The New Power Base Selling

1. Master the invisible forces of sales: politics, value, and strategy

Strategy is what weaves these blades together to make the whole much stronger than its parts.

Intangible forces drive sales success. Politics, value, and strategy are the invisible yet powerful factors that determine sales outcomes. Politics involves understanding the informal power structures within customer organizations. Value creation means providing unexpected benefits that address critical business issues. Strategy is the intellectual framework for achieving competitive advantage.

• Key intangible forces:
  • Politics: Mapping influence and authority
  • Value: Moving up the Sales Value Chain
  • Strategy: Formulating the right competitive approach

By mastering these invisible forces, sellers can gain significant advantages over competitors who focus solely on product features or price. The most successful sellers learn to see and leverage these intangibles to create relative superiority and win more deals at higher margins.

2. Identify and align with the "Fox" - the center of influence

Foxes are the most powerful customer individuals for sellers to know.

Find the true decision maker. The Fox is the key influencer within a customer organization, often operating behind the scenes. Foxes may not have formal authority but wield significant informal power. They shape decisions, control resources, and advance their personal motivators while benefiting the organization.

Characteristics of Foxes:

• High integrity and organizational focus
• Politically astute and well-connected
• Effective risk-takers and delegators
• Ability to work across departmental lines

Aligning with the Fox provides sellers with critical insider information and support. By advancing the Fox's personal motivators while delivering organizational value, sellers can gain a powerful ally and increase their chances of success.

3. Move up the Sales Value Chain to provide Unexpected Value

Business value becomes connected to political value.

Exceed customer expectations. The Sales Value Chain represents increasing levels of value provided to customers, from basic product benefits to strategic business impact. Moving "up" this chain means addressing higher-level customer priorities and providing unanticipated benefits.

Levels of the Sales Value Chain:

1. Product value (features and benefits)
2. Business value (operational improvements)
3. Political value (advancing personal motivators)
4. Cultural value (aligning with organizational norms)

By delivering Unexpected Value at higher levels, sellers differentiate themselves from competitors and justify premium pricing. This approach also strengthens relationships with key decision-makers and positions the seller as a strategic partner rather than just a vendor.

4. Develop Political Advantage through Power Base mapping

VALUE + RECOGNITION = POWER

Understand customer politics. Power Base mapping involves identifying the network of influential individuals within a customer organization. This political insight allows sellers to align with the right people and navigate complex decision-making processes.

Types of Power Bases:

• Enterprise Power Base (top executives)
• Business Unit Power Base (division leaders)
• Situational Power Base (deal-specific influencers)

By mapping these power structures and building relationships with key players, sellers can gain critical support for their proposals. Advancing the personal motivators of Power Base members while delivering organizational value creates a powerful foundation for success.

5. Create demand to penetrate competitive accounts

95 percent of the time, the seller who forms the business wins the business.

Shape customer needs. Creating demand involves identifying opportunities to provide value that customers haven't yet recognized. This approach allows sellers to bypass traditional competitive evaluations and position themselves as uniquely qualified to address newly discovered needs.

Steps to create demand:

1. Determine the right entry point
2. Craft a compelling value message
3. Gain access to key decision-makers
4. Conduct impactful executive meetings
5. Build support within the Power Base
6. Move upstream to higher-level executives
7. Expand footprint through additional opportunities

By creating demand, sellers can penetrate even highly competitive accounts and establish themselves as trusted advisors rather than commodity suppliers.

6. Deploy the right Compete Strategy for each sales situation

Strategy is the intellectual sword of your sales campaign.

Choose the optimal approach. Compete Strategy involves selecting and implementing the most effective competitive approach based on the specific sales situation. Four main strategies can be deployed:

1. Direct Strategy: Head-to-head competition when you have clear superiority
2. Indirect Strategy: Changing the ground rules to create asymmetric advantage
3. Divisional Strategy: Securing a portion of the business to establish a foothold
4. Containment Strategy: Buying time to improve competitive position

Selecting the right strategy requires careful analysis of competitive strengths and weaknesses, customer politics, and potential to create unexpected value. By formulating and executing the optimal strategy, sellers can maximize their chances of success in even the most challenging competitive environments.

7. Achieve relative superiority through Milestone Stacking

Milestone Stacking means accomplishing multiple task objectives simultaneously or nearly simultaneously.

Accelerate competitive advantage. Milestone Stacking involves achieving critical objectives in rapid succession early in the sales cycle. This approach creates synergistic effects that dramatically increase win potential and decrease competitive vulnerability.

Benefits of Milestone Stacking:

• Shortens sales cycles
• Reduces time exposed to competitive threats
• Creates momentum and psychological advantages
• Allows for element of surprise in competitive situations

By front-loading key activities and accomplishments, sellers can establish a decisive advantage that becomes increasingly difficult for competitors to overcome. This approach is particularly effective when combined with indirect strategies that change the ground rules of the competition.

Last updated: August 14, 2024