This report reveals findings of research across 30 countries in five continents which puts some finite definition around the much-misused term "value". To stay profitable, successful companies today have to be in the business of creating value and capturing value for their customers.

Creating value is not just about communicating what the product will do for the customer. Instead marketers and sellers need to be able to create value throughout the whole buying process, often by the way they bring knowledge and insight to help the customer solve their problems. Capturing value means that teams are not just giving things away such as knowledge and insight, they are also finding ways of getting value for their own organisations.

The research reveals how different types of customer interactions at different stages of the buying and engagement cycles are clearly related to the profit records of sales organisations. Above all, it reveals that outright challenges to customers’ thinking may not be a profitable behaviour; and that when it comes to writing value propositions – those all-important descriptions of what a company and its products and services bring to the customer – there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Those that scored highest on the Huthwaite scale of excellence invariably (86% of the time) came from companies who showed increased profit, whereas the majority of those that scored lowest did not report increased profits. The report presents the results of 900+ global responses.

The analysis of the research data is in two parts: part one presents the global findings and part two presents an analysis at regional/country level.