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

Power Struggles versus Power Plays

Similarly, we’re seeing a new trend emerging that is changing how Information Technology (IT) Departments buy. For the first time ever, business units outside of IT are beginning to dominate what IT purchases. Business needs, such as compatibility of software and hardware to ease IT deployment and maintenance expense, are taking precedence over traditional IT buying considerations. End users are demanding that certain smartphones and tablets become a part of the network—a trend that is likely to continue into the future. Newer technologies such as cloud computing, in which software is delivered as an Internet service rather than a product download, can dramatically reduce software deployment costs. At the same time, these new technologies come with risk, such as the security of confidential information and legal compliance requirements.

In fact, we have seen some cases where cloud sales opportunities are stopped before they ever get off the ground because an in-house attorney has attached liability to a specific cloud-based IT solution. In other situations, however, companies can reach a happy compromise whereby they adopt the cloud concept—but do so behind the company’s firewall, as a private nonpublic solution.

As a result, what was once considered a mostly IT sales opportunity has now extended itself beyond this micro-environment to become a business opportunity that’s enabled by IT. Today, significant influencers and decision makers who are ...