The book explained

Every part of The Value Shift

A guided tour of Michael Raahauge's book – from the purpose behind Value-Focused Selling to the tools, the methods and the salesperson of the future. Part by part, chapter by chapter.

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THE CORE IDEA

“It is old-fashioned and naïve to believe that the point is to win OVER one another.”

The Value Shift is about winning WITH one another – creating positive externality: a greater, shared value for customer, supplier and society.

Before Part 1

Introduction

Version: The Essentials

About this edition

This edition of The Value Shift is a theme-based version offering short presentations of the areas Michael Raahauge has found essential in Value-Focused Selling over the past ten years. It is not exhaustive, and it does not cover basic sales techniques, which it assumes the reader already has. The aim is to inspire reflection and to show how the themes connect, so that selling can create greater shared value: positive externality. The book is written for B2B salespeople and sales managers, business leaders and boards, consultants and advisers, and anyone interested in the business paradigms of the future. The author also explains how he has extended the economic concept of externality to cover the value created between customer and supplier, and for society.

  • A theme-based, essentials edition
  • Written for sellers, leaders, advisers and curious professionals
  • Builds on existing sales skills
  • Positive Externality as the goal
“The selling of the future is grounded in purpose!”
Introduction

A new reality for selling

The introduction sets out the premise of the book: Value-Focused Selling is a mindset about improving the value the customer experiences, and creating it together with them, rather than winning over one another. The author argues that linear economic models overlook qualitative values, as Emma Holten shows with her example of care. He traces the evolution of B2B selling from product selling through solutions and value-based selling to a focus on positive externality, and presents the unique tools: ValueDrivers, ValueSoduko, ValueCircle, ValuePath and Collaborathon. Sales can become the heroes of the future, starting from high trust and a shared WHY, and from winning with one another inside the company too.

  • Winning WITH rather than OVER one another
  • The evolution of selling from product to externality
  • Hidden value that is not exploited in price comparisons
  • The Trust–WHY Grid
  • Value-Focused Selling is a cultural matter
“It is old-fashioned and naïve to believe that the point is to win OVER one another.”
Part 1

Purpose

2 chapters

The Purpose part lays the philosophical foundation of the book. It explains that Value-Focused Selling rests on a business philosophy aimed at positive externality, meaning greater shared value for every party and for society. The two chapters in this part first present externalism, a form of capitalism that includes norms, morality and ethics, and the Value-Focused Business Philosophy that follows from it. They then define positive externality, show with worked examples how it can be valued in economic terms, and explain why trust and a shared WHY are the conditions that make it possible. Selling, in this view, carries a purpose beyond the individual sale.

CHAPTER 01

Externalism and the Value-Focused Business Philosophy

This chapter introduces externalism, which builds on capitalism but adds morality, ethics and norms, and aims to create greater value for all parties. The author contrasts an old paradigm of winning over one another, with winners and losers, with a new one of winning with one another, where the world is dynamic and the question is what is appropriate. He draws on Elinor Ostrom and Adam Smith, and describes the Value-Focused Business Philosophy discussed in think tanks such as The BrainBoard and INVI. The Nordic starting point of trust, Stoic inspiration and the role of ESG are also covered. The chapter stresses that Value-Focused Selling is a cultural matter built on purpose and virtues.

  • Externalism as capitalism with morality and ethics
  • Old paradigm versus new paradigm
  • A Nordic, trust-based starting point
  • Stoic inspiration and ESG
  • Culture as the foundation
“Winning OVER one another is an old-fashioned approach that is no longer relevant in a modern business paradigm.”
CHAPTER 02

Positive Externality

Positive externality means value created between two or more parties so that everyone gets more, although not necessarily equally. The chapter traces the concept to macroeconomics and Arthur Pigou, then extends it to selling. It gives three illustrated examples: knowledge sharing that strengthens a customer's ecosystem, trust-based dialogue that influences corporate culture, and differentiated strength that creates a domino effect. Each is given an estimated economic value. The chapter also describes WILA, which used a Collaborathon to identify DKK 2,300,000 of previously unvalued customer value and replaced its discount with a joint goal. Trust and a shared WHY are the conditions, and Keld Jensen's research shows trust carries a measurable share of total value.

  • Externality has positive and negative forms
  • Three worked examples with estimated value
  • The WILA Collaborathon case
  • Trust and shared WHY as conditions
  • Value must be derived to be used in decisions
“The opportunity to achieve positive externality lies in a shared purpose, a shared WHY, and strong trust between the parties.”
Part 2

Conditions and Framework

7 chapters

This part describes the conditions in which Value-Focused Selling operates and the framework that supports it. It begins with VUCA and Wicked Problems, the volatile and complex setting that makes collaboration necessary. It then presents the Red and Blue Circle, the basic approach for taking customers from what they believe to what is possible. Co-Creation and Design Thinking supply the working method, while a Dynamic Mindset describes the attitude required of salespeople and organisations. Trust and the WHY are the foundations on which everything rests, and the Value chapter explains how all forms of value, including soft values, can be turned into economic terms together with the customer.

CHAPTER 01

VUCA & Wicked Problems

VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. The chapter argues that the business world is no longer linear and that nobody can succeed alone. It offers a response to each element: vision, understanding, clarity and agility. Dave Snowden's Cynefin framework distinguishes simple, complicated, complex and chaotic situations, as well as disorder, and the author explains that Value-Focused Selling has the greatest effect where complicatedness and complexity are high. In such settings the process becomes decisive, control is reduced and salespeople must take a facilitating role. The chapter also covers Wicked Problems, the pressure on power-focused leaders, Sales Enablement and the Bottleneck Problem, in which experts feel they must supply every answer.

  • VUCA calls for vision, understanding, clarity and agility
  • Cynefin: simple to chaotic
  • Complicated versus complex
  • Leadership beyond control
  • The Bottleneck Problem
“VUCA increases the need to win with one another, because neither customers nor suppliers can solve the challenges of the future alone.”
CHAPTER 02

Red and Blue Circle

The Red and Blue Circle is the fundamental approach of Value-Focused Selling. The Red Circle is what the customer believes they can get or achieve, usually framed by a specification and judged on price, which often creates negative externality. The Blue Circle is the value the supplier can actually deliver that neither side may yet know about, where differentiated strengths and greater shared value are found. The aim is to take the customer out into the Blue Circle, building it through friction in dialogue and a series of relevant episodes. The chapter also presents the hierarchy of effects of Know, Be Aware, Understand and Need, notes the role of dopamine in positive experiences, and explains that the Blue Circle is created in the heads of individual stakeholders.

  • Red Circle: what the customer believes
  • Blue Circle: differentiated, hidden value
  • Friction opens up hidden value
  • Know, Be Aware, Understand, Need
  • Built at stakeholder level
“One of the goals of Value-Focused Selling is to take the customer out into the Blue Circle.”
CHAPTER 03

Co-Creation and Design Thinking

Co-Creation is more than collaboration: it is development, and in Value-Focused Selling it is a means of achieving greater shared value, not an end in itself. It can only be used once enough trust and a shared WHY exist, and it is especially suited to complex situations where the result emerges during the process. Design thinking begins with what customers want in future. The chapter lists the Co-Creation tools, namely the ValuePath, ValueDrivers, ValueSoduko, ValueCircle and the Collaborathon, and describes formats such as crowdsourcing, community, coalition and experts. It closes with diversity and the facilitator's role, using the four DISC profiles to show strengths and challenges.

  • Co-Creation as a means to shared value
  • Needs trust and a shared WHY first
  • The five Co-Creation tools
  • Four Co-Creation formats
  • Facilitation and DISC styles
“In Value-Focused Selling, Co-Creation is a means of achieving greater shared value, not an end in itself.”
CHAPTER 04

Dynamic Mindset

Value-Focused Selling is first of all a mindset, anchored in the company's culture. The dynamic, or growth, mindset accepts that we do not know all the answers and that value often arises in the process. Salespeople with a static mindset see VUCA as an obstacle, whereas those with a dynamic mindset see an opportunity and prepare for constant adjustment. The chapter lists elements that help develop the mindset, from continued learning to treating mistakes as part of development, and notes that action creates mindset. Perfection is only a trivial point on a development curve, friction creates reflection, and mental recharging matters. A value-focused culture, it concludes, will be the most important differentiated strength of the future.

  • Static versus dynamic mindset
  • VUCA as opportunity
  • Mistakes and friction as learning
  • Action creates mindset
  • Culture as differentiator
“The perfect is ‘merely’ a trivial point on a development curve!”
CHAPTER 05

Trust

Positive externality is impossible without trust, yet few companies work explicitly to develop and measure it. The chapter draws on Professor Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, who shows that Denmark has very high national trust and that trust is better business than control. Meeting places create trust, which the book calls episodes. David Maister's trust formula is presented, with credibility, reliability and intimacy set against self-orientation, followed by a list of behaviours that build trust. Trust cannot be created quickly, and in a VUCA world control becomes a limitation. The chapter also notes that building trust releases oxytocin, while mistrust releases cortisol.

  • Trust underpins positive externality
  • Denmark as a high-trust society
  • Maister's trust formula
  • Episodes build trust
  • Trust and control must be balanced
“It is impossible to achieve positive externality without trust between the parties.”
CHAPTER 06

The WHY

The WHY is the meaning and purpose behind Value-Focused Selling, based on the conviction that we can and should win with one another. Products and solutions become a licence to operate rather than the source of greatest value. The chapter separates the big WHY at company level from the small WHY at individual level, and says they must be coherent. A shared WHY between customer and supplier is built through episodes, just as trust is, and the personal WHY draws on the Japanese IKIGAI model. It then turns to business acumen and insight, including derived demand and the customer's customers, with the BILA and ARLA example, and the growing role of AI and data.

  • Big WHY and small WHY
  • Shared WHY built through episodes
  • IKIGAI and personal purpose
  • Business acumen and insight
  • Derived demand
“Winning with one another is the most meaningful thing in Value-Focused Selling.”
CHAPTER 07

Value

In Value-Focused Selling all value, including emotional value such as trust, is transformed into economic terms together with the customer, through Co-Creation. The chapter argues that only what the customer experiences counts as value, and that firms have historically focused on resources, products, solutions and technology. It sets out three overall levels of value (societal, emotional and economic) and two dimensions: vertical, from product to solution, concept and partnership, and horizontal, covering economic, functional, process, emotional, strategic and compliance value. Hard Values are easy to quantify; Soft Values are not. The chapter ends with paradoxes, the Emma Holten care example and value that arises in the process itself.

  • Transform all value into economic terms
  • Societal, emotional and economic value
  • Vertical and horizontal value
  • Hard Values versus Soft Values
  • Value that arises in the process
“There is no stock exchange for trust.”
Part 3

Tools and Methods

20 chapters

This part turns the book's philosophy into practical tools. It covers differentiation, Episode Mapping and the relationships that carry value, and warns against institutionalisation. It then sets out the Co-Creation methods used to turn every kind of value into economic terms: ValueDrivers, ValueSoduko and ValueCircle. It then turns to the customer concept and the ValuePath, which shape how supplier and customer decide together, before covering Collaborathons, negotiation and pricing, customer flow, strategic decision-makers, TEAM Selling, pipeline management, segmentation, Neuro Sales and analyses. Throughout, the aim is positive externality, winning with one another rather than over one another.

CHAPTER 01

Differentiation

Differentiation is what allows a company's strengths to become added value for the customer, yet the book argues it is rarely handled with real process or ownership. It introduces Dual Dimension Differentiation™, separating what a company is and can do (static) from what it does and makes happen (dynamic), and stresses that the customer's experienced value is the only truth. Strengths are made concrete with the What–Why–How method and drawn from the whole value chain, including partners. Value propositions and USPs are results of differentiation, not the thing itself. Five generations of maturity are described, from coincidence to mindset and culture, with generation 3 as the minimum.

  • Static versus dynamic differentiation
  • What–Why–How makes strengths concrete
  • Partners' strengths count too
  • Five generations of maturity
  • Marketing should drive differentiation
“No company will be able to act alone in the VUCA paradigm of the future.”
CHAPTER 02

Episode Mapping

Episode Mapping identifies and analyses the critical points of contact between a company and its customer, so that every interaction supports the company's differentiated strengths. It goes beyond customer journeys by deriving the specific episodes that matter, distinguishing on-stage episodes the customer sees from off-stage activity behind the scenes. Each episode is examined through What–Why–How: what happens, why it matters and how it can be improved. A worked example on the economics of waste shows how roles on both sides can be integrated. The book argues that selling really happens in episodes, not in templates, and that more of them build trust and influence.

  • Critical points of contact
  • On-stage and off-stage episodes
  • What–Why–How for each episode
  • Episodes beat templates
  • Worked waste-economics example
“The real (sales) world is typically different from the plans!”
CHAPTER 03

Relationships

Relationships are essential in Value-Focused Selling, but like trust they are a means to positive externality, not an end in themselves. The chapter describes the green zone of strong relationships with a shared WHY, and the move from transaction to relationship. It lists relationship variables (trust, WHY, commitment, adaptation, experience) and phases, and argues that CRM should manage relationships, not only activities. Friction is treated as positive conflict that makes relationships stronger. Proactive behaviour, creative episodes and personal meetings all help, and relational contracts are increasingly needed beyond legal ones in a VUCA world.

  • Relationships are a means, not an end
  • Variables and phases of a relationship
  • Friction as a development tool
  • Creative, relevant episodes
  • Relational contracts over legal ones
“A relationship without friction becomes an institution!”
CHAPTER 04

Institutionalisation

Institutionalisation is described as the virus of relationships: a relationship becomes routine, stops developing and is simply taken for granted. The book names it as a leading cause of lost customers. Because the customer's experienced value is the only truth, efforts the customer does not notice earn no credit, and experienced commitment can fall below actual commitment. Causes include being passive, ignoring critical and off-stage episodes, having no shared plan and failing to derive full economic value. The remedies are Episode Mapping combined with ValuePaths, and friction that keeps the Blue Circle growing, which is ultimately a cultural matter for management.

  • The virus of relationships
  • Actual versus experienced commitment
  • Causes: complacency and no shared plan
  • Episode Mapping and ValuePaths as remedy
  • Friction as the antidote
“Institutionalisation kills the opportunity to practise Value-Focused Selling!”
CHAPTER 05

Value Transformation

Value Transformation is the practice of putting an economic value on all forms of value, hard and soft, emotional and societal. The traditional view of cheaper, easier, faster and smarter is limited to cost and Hard Value, while Soft Values matter at least as much in a VUCA paradigm. Where no scientific basis exists, a best estimate is used and then validated by measurement. Qualitative elements such as trust are transformed through Co-Creation. Three simple tools, ValueDrivers, ValueSoduko and ValueCircle, come from design thinking and are combined with scientific methods, auditing and increasingly AI.

  • All value becomes economic value
  • Hard Value versus Soft Value
  • Co-Creation for qualitative elements
  • Three tools from design thinking
  • Design thinking plus scientific method
“Once we have built trust, we only need to ask once to get the answer we want.”
CHAPTER 06

ValueDrivers

ValueDrivers are the variables critical to business value and positive externality, yet they are rarely discussed openly between the parties. The chapter separates them from needs and pains: needs sit at product and solution level, whereas ValueDrivers focus on the level of value creation itself. The ISLO model (Insight, aSk, Listen, Observe) helps decision-makers reflect and prioritise. Typically 4–7 drivers emerge in a customer meeting and 10–15 in a Collaborathon, with fewer carried into ValueSoduko. Long lists are useful, but prioritisation with the customer matters, and ValueDrivers motivate Collaborathons.

  • Rarely discussed, so often misdirected
  • ValueDrivers differ from needs and pains
  • ISLO model for prioritising
  • How many can be handled
  • Motivation for Collaborathons
“Needs are tied to the product and solution level, while ValueDrivers have a business focus.”
CHAPTER 07

ValueSoduko

ValueSoduko is a square, sudoku-like model for deriving and visualising the economic value of a single ValueDriver, covering both what improves it and what reduces it. It is used in a Co-Creation session in which the customer sets the figure for each parameter, so the results are not disputed. A detailed example quantifies the value of trust across lower risk, faster decisions, information exchange and cross-functional teams. The method can show value far exceeding a discount, as with a surface-treatment manufacturer competing for a EUR 4,000,000 order that derived EUR 7,500,000 of value. The main barrier is a static mindset in salespeople.

  • Derives economic value per ValueDriver
  • Includes negative detractors
  • Customer sets the figures
  • Worked example on the value of trust
  • Adapt the model to the situation
“The point is that when customers derive the value themselves, they will not dispute the results.”
CHAPTER 08

ValueCircle

The ValueCircle presents economic value as a simple circle divided into slices, one for each ValueDriver, making positive externality obvious and challenging a naïve focus on price and discounts. It works at Kahneman's System 1 level and is best drawn with the customer on a whiteboard or flipchart, or built in a spreadsheet, so that the customer owns the numbers. In a WILA case, shared value of DKK 2,300,000 per year was set against an annual discount of about DKK 150,000. The comparison opens a discussion of the discount's negative consequences, and the tool can also support business strategy.

  • Circle of slices, one per ValueDriver
  • Must be co-created with the customer
  • Practical formats: whiteboard, Excel
  • Value set against the discount
  • Usable as a strategic tool
“Get the customer up to the whiteboard or the flipchart!”
CHAPTER 09

The Value-Focused Customer Concept

The customer concept sits at the second-highest level of value creation. It is a co-created framework linking the customer's ValueDrivers with the supplier's differentiated strengths, built on an economic value derivation, usually from a Collaborathon. It is not an off-the-shelf product but a living structure that is visualised, governed and developed over time. The chapter sets out the V-Team's tasks before, during and after: preparing, co-creating the concept with the customer, and then implementing and realising the value. Because a good concept is unique, situation-specific and hard to copy, it becomes a dynamic differentiated strength.

  • Links ValueDrivers to differentiated strengths
  • Built through a Collaborathon
  • Visualised with a shared model
  • V-Team: before, during, after
  • A living, hard-to-copy strength
“When value is no longer something you deliver – but something you co-create.”
CHAPTER 10

The ValuePath

The ValuePath is the co-created decision process that secures greater shared value for customer and supplier. Value-Focused Selling also sells a better decision process, and so deliberately disrupts the customer's planned route. It starts on the commercial path, with the business case and strategic decision-makers, rather than the technical path. One ValuePath is drawn up per project, season or situation, whereas the Collaboration Journey works at business level. Two examples are given, for project sales and for standard sales. The chapter also covers involving legal early, planning Collaborathons as critical episodes, agreeing ways of working, and building the Blue Circle.

  • Selling an optimal decision process
  • Start on the commercial path
  • Dynamic and iterative, not linear
  • Involve legal and stakeholders early
  • Collaborathons as a critical episode
“The ValuePath is the path that secures greater shared value for both the customer and the supplier.”
CHAPTER 11

Collaborathons

Collaborathons are Co-Creation workshops built for one purpose: deriving economic value and so establishing positive externality. The name joins "collaboration" and "hackathon", and the format is both a mindset and a method. It only works once there is a high level of trust and a shared WHY, because confidential information has to be exchanged openly. The book sets out a seven-step flow, from defining goals and inviting participants to follow-up and implementation, and a worked example in which the Value-Focused Salesperson acts as facilitator. The session moves through ValueDrivers, ValueSoduko and ValueCircle, ending in a concrete action plan with owners, KPIs and a timeline. Two Collaborathons a year should be agreed in the joint Account Plan.

  • Co-Creation workshop built on trust and a shared WHY
  • Moves through ValueDrivers, ValueSoduko and ValueCircle
  • The salesperson must be able to act as facilitator
  • Two a year belong in the joint Account Plan
“Collaborathons are both a mindset and a Co-Creation method.”
CHAPTER 12

Value-Focused Negotiation and Pricing

Negotiation in Value-Focused Selling is about winning with one another, not over one another. Discounts are paid for with margin, which raises the risk of negative externality and weakens the supplier's motivation to keep developing the relationship. The chapter draws on Keld Jensen's SMARTnership and NEGOeconomics, and on research showing that power-based negotiation tends to destroy value. Value-focused pricing is only possible once trust and a strong WHY exist and positive externality has been derived; price should then follow the value created. The book offers a rule of thumb that price differences above 10% usually mean the solutions are not comparable. Negotiation should run through the whole process, not sit in a single meeting, and relational contracts matter increasingly in a VUCA world.

  • Win with one another, not over one another
  • Discounts cost margin and can create negative externality
  • Price follows derived value, in dialogue with the customer
  • Negotiation runs through the whole ValuePath
“It is not about winning over one another, but with one another!”
CHAPTER 13

Value-Focused Customer Flow and Insights

This chapter describes a circular way of working with key customers at three hierarchical levels: business, project and product. The aim is to keep "flow" with the customer at one or more levels, so that insight gained at one level feeds dialogue at the next. A common weakness in B2B selling is that the sales process stops when delivery begins; in Value-Focused Selling everyone sells, including during delivery. The chapter explains internal and external insights, how insights act as a bridge between differentiated strengths and positive externality, and the ISLO method (Insight, aSk, Listen, Observe). It also links the approach to the Half Double method and shows how Collaborathons add a commercial dimension to project flows.

  • Business, project and product levels worked circularly
  • Selling and delivery develop each other
  • Insights bridge differentiated strengths and positive externality
  • ISLO: Insight, aSk, Listen, Observe
“Selling and delivery are completely connected.”
CHAPTER 14

Strategic Decision-Makers

Value-Focused Selling requires salespeople to communicate at business level and to navigate among strategic decision-makers, a skill the book calls Stakeholder Management. Decision-makers sit at business, technical, economic and user levels, and the people who can "find money" are not always the CEO. Many salespeople find business-level conversation difficult, and fear can push them back towards product detail. The chapter uses the Trust–WHY Grid and the "Know, Be Aware, Understand, Need" method, supported by episodes and insights, to move each stakeholder towards high trust and a shared WHY. It also distinguishes strategic, tactical and operational mandates, and asks top management to act as "network engineers" who open doors to decision-makers.

  • Decision-makers at business, technical, economic and user levels
  • Use the Trust–WHY Grid to place each stakeholder
  • Know, Be Aware, Understand, Need moves them up and to the right
  • Top management opens doors as network engineers
“In Value-Focused Selling, it is crucial to start right and make contact with strategic decision-makers.”
CHAPTER 15

TEAM Selling

"We are greater than I": the book argues that teams deliver better results, and faster, than individuals, so it is really the Value-Focused Sales Team that matters. Teams span the selling company, the customer and the partners in the value chain. The chapter draws on Lencioni's five levels, David Rock's SCARF model and Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety to explain what makes a team strong. It introduces V-TEAMS, Value-Focused Teams that are self-leading, proactive and clear about their Ways of Working, and uses the Danish men's national handball team as an example. The salesperson must also lead, selling both forward to the customer and backward to the team, with the Account Plan as the shared working document.

  • Teams outperform individuals, across company boundaries
  • Trust and psychological safety are the foundation
  • V-TEAMS are organisms, not just organisations
  • Sell forward to the customer and backward to the team
“We are greater than I!”
CHAPTER 16

The Collaboration Journey

The Collaboration Journey extends the customer journey. Where the customer journey looks mainly at the customer's behaviour, the Collaboration Journey covers the joint process and the supplier's own role in it. It takes place at business level and can be seen as an overarching ValuePath. It is shared between customer and supplier, contains the Account Plan, and builds on shared episodes that strengthen trust. Positive externality is the driving goal, so Collaborathons are critical along the way, as are customer concepts and ValuePaths. The book sees partnership as the highest level of value creation, something we do and make happen. Because the journey is dynamic, a detailed three-year plan makes little sense; the best examples are simple and are lived.

  • Extends the customer journey to the joint process
  • Operates at business level and contains the Account Plan
  • Drives partnership through shared episodes
  • Kept simple and lived rather than over-planned
“The collaboration journey is not only a journey for the customer; it is a shared journey in which both parties work together towards shared goals.”
CHAPTER 17

Pipeline Management

A sufficient, qualified pipeline protects against the pressure to sell on price instead of value. This chapter sets out the elements of Pipeline Management in Value-Focused Selling: qualification of leads, understanding the phases of the sales process, and game plans, which are strategic action plans built on What, Why and How for the next effort. The salesperson should also know their own "sales gearbox", the mathematical relationships between the critical elements of the sales process, and the author is surprised at how few have this insight. The chapter shows how to quantify the pipeline, working back from a target through phase weightings and closing rates to the number of projects needed. CRM and BI tools provide the data, but each salesperson must live by it.

  • A qualified pipeline avoids selling on price
  • Game plans follow a What–Why–How structure
  • Know your own sales gearbox
  • Quantify the pipeline from target back to projects needed
“Selling can be many things, but it should never be random.”
CHAPTER 18

Segmentation

Segmentation matters especially in Value-Focused Selling because so many resources go into each customer. Traditional B2B methods centre on potential and are often anchored in linear thinking; here the interest is also in purpose and meaning, so that a collaboration can create positive externality. The chapter presents Rasmus Studstrup's "Outer and Inner Beauty" model: outer beauty covers quantitative measures such as turnover and headcount, while inner beauty covers shared values, culture, management philosophy and methods. Customers are chosen first from the quadrant where both go hand in hand. Value-Focused Selling has its greatest effect on larger and critical customers, closely tied to Key Account Management, while digitalisation and AI increasingly handle the lower segments.

  • Segment by purpose as well as potential
  • Outer beauty: quantitative measures
  • Inner beauty: values, culture and methods
  • Greatest effect on larger and critical customers
“Segmentation has always been crucial in selling – even though many companies have no explicit process for it.”
CHAPTER 19

Neuro Sales

Neuro Sales looks at selling through how the brain works. Trust releases oxytocin, which supports empathy, better decisions and innovation, while mistrust releases cortisol, which inhibits them. Dopamine is released by rewarding experiences and by good expectations learned from earlier good experiences, which is why relevant, positive episodes matter in a ValuePath. The book notes that the emotional side of selling is rarely prioritised, even though most decisions are unconscious and emotion-driven (Kahneman's System 1). It therefore advises presenting value as a concrete economic amount rather than a percentage, and links Neuro Sales to Episode Mapping, Co-Creation formats and AI. It closes on the amygdala and hippocampus and on training the positive "Green Lane".

  • Trust releases oxytocin; mistrust releases cortisol
  • Episodes and Co-Creation build positive emotional experiences
  • Show value as a concrete economic figure
  • Train the positive Green Lane
“The emotional part of sales processes is almost never given priority.”
CHAPTER 20

Analyses in Value-Focused Selling

Selling should be grounded in analysis rather than gut feeling, historical cases or experience from a few customers. The book recommends five primary analyses as a minimum. Differentiation, because customers, not the company, decide whether strengths are genuine. Customer journey, which most B2B companies guess at rather than analyse. Stakeholders, to uncover the level of trust and shared purpose. Time, since Value-Focused Selling is time-intensive and time studies often show little time spent in real customer interactions. Behaviour, which must be developed continuously and measured, for example with PeopleWay. The chapter notes that INTENZ carries out such analyses for B2B companies.

  • Five primary analyses as a minimum
  • Customers decide what is differentiated
  • Analyse the customer journey rather than guess
  • Measure time and behaviour, continuously
“Selling can be many things, but it should never be random.”
Part 4

The Salesperson

2 chapters
CHAPTER 01

The Value-Focused Salesperson

There is no fixed profile for the Value-Focused Salesperson. What defines them is a dynamic mindset and a clear WHY: creating positive externality, shared and greater value for customer and supplier. The role takes many years to grow into, building on earlier sales methods, and requires strategic and business understanding as well as basic skills. The chapter lists essential qualities, including empathy, creative and analytical ability, leadership, courage, business acumen and facilitation competence, and stresses proactivity, curiosity and emotional intelligence. Salespeople should focus on their sphere of control and influence, need a real mandate, and are motivated by relatedness, competence and autonomy. AI is described as a good friend in the most complex sales method.

  • A dynamic mindset and a clear WHY, not a fixed profile
  • Skills built across every sales method over many years
  • Proactivity, curiosity and facilitation competence
  • Needs a mandate, optimal conditions and AI support
“The Value-Focused Salesperson works with a dynamic mindset and has a clear purpose – a WHY – of creating positive externality.”
CHAPTER 02

Business Acumen and Business Insight

Positive externality depends on the parties having insight into each other's thinking, business and plans. Business acumen is the form of intelligence that lets the salesperson see through opportunities and challenges and move between levels of abstraction, and it is what sets the value-focused salesperson apart. It can be developed, drawing on experience, a dynamic mindset, analytical ability, curiosity and an understanding of the customer's customers. The chapter warns against selling in the "red field", where risk and complexity are too high, and highlights derived demand, illustrated by BILA's insight into ARLA's retail customers. Figure 55 maps the customer insights to gather, which AI tools can now help with, alongside insight into one's own differentiated strengths.

  • Insight into each other's business and plans
  • Avoid the red field of high risk and complexity
  • Understand the customer's customers and derived demand
  • Use AI to gather customer and market insight
“Business acumen CAN be developed, but it requires an interest in development at all levels, including technology and culture.”
Overview of methods and models

The toolbox at a glance

17 methods & models

The book closes with a quick reference to its central models and methods. These are the book's own short descriptions.

Trust–WHY Grid

The model indicates the area in which the partners win WITH one another, and in which there is the opportunity to achieve positive externality (shared, greater value). This requires that this situation has been enabled, based on a high level of trust and a shared WHY (purpose). Precisely this "enablement" is part of what distinguishes the value-focused sales process from others.

Collaboration Journey

A process that moves the parties forward at business level with a focus on achieving Positive Externality. The Collaboration Journey is developed with insight into the customer journey.

ValuePath

A process that moves the parties forward at business level with a focus on achieving Positive Externality. The ValuePath is co-created at project level. The ValuePath should include Collaborathons, so that the shared, greater value is derived and understood.

Collaborathon

A Collaborathon is a Co-Creation workshop focused on deriving positive externality – shared, greater value. Collaborathons are founded on the three value models and on Co-Creation. Collaborathons can be used at all levels.

Dual Dimension Differentiation

The differentiation method within Value-Focused Selling, based on two dimensions: static differentiation (what the company IS and CAN DO) and dynamic differentiation (what the company DOES and MAKES HAPPEN).

Stakeholder Management

The Trust–WHY Grid is used to position the individual stakeholders according to whether they share the "purpose" and have strong trust in us. The model is used to clarify which stakeholders need to be "moved".

ValueDrivers

ValueDrivers (value variables) are concrete elements that create value for and at the customer. ValueDrivers exist under both Hard Value and Soft Value. ValueDrivers are brought forth through a Co-Creation process and are prioritised for the first time in this process.

ValueSoduko

ValueSoduko is a value-derivation model in which each individual ValueDriver is analysed in terms of what creates value and what economic value each element creates. The total value for the individual ValueDriver is accumulated and entered in the ValueCircle. ValueSoduko is a Co-Creation method and process.

ValueCircle

The ValueCircle is the last of the three Co-Creation methods that secure the derivation of economic value – and thus positive externality. The ValueCircle presents the total economic value per ValueDriver – and the accumulated value of all ValueDrivers: the total positive externality.

EpisodeMapping

A method that brings forth and makes visible critical episodes in the collaboration with the customer. Each episode is derived with What–Why–How plus Who + When. EpisodeMapping ensures a continuing, developmental process with the customer.

Red and Blue Circle

The model is intended to secure the mindset / understanding of the importance of constantly getting the customer to understand the shared, greater value that can be brought about, while at the same time creating insight into the supplier's differentiated strengths.

Levels of value / Hard Value + Soft Value

The Hard Value / Soft Value model addresses the two areas of value, of which precisely the Soft Value area is, as a starting point, NOT valued economically, and therefore carries no weight in an economic decision.

Value-Focused Customer Flow

The Value-Focused Customer Flow is a view of the collaboration with the customer – and thus also of selling – at three levels, worked through in a circular way: business level, project level and product level. The point is that the circular process both keeps the dialogue with the customer going and gives the supplier new insights, which can (and should) be used at the next level.

On-Stage and Off-Stage Episodes

In many situations there is a large number of Off-Stage episodes – that is, episodes the customer does NOT experience, and to which the supplier therefore risks having no value attributed. Off-Stage episodes should be explained and shown to the customer.

Pipeline Management

Pipeline Management is a critical area in Value-Focused Selling, because we use many resources and depend on the right customers. There must therefore always be a sufficient, qualified pipeline, so that there is no need to compromise on the focus on value.

Know–Be Aware–Understand–Need

Know–Be Aware–Understand–Need is the hierarchy-of-effects model we use in Value-Focused Selling to move stakeholders to a situation and position in which there is a focus on, and interest in, winning WITH one another.

Customer Concept

Customer Concepts are a strong and decisive method for bringing together the areas that secure the partners' achievement of positive externality – that is, shared, greater value. The Customer Concept is founded on the customer's ValueDrivers and the supplier's differentiated strengths.

Sources and empirical basis

Built on practice and research

The book lists the literature and research behind Value-Focused Selling, including work by Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, Dixon and Adamson, Keld Jensen, Daniel Kahneman, Simon Sinek, Amy Edmondson, David Rock and the Half Double Institute. It also credits practitioners and academics who contributed ideas. The approach rests on more than ten years of empirical and case work, covering more than 500 companies and more than 5,000 salespeople, together with training sessions, workshops, exercises and a large number of dialogues.

THANK YOU!

A book in constant development

The book closes by describing itself as a dynamic work in constant development, shaped by customers, relationships and partners. Michael Raahauge thanks the people who contributed thoughts, ideas, criticism, suggestions and knowledge, noting that no one can write the best book alone if it, too, is to create positive externality. A short note about the author follows: a former Management Consultant at INTENZ and founder of NexusValue, with more than 25 years in sales, leadership and strategy, and founder of Value-Focused Selling and Value-Focused Leadership.

“No one can write the best book alone – not if it, too, is to create positive externality!”
THE VALUE SHIFT – WHY THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS IS ABOUT WINNING TOGETHER

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