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Sales Warrior Lesson 5: The Sales Environment

As with so many of Sun Tzu's concepts, our environment is defined as two opposite and yet complementary halves, climate and the ground. Climate represents uncontrollable change and the power of time. Climate is the "when" of every position. Ground is both the market where we fight and the resources that we fight for, that is, customer sales. Climate and ground together mark the time and place in which we compete.

The ground of a market is both a geographical place and a rank in the mind. Both aspects of place are important. In comparing various alternatives, a customer must rank a given alternative in his or her mind. This ranking is the competitive ground that matters. Once a customer ranks a set of competitors, only one thing changes that rank: the change of climate. You can never tell a customer or prospect that his or her past ranking was "wrong." All you can say is that positions have changed because of changes in climate.
 

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The leading publishers of books based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War