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

CHAPTER 15

The Divisional Strategy

Peaceful Coexistence

If the enemy’s forces are united, separate them.

—Sun Tzu

The divide and conquer approach to winning battles is well documented throughout military history. The opposition is also being divided in selling; although not physically, the business being pursued is being split among two suppliers.

The Divisional approach is a cousin of the Direct strategy; in fact, someone viewing its application from a tactical perspective might not even be able to tell them apart. But the intent behind the Divisional strategy is quite different from that of a Direct approach.

Sellers use the Divisional strategy to complement their competitor, to secure a part of the business, to build from in the future.

You go Divisional when you can’t overpower the competition and take all the available business. A seller will realize this after running a Competitive Differentiation Analysis and comparing Attack and Defend points. Recall also that your Support Base must be sufficient enough to facilitate whatever class of strategy you wish to deploy. If you don’t have the relative superiority to go Direct or change the ground rules with an Indirect approach, you must scale back your aspirations and work to secure at least a piece of the business. Think of it as taking a beachhead in order to have a place within the account. If you succeed, you’ll likely gain ...