In this instructional video, Jermaine Edwards explains how the Business Model Canvas—a nine‑block framework created by Alexander Osterwalder—can be used as a practical tool to deepen understanding of key customers and drive value. He outlines five concrete applications: (1) using the Canvas to design customer‑centric strategies by examining channels and other blocks; (2) employing the Canvas as a structured set of conversation points across a client’s functional areas (operations, sales, delivery, product, technology); (3) populating a CRM with the nine Canvas elements to maintain a daily, holistic view of each account; (4) aligning the user’s own internal departments to the Canvas to ensure the organization is positioned to help its most important customers win; and (5) elevating executive‑level dialogue by adopting the Chief Value Officer (CVO) mindset, using the Canvas to speak the language of CEOs and other leaders. Edwards provides a link to a downloadable Canvas template and invites viewers to share feedback on how they apply the framework.
Chapters
Hey, Jermaine Edwards, your customer growth guide here. And we're gonna talk about how you can use the Business Model Canvas to increase your ability to understand your customers and deliver value. Hey, if you're new to the channel here, hey, thanks for coming by. If you're old to the channel, welcome back. We're gonna be talking about something very, very significant that will transform, I believe, the way you think about your customers starting from today. But before we get into the content, don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe if you haven't done already, and then we'll get started with the content. Now, 10 years ago, a guy named Alexander Osterwalder began a kind of a, a bit of a kind of a research investigation. And he's a business theorist and he studied business models. And he came up with this idea that pretty much there's about 9 different areas that a business who's starting or even practicing right now needs to think about in terms of how they operate and how they deliver value as a business, the structure in which they do that. And so with that in mind, what's quite interesting about that is it's— it became the business— something called the Business Model Canvas. And in that, we can understand the different areas in the business that impact how it delivers value to customers, how it structured itself to ensure that it can create advantage and reach a kind of peak of market leadership within its own industry sector. So how can we use this to our advantage in getting to know our customers? Well, one of the best ways that we can do that is by using the filter of the Business Model Canvas to think about how we really know how the organization delivers value. Or let me just say it a different way. We can actually use it to better understand our customers and what they're trying to do or attempting to do to deliver value to their own customers., and then we can use that strategically to find ways to help them go to market and become even greater in their area of expertise. So I want to share with you 5 different ways you can apply this so that you can use at least one of these things starting from today or in your next conversation with a customer. So number one thing you can do with the Business Model Canvas— now the first thing here is using it to create your own strategies. Now, what I mean by that is this: when you begin the process of thinking about, hey, how do we want to add value to customers? How do we want to actually create something that's meaningful to them? What you might do then is go to the Business Model Canvas and look at the areas around maybe the channels in which they're actually distributing their product and service and think, hey, is there a way for us to help impact the way our— this customer actually distributes their product and service to their customers in a way that we can help impact that. Maybe it's yes, maybe it's a no. But the point here is, once you begin to have these different areas in front of you, you can make some strategic decisions to decide where you place your resource and creativity to help your customers win. Number 2, you can use it for conversation points within your customer's business. You can go to the operations department, you can go to the sales department, you can go to the delivery department, you can go to product and technologies, And you can have very distinct conversations around the Business Model Canvas to actually incite new ideas and even demonstrate your expertise of their own business and fill in the gaps. Really powerful stuff. Number 3, you can use it to actually populate your CRM, your customer relationship management system. So inside your CRM, that's the place you hold that customer data. It's the place that really you should be inputting every single day new insights about your customers. Now just imagine for a moment that inside your CRM, you had each of those 9 different areas, we inside the Business Model Canvas, you could go to each particular part, update it, and all of a sudden, every single day, you'd have this view of the customer, knowing exactly how they operate and where you can make really clear decisions daily to help them win in their own organization. That's number 3. Number 4 here, we can actually use it as planning in our own businesses. We can go to our own operational departments, our own sales departments and product departments. And we can see, hey, are our departments aligned to actually help our organizations, our customers, our most important customers win in the areas that are most important to them? Are we actually set up to make sure that our alignment really makes sense in building that relationship together? We can have that planning conversation. That's number 4. And number 5, which I think is one of the most powerful ones, is that we can use it to actually raise our ability to speak to the executives in that organization. Now, one thing I haven't spoken about in a long while here, something called the CVO principle, which is the Chief Value Officer. And you are a Chief Value Officer of every single customer. But in order to do that, you have to begin to sound like the executives you want to speak with. And the Business Model Canvas helps you to have that kind of conversation. So CEO pays attention and says, whoa, this person really knows our business. This person really knows what we're trying to do and how we're trying to deliver that to our marketplace. And if you can look at those 5 areas, choose one of those to really act on, have a look at the Business Model Canvas, you'll see immediately the kinds of things you can do and how it will impact your planning from day one. So that's what I wanted to share with you today, the 5 ideas, big ideas for using the Business Model Canvas. In fact, I've got a link for you to get a copy of the Business Model Canvas, so you don't have to go anywhere to get it. And once you do, I need you to feedback to me. Tell me exactly what's been going on, how are you actually using it, and I'll see you in the next video.
