Customers, value and channels

The right side of the business model is about the customer. Here you decide who you create value for, what that value is, how you reach them, and what the relationship looks like over time. Get this side wrong and it does not matter how efficient the rest of the model is.

Customer segments: who is "the customer"?

No business sells to "everyone". The first step is to split the market into segments — groups with similar needs. Some common types:

• Niche market: a narrow, well-defined group with a specific need, for example an accounting tool built only for hairdressers.
• Mass market: a large group without strong internal divisions, such as a music streaming service.
• Multi-sided market (platform): two or more groups that need each other. Vipps connects consumers and shops; without both sides the platform has no value.

The segment you choose drives everything else. Fiken, a Norwegian accounting program, aimed early at small businesses and sole proprietorships — not large corporations. That choice shapes the product, the price and the language in all marketing.

A value proposition tied to each segment

The value proposition is your promise: what problem do you solve, and why you? The key is that different segments value different things. A busy small-business owner wants something that "just works" and saves time. A large company may want integrations, security and support.

So write one value proposition per segment, not one generic one for all. A good value proposition is concrete: not "we make accounting easier", but "you record a receipt in seconds straight from your phone, with no accounting knowledge". If your value proposition could sit on a competitor's website just as easily as yours, it is too vague.

Channels: how you reach and deliver

Channels are how value moves from you to the customer — in two senses. Communication channels are how people discover and evaluate you (search, social media, referrals, outbound sales). Delivery channels are how they actually get and use the product (app, web shop, physical store, a partner).

Every channel has a cost and a reach. Outbound sales gives deep contact but scales poorly. Content marketing scales well but takes time to build. A common trap is to bet on one channel because it is "free", then discover it does not bring enough customers. Test two or three channels early and measure which one actually produces paying customers, not just clicks.

Think about the whole buying journey too: the channel that creates awareness is rarely the one that closes the sale. A customer might discover you through a podcast, google you the next day, and only buy after an email a week later. If you credit only the last channel as "the source", you easily undervalue the ones that actually started the journey — and may cut the one that worked best.

Customer relationships: get, keep, grow

The relationship describes how you engage with the customer across the whole lifecycle, and is often split into three jobs:

• Get new customers (acquisition).
• Keep them so they don't drop off (retention).
• Grow the value per customer over time (upsell).

The relationship can be personal (a dedicated contact), self-service (the customer does everything themselves), or automated (the system adapts to the customer). The choice is tightly linked to price: a product at 99 NOK a month cannot afford a personal salesperson for every customer — the relationship has to be self-service. A product at 500,000 NOK a year, on the other hand, can justify close, personal follow-up.

See the connection

Notice how the four boxes hang together. Choose a low-price mass market and it pushes you toward scalable channels and self-service relationships. Choose a narrow, high-price B2B segment and you can use outbound sales and personal follow-up. There is no "right" combination — only combinations that hang together, and combinations that don't.

Do this now

Pick your most important customer segment and write down three things: (1) one sharp value proposition for exactly that segment, (2) the two channels you think best reach them, and (3) whether the relationship should be personal, self-service or automated. Check that the three answers fit together — if not, adjust until they do.