How a B2B Tech Platform Discovered 89% of Customer Value Was Hidden in Plain Sight
- Jürg Truniger
- Jan 23, 2025
- 6 min read
At-a-glance
Strong PMF signals, incomplete picture: A B2B tech vendor commissioned an independent analyst firm to quantify customer value, expecting to validate their efficiency and compliance story.
The outside-in view revealed a surprise: Efficiency gains were confirmed, but accounted for only 11% of quantified customer value. The other 89% came from margin and growth effects that the vendor had never measured.
Inside-out thinking caused PMF myopia: Focusing on what they built and delivered, instead of what customers adopted and achieved, meant second-order effects like margin uplift went unmeasured, leaving pricing power and strategic positioning untapped.
Hidden value requires continuous diagnosis: Customer value spans efficiency, margin, and growth effects, and shifts as markets, competitors, and customer priorities evolve. What you measure today may miss tomorrow's 89%.
Why this matters now: As AI commoditises efficiency gains and investors scrutinise unit economics, the companies that uncover and capture strategic customer value will command pricing power. Those stuck selling efficiency will race to the bottom.
The Setup: Strong Signals, Incomplete Picture
A B2B Tech company had every reason to believe they'd achieved product-market fit.
Their platform helped wealth managers and private banks digitalise client onboarding and client lifecycle processes. The evidence looked compelling:
Win/loss analysis showed they consistently won deals in their target segment
Inbound leads were their strongest channel, and positive customer references were doing the selling
Multi-national deployments across major booking centres validated enterprise readiness
Industry analyst ratings ranked them as clear leaders in vendor assessments
Some even claimed the company had coined the term "client onboarding" in their market
But something was missing. When asked, "What quantified value do customers actually achieve from adopting your offering?", the honest answer was: "We don't know."
The team talked about efficiency and compliance every day. They assumed that's where the value was. They decided to find out for certain.
The Surprise: The Outside-In View That Changed Everything
The company engaged a respected independent analyst firm to conduct a comprehensive study of the economic impact of successful adoptions on its customers. Comparing the situation before and after adoption of their offering.
The expectation: Finally have concrete evidence that customers reduced onboarding time and saved back-office and compliance resources. Proof of the efficiency story they'd been telling.
The efficiency story checked out. Customers reduced onboarding time by approximately 90%; processes that once took weeks now take days.
But when the analysts attributed the present value (PV) of all identified benefits, the split looked nothing like expected:
Benefit Category | Present Value Share |
Compliance & back-office efficiencies | 7% |
Reduced time to margin | 4% |
Incremental client acquisition | 10% |
Increased margin per client (10% per client on average) | 79% |
Only 11% of the value created was the efficiency they'd been obsessing over.
The other 89% came from growth and margin effects they weren't tracking, talking about, or pricing for. These effects stemmed from enhanced experiences for both financial advisors and their clients, value the company had never quantified before.
What Went Wrong: Four Root Causes of PMF Myopia
1. Inside-Out Lens
The B2B Tech company ran its business around "build → sell → deliver," optimising for delivery. The outside-in version "change → adopt → realise value" would have forced a more holistic calculation of customer outcomes.
For customers, efficiency was a means to an end, not the end itself. They were solving a margin compression problem, not a cost-cutting one. The company's PMF assessment missed the best part.
2. Invisible Second-Order Effects
Efficiency freed financial advisors' time. What did they do with it? They diagnosed investor needs better and recommended higher-fit products, boosting margins per client and conversion rates.
These second-order effects weren't connected to the original intervention. They felt "off limits" to measure. So nobody measured them.
3. Tactical Incentives, Not Strategic
The B2B Tech company instrumented implementation procedures, not unit economics or post-adoption behaviour. Pricing was based on platform usage and user licences, completely missing the leverage from the margin increase that customers were actually achieving.
Account teams were incentivised to sell more licences. This led to situations where customers later realised they'd over-purchased and asked for refunds. Incentivising margin and growth would have driven real adoption aligned with customer goals.
4. Order-Takers, Not Change Agents
Financial institutions often engaged them as a technology platform provider. The company responded by hiring software architects to implement requirements from banks and wealth managers.
But the successful adoptions studied by the analysts worked differently: the company combined deep wealth management expertise with their technology, acting as a strategic change partner rather than just a platform vendor.
Positioning as a tech platform kept them fighting in the red ocean of BPM and low-code, with just 11% of customer value. The blue ocean—strategic change enablement and the other 89%—was wide open.
How to Diagnose: A Framework for Discovering Hidden Value
If you suspect you're in a similar situation, here's how to diagnose and act:
Step 1: Map Second-Order Effects
Ask: "When customers achieve the outcome we promise, what do they do next? What does that enable?"
Efficiency savings free up resources. Where do those resources go? What previously impossible actions become possible? What decisions change?
In this case, improved experiences for both financial advisors and their customers drove the margin uplift and made it quantifiable.
Step 2: Quantify Strategic Outcomes
Move beyond operational metrics. Track:
Margin per client (not just cost reduction)
Revenue capacity (not just time saved)
Competitive wins (not just feature usage)
Strategic decisions enabled (not just tasks completed)
Step 3: Reframe Your Value Proposition
Shift from "what we do" to "what customers achieve."
Not: "Digitise onboarding"
But: "Adaptive Onboarding for Margin Uplift"
Step 4: Align Pricing to Outcomes
Consider value-based pricing components tied to:
Margin improvement proxies
Growth indicators (new client acquisition, expansion)
Capacity metrics (productive hours, throughput)
Perfection isn't required, alignment is.
Step 5: Close the PMF Drift Gap
Treat PMF as a living discipline, not a milestone. Markets shift, competitors adapt, and macro-economic forces reshape what customers value.
Build an outside-in validation loop to keep PMF in sync with customer reality:
Economic impact studies to quantify actual customer outcomes
Win-loss analysis to catch shifts in buyer priorities
Customer research to surface second-order effects you're missing
Independent benchmarks to stress-test your assumptions
These give your prospects credible numbers they can defend internally, and keep your PMF understanding anchored to reality, not assumptions.
Why This Matters Now
This story isn't just a historical curiosity. It's a warning for every B2B tech leader navigating today's environment.
Three forces make this urgent now:
Margin compression is real. Investors are scrutinising unit economics like never before. "Efficiency" alone doesn't justify premium pricing when AI tools commoditise operational improvements.
The "efficiency trap" is accelerating. As automation handles more back-office tasks, the differentiation window for efficiency-based positioning is closing. If your value story centres on saving time, you're competing with every AI copilot on the market.
Customer value is the new moat. Companies that can demonstrate – and capture strategic customer outcomes (margin improvement, revenue growth, competitive advantage) will command pricing power. Those stuck in the efficiency narrative will race to the bottom.
The question isn't whether your customers are getting more value than you realise. The question is whether you'll discover it before a competitor does, or before the market shifts and that value disappears.
Key Takeaways
Efficiency gains create compounding second-order effects. The real value may be hiding in what customers do with the efficiency you create. Time saved → better decisions → margin improvement → growth capacity. Are you measuring the full chain? As efficiency becomes commoditised and margins compress, discovering and capturing strategic customer value is no longer optional.
Your pricing may be leaving value on the table. Perceived value drives PMF adoption, but as you quantify what customers actually achieve, explore value-based pricing to prevent price and value from drifting too far apart.
PMF evolves continuously. PMF is not an internal exercise. It shifts with markets, competitors, and macroeconomic climate. Continually explore customer value (quantifiable, qualitative, strategic) to create the foundation for optimal value creation and value capture as you grow and scale.
About this story
All details are from a real engagement. Company and individual identities are anonymised to protect competitive confidentiality. We work with clients on sensitive strategic challenges and respect their privacy.
Reflect and Share
If you're a CPO or product leader, consider:
What would an independent study reveal about where your customers' value actually comes from?
Are you measuring and messaging the second-order effects, or just the first-order outputs?
Is your PMF assessment capturing the full picture, or are you leaving 89% of the story untold?
If this resonates, share it with a colleague who might be wrestling with the same questions. Sometimes the most valuable insight is realising what you're not measuring.
