Commercial Customers: Innate Consumers of “Thick Value.”

In his Harvard Business Review blog, Umair Haque coined the terms Thick Value and Thin Value to describe standard product offerings. Thin value, according to Haque, leaves the consumer no better off for having done business with you. Thick value, just the opposite.

While Haque’s post illustrates thick and thin value primarily through B2C terms, it’s clear to me that the thick value has historically been in highest demand among commercial customers. Purchasing (or Procurement) is considered a cost-center in most operations – a necessary evil, a standard cost of business. The easier you make it to do business with your company, however, the more efficient and less costly their procurement process becomes.

Commercial customers want to know how doing business with your company has better positioned their business for the long-term. And so do you, because when you can illustrate Thick Value to your commercial customers, you will simultaneously chart their increasing value to your business.

How thick is your value?