically.
Point 3: How to make the product in your B2B game?
- Customization vs. Standardization: In the B2B arena, business is predominantly project-based. As the volume of projects increases, it’s vital to consider the type of value we wish to provide for each project or client. Deep customization for each client is possible, but it comes with high maintenance and development costs due to the inability to replicate your efforts. Alternatively, consolidating past experiences into a specific product may not cater to all client scenarios. Striking a balance between customization and standardization is crucial. Adopting a modular and flexible approach is key to survival in the B2B landscape. How could one refuse an exceptional opportunity when a client presents a substantial budget?
- Ownership vs. Outsourcing: Building every aspect of your solution in-house is impossible unless you’re willing to invest significant time and cost in a comprehensive solution. Outsourcing, or third-party cooperation, is an alternative that allows for creating a holistic ecosystem. It’s contingent upon your clear understanding of your role in this arrangement. Some companies strive to control all technical elements or solutions, but it’s essential to leverage others’ strengths to expedite market entry. Needless to say, deciding on a “coopetition” model is a challenging task.
- Sprint-based vs. Waterfall-based: B2B projects typically originate from contracts, so the solution planning and product release are based on your contract. Here we discuss how you cooperate with your client instead of the internal team. For example, every product release must align with the agreement stipulated in each contract. With a sprint-based service, each release follows your pace. Moreover, you can think about how your client purchases your product. Is it from themselves on your landing page? Or is it a must-install something from your technical support, whether it is SaaS or on-premise services?
About Author
Why Starts
I wrote many articles via Mandarine to illustrate my insights on product management, business strategy, career path, and book reviews. Now it’s a good try to reach various audiences across many countries. It’s very exciting to share insights and exchange ideas with different backgrounds.
Who Am I
This is Mr.T, with around 10-year experience in product and project management. I have been in the B2B technology field in the telecom, electronic vehicle, and video streaming industries.
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