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The New Power Base Selling: Master The Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition

The New Power Base Selling: Master The Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition

by Ryan Kubacki, Jim Holden
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date: May 2012
ISBN: 9781118240946
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Book Description

An updated and revised version of the business classic Power Base Selling

Power Base Selling, originally published in 1990, left readers with an understanding of and language for gaining political advantage within accounts. Now famous among sellers, the concept of aligning with powerful customer individuals or "Foxes" is taken to a new level. The New Power Base Selling offers an updated and more in-depth edition of the original classic with an empirically based breakthrough to significantly increasing sales performance. It explains how competitive selling is as much a matter of politics, customer value, and strategy as it is a management science.

Based on data from one of the most comprehensive sales surveys in the sales training industry, along with over 50,000 deal reviews, The New Power Base Selling will help salespeople quickly outfox the competition, impress customers with unexpected value, and achieve new levels of professional success.

  • Create Demand, as well as competitively Service Demand

  • Quickly leverage "Situational Power Bases" to drive up win rates

  • Provide customers with value that advances their critical business initiatives

  • Effectively use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social tools in a sales campaign

  • Increase customer satisfaction and competitive differentiation

See measurable gains and exceed quota when you leverage customer politics, value, and competitive strategy.

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Foreword
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Part 1: Sales as a Management Science
    1. Chapter 1: Seeing the Invisible
      1. Selling Skills Are Not Enough
      2. Good Products Are Not Enough
      3. The Relevance Revolution
      4. Seeing the Road Forward to Success
    2. Chapter 2: The MBA of Selling
      1. The Holden Four Stage Model
      2. Four Stages of Sales Proficiency
      3. Progressing to Higher Stages
      4. Not All Competencies Are Born Equal
  9. Part 2: Politics
    1. Chapter 3: Influence and Authority
      1. Political Competition Is Healthy
      2. Power Struggles versus Power Plays
      3. The Political Structure
      4. Influence Is Constantly Changing
      5. Degrees of Influence
    2. Chapter 4: Foxes: The Heart of the Power Base
      1. A Fox in Action
      2. The Organization Comes First
      3. Manage the Environment
      4. Survival
      5. Fox Footprints
      6. Integrity
      7. People-Oriented
      8. Risk Assumption
      9. The Emerging Fox
    3. Chapter 5: Power Base Types and Implications
      1. Three Types of Power Bases
      2. Mapping the Power Base
      3. Power Base Implications for Sellers
    4. Chapter 6: Fox Hunting and Power Base Mapping
      1. Fox Hunting Intelligence Gathering
      2. Political Revelations
    5. Chapter 7: Gaining Political Advantage
      1. The Power Base Principle
      2. Gaining Political Advantage
      3. Personal Motivators
      4. Uncovering and Advancing Personal Motivators
      5. Building Influential Relationships
      6. Assessing Relationship Type
      7. Creating a Support Base Map
      8. Political Implications
  10. Part 3: Unexpected Value
    1. Chapter 8: Moving Up the Sales Value Chain
      1. Moving North
      2. Expanding the Sales Value Chain
      3. Expected versus Unexpected Value
    2. Chapter 9: Building Expressions of Customer Value
      1. Value Relevance
      2. Value Expressions
      3. Value Statements
      4. Testing Value Statements
      5. The Value Proposition
      6. Moving Up the Sales Value Chain to Include Political Value
    3. Chapter 10: Creating Demand to Displace Competitors
      1. Creating Demand Significance
      2. Leveraging Creating Demand to Penetrate Accounts
      3. Step 1: Determine the Entry Point
      4. Step 2: Craft Your Value Message
      5. Step 3: Gain Access
      6. Step 4: Conduct a Meeting
      7. Step 5: Build Your Support Base Map
      8. Step 6: Move Upstream
      9. Step 7: Complete the Triathlon
      10. Penetrating Competitively Held Accounts
  11. Part 4: Strategy
    1. Chapter 11: Introduction to Compete Strategy
      1. What Is Compete Strategy?
    2. Chapter 12: Competitive Differentiation
      1. To Know Your Competition Is to Know Yourself
      2. Competitive Intelligence Gathering
      3. Competitive Differentiation Analysis
    3. Chapter 13: The Direct Strategy: Traditional and Nontraditional Application
      1. When You Are the Installed Incumbent
      2. When You Have a Category Killer Product
      3. When You Are Selling the Company
      4. Getting the Timing Right
      5. The Direct Strategy Statement
      6. Conclusion
    4. Chapter 14: The Indirect Strategy: Changing the Ground Rules
      1. Changing the Ground Rules
      2. Leveraging Politics, Unexpected Value, and Strategy to Shape the Customer’s Buying Criteria
      3. Establishing the Prime Objective
      4. Milestone Stacking
      5. Timing and the Element of Surprise
      6. The Indirect Strategy Statement
      7. Conclusion
    5. Chapter 15: The Divisional Strategy: Peaceful Coexistence
      1. Peaceful Coexistence
      2. The Overconfident Supplier
      3. The Divisional Strategy Statement
      4. Conclusion
    6. Chapter 16: The Containment Strategy: Transition Back to Indirect
      1. The Red Cell Exercise
      2. Introducing a New Product Road Map or Industry Expertise
      3. Introducing a New Partner to Broaden the Solution
      4. The Containment Strategy Statement
      5. One Last Point about the Containment Strategy
      6. Conclusion
  12. Epilogue
  13. Index