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

Step 6: Move Upstream

As soon as you have achieved results during the proof of concept exercise, it is time to upstream. This requires that you revisit the Fox-to-Fox relationship that we discussed earlier, as you will be asking the Business Unit Fox to sponsor a meeting with the Enterprise Fox at corporate. That meeting will give you the chance to present the goals, approach, and results of the proof of concept exercise, along with the implications to the customer’s business if it is rolled out. Two factors help to ensure that this meeting takes place:

1. You tap into the power of the Business Unit Fox and depend on his or her relationship with the Enterprise Fox. You know that this exists, because the Business Unit Fox is in the Power Base of the Enterprise Fox.

2. You provide Unexpected Value, which is always more exciting and impactful than expected value.

This gives you the opportunity to begin building a relationship with, let’s say, the company’s CEO. This might not be possible unless you are a CEO yourself—or an industry guru—which is why sellers tend to bring in senior management to get meetings with high-level customer executives. Although that makes sense, it underscores the account development power of creating demand. More specifically, it gives you more access to corporate executives who can provide you with more insight to uncover the opportunity to create more demand. It produces a feedback loop that will continue to operate as long as you continue to bring ...