Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 1. Collaboration: Changing the World

Randall K. Murphy

Acclivus R3 Solutions

Collaboration. What do we mean by collaboration, and why would a book on sales training start with a chapter on collaboration?

The reason is simple. Collaboration is all around us. Frequently still in the concept stage, often not fully understood, and sometimes awkwardly situated between rhetoric and reality, collaboration is nonetheless steadily emerging as the new model or paradigm for individuals and groups working productively together. It is becoming the preferred method for successful sales and customer relationships.

From Newsweek and Time to Harvard Business Review and Fortune to The Futurist, articles abound promoting collaboration, "the collaborative mind-set," and "the collaborative advantage." Collaboration is being recommended for applications ranging from relationships between individuals to relationships between organizations to relationships between and among nations.

What is collaboration? Where does it come from? What does it mean? Where is it going?

Collaboration is the most promising approach for building productive, long-term relationships, both personal and professional. As an approach, collaboration is based upon interdependent needs. To be interdependent, the needs of one individual do not have to be exactly the same as the needs of another; they must, however, be so aligned that when one individual benefits, both benefit, and if one individual is harmed, the other is also harmed. ...