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Sales Warrior Lesson 34: More Information

Your goal is to take control of the sale. When Sun Tzu talks about "command" he is specifically referring to the commander's role as a decision-maker. Both you and the buyer are decision-makers, and if you want to help the buyer or guide his or her decisions you need to understand his or her environment.

To do that, you must understand what ideas are popular in the environment affecting the decision-maker. "Strength" in classical strategy is not size, but unity. If there is a consensus of thinking around the decision-maker, we cannot change it. We can only use it. This means finding areas of agreement and disagreement, not only between ourselves and our prospects, but among the people surrounding the decision.

As we explore the common mindsets, we find a limited range of assumptions and viewpoints. In front-line strategy, "training" specifically means practicing how to respond to a specific situation. As we identify recurring popular mindsets, we identify the ways we can leverage them, and we rehearse our responses. Those with the most confident, practiced responses to predictable situations win sales consistently.

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Copyright 2005-2008 Science of Strategy Institute, Clearbridge Publishing, and Gary Gagliardi
The leading publishers of books based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War