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

Influence Is Constantly Changing

The Power Matrix is a fluid, living chart in your customer organizations that is changing constantly. That is why it is important to understand how to identify influence, a topic we’ll address later in the book.

For example, the first edition of Power Base Selling used the example of the United States government to explain the Power Matrix in Figure 3.2. We described the President as an Influential Authoritarian, the Vice President as a Non-Influential Authoritarian, and the First Lady as an Influential Non-Authoritarian. However, even in the time since the first edition was published, there have been several instances when all of these claims could be debated. We have seen times when Vice Presidents appeared to exert significant influence and other times when Presidents had to conduct a press conference to say that they were still relevant in the legislative process. This brings in the situational element that we will discuss shortly.

Another example is the discussion of who has wielded the most power in Russia. The Constitution of the Russian Federation makes it clear that the President is the head of state and has maximum authority and influence, yet few would dispute that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin really called the shots. Although he had less formal authority in comparison to President Dmitry Medvedev, he had disproportionately more influence.

What’s the point of all this? Simply that:

Determining who has influence is not easy.

Knowing who ...