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

When You Are Selling the Company

Traditional Sources

Although selling the company is part of every sales campaign, it becomes the key focus at times—more important than depending on the product or solution to carry the day. This truly means selling the value of the relationship with a specific supplier, which can easily eclipse feature-and-benefit value or the reduced price of any one product as part of any one sales situation. It is all about the aggregate total value of advancing a customer’s business over time—and it’s where supplier expertise, resources, and dedication to customers can be powerful, albeit still traditional. When a customer individual tells you that “No one ever got fired by selecting Company X,” you know that company has achieved this kind of market reputation superiority. Firms like McKinsey & Company and IBM have so distinguished themselves.

Nontraditional Sources

Whereas the focus of the traditional view is on the relationship between the companies—supplier and customer—the nontraditional perspective centers on the relationship between a Customer Advisor and Power Base members, which brings us back to people. This is why a supplier’s Customer Advisors are an essential source of relative superiority.

Sellers implement the Direct strategy in many more types of sales scenarios than those identified previously. Its common use would be less of a problem if more sellers met the Competitive Differentiation Analysis conditions mentioned earlier. This would force ...