Aligning Strategy and Sales

3

Fixing the Problem

A framework refers to physical structures but also mental models, “a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality.”¹ Especially when dealing with the conjunction of complex and moving parts like strategy (which concerns your organization today in relation to an uncertain future) and sales (which is about customers and their motivations in relation to evolving choices), you need a model, a way of isolating key features of that complexity and making “the business” manageable.

Good models, as Emanuel Derman (an accomplished modeler in physics and finance) points out, “are vulgar in a sophisticated way.”² They are vulgar because, like a caricature, they emphasize some features at ...