Power Base Selling

"You may be your company's foot soldier, its first line of defense and attack, but you don't have to think like one."

"You can provide all the value in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if the right people don't know about it."

"At the heart of every Power Base—at the center of influence—is one person (sometimes more) who is most powerful, around whom the political structure of an organization revolves. That person is a Fox."

"If whatever product or service you offer has value, and if you can also bring business value to the table, you will develop an irresistible source of competitive advantage when you add political value to the equation."

"If you can't look at a sales opportunity through the window and see some source of clear superiority, you shouldn't implement a direct strategy."

"As long as the shift in focus genuinely provides increased value to the customer, you'll be on safe ground, while the competition will be thrown off balance."

"You go divisional when you can't bowl the competition over to win the whole pie, but when there's a delicious piece you'd love to sink your teeth into."

"In selling, when conditions spell defeat, sometimes the best we can do is hang in there long enough for conditions to change."

"A strategic vision not only streamlines your efforts; it helps you determine where, when, and how to knock the bad guys out of the saddle."

"There's no substitute for a good sales strategy, but a series of well-devised traps comes close."

"Real competitive advantage comes from following a road not usually taken in a sales campaign. It comes from combining a formal sales strategy with an informal, political one."

"Insight comes from having an objective mechanism that allows you not only to select a target, but also to determine how vigorously it should be pursued compared to other opportunities."

"The longer you don't have a presence at the top, the more opportunity you give the competition to establish theirs."