Harvard Business Review identified 40 distinct elements of value in B2B markets. Here's how to identify which ones your business delivers — and how to charge for them.
In 2018, Harvard Business Review published research identifying 40 distinct elements of value that B2B buyers consider when making purchasing decisions. The research, conducted by Bain & Company, organized these elements into a pyramid — from table-stakes functional benefits at the base, through ease-of-doing-business factors and individual benefits, to inspirational elements at the top.
The research has profound implications for B2B pricing. If there are 40 elements of value that buyers care about, and most companies are articulating two or three of them, then the pricing gap isn't a mystery — it's a measurement problem. You can't charge for value you haven't identified, and you can't identify value you haven't looked for.
Functional Elements are the table stakes — the things buyers expect from any serious vendor. They include economic value (cost reduction, revenue growth, asset utilization), performance (product quality, scalability, speed), and access (variety, configuration flexibility, and integration). Most B2B companies are reasonably good at articulating their functional value, though even here there are often gaps — particularly around risk reduction, which is consistently underpriced.
Ease of Doing Business Elements are the factors that make the buying and using experience better. They include operational and productivity improvements, access to expertise, responsiveness, and cultural fit. These elements are frequently overlooked in pricing conversations, but they are often decisive in close competitive situations. A vendor who is genuinely easier to work with — who responds faster, integrates more smoothly, and requires less management overhead — is delivering real economic value that should be reflected in the price.
Individual Elements address the personal stakes of the buyer — not the company, but the person making the decision. They include growth and development (skill building, marketability), subjective value (design and aesthetics, fun and perks), and career and social impact (network expansion, reduced anxiety, and the ability to look good to their organization). These elements are almost never discussed in B2B sales conversations, but they are often the decisive factor in a purchase decision.
Inspirational Elements are the highest-order value drivers — vision, hope, social responsibility, and the sense that the vendor is a genuine partner in the buyer's mission. These elements are most relevant for companies with a strong point of view about the future of their industry, or for vendors whose work has a clear social or environmental dimension.
The practical starting point is a structured audit of your current customer relationships. For each of your top ten customers, ask: what would happen to their business if you disappeared tomorrow? The answers will surface the value elements you're delivering — often including elements you've never thought to articulate.
The second step is to map those elements to the 40-element framework. Some will be obvious — if you reduce compliance risk, that's a functional element. If you make your buyers look good to their leadership, that's an individual element. The mapping exercise forces you to be specific about what you're delivering and how it connects to what buyers care about.
The third step is quantification — putting a dollar value on each element. This is the hardest part, but it's also the most important. A value element that you can quantify is a pricing argument. A value element that you can only describe is a marketing claim.
The 40-element framework is most powerful when it's used to structure the discovery conversation. Instead of asking "what are your pain points?" — which invites a list of functional complaints — ask "what would success look like for you personally in 12 months?" The answer will almost always include individual and inspirational elements that your standard pitch doesn't address.
The goal is to build a value map for each buyer — a picture of the specific elements that matter most to them, quantified in their terms. That value map becomes the basis for your pricing conversation: your price is a fraction of the value on the map, and the buyer can see exactly why.
The Value Gauge assessment automates the first pass of this process. It identifies the elements you're delivering, benchmarks them against your competitors, and gives you the language to have these conversations with confidence.
Get your free AI-powered Value Gauge — undiscovered value elements, competitor pricing benchmarks, and specific pricing recommendations in under 60 seconds.