Jim Holden: Power Base Selling

Since its introduction in 1990, the Power Base Selling methodology has been one of the most effective and popular sales tools. Unlike e.g. Miller Heiman sales strategies,Power Base Selling is largely focused on how to beat the competition. Competition is at the heart of the Power Base Selling model. In the book many analogies with warefare are described.

As important is the attention to internal politics of the buyer organisation. It is key for the sales professional to get to know the informal, political organisation structure of the buying organisation, which is called the Power Base, and to ally with and take advantage of the political agendas of the key players to help forward the solutions offered and beating the competition. At the center of the Power Base is the Fox, the ultimate influencing factor.

A range of strategies are described to confront competitors:

1. Direct Strategy based on superior products, company selling or installed products
2. Indirect Strategy based on altering the buying criteria
3. Divisional Strategy to salvage part of the business
4. Containment Strategy to postpone the decision to increase chances

But Power Base Selling is about more than just strategy. It also provides tactics to keep competitors at a distance e.g. by securing an order won by advertsing it and covering it with the Fox. Simarly, by setting up "traps" early in the sales process competitors will not be allowed to fight back eiher on price, via contacting superiors or by talking negatively about competitors.

The book concludes with 13 criteria to determine whether a sales opportunity is worth fighting for and what the chances of success are. Access to upper management, understanding the decision-making process, compatibility of philosophy and political alignment are key to winning.

Miller Heiman: The New Strategic Selling

The all time Miller Heiman Sales Strategy bestseller has been revised and updated in 2004, but the sales methodology has largely stood the test of time. Unique about Miller Heiman is the view on sales as a repeatable and ongoing process based on 6 "Key Elements":

1. Buying Influences (Economic, User, Technical, Coach)
2. Red Flags / Leverage from Strengths
3. The Four Response Modes (Growth, Trouble, Even Keel, Overconfident)
4. Win-Results
5. Ideal Customer
6. The Sales Funnel

The New Strategic Selling focuses on sales strategy and the preparation needed before going into a sales call. Another Miller Heiman book - The New Conceptual Selling - focuses on Sales tactics and face to face sales skills.

Core to the Miller Heiman Sales Strategy is the establishment of a win-win long term relationship both with the buyer organisation and the individual buying influences. The book exclusively deals with complex sales which are defined as sales situations in which more than 1 buying influence is present. The ultimate reward for establishing win-win relationships is repeat business and referrals.

The key driver for sales opportunities is the ability of the product or service offered either to help grow the business of the customer or to solve existing problems. This is called the discrepancy between the desired solution and the existing one. But the solution has to provide both "objective benefits" to the buyer organisation as "subjective benefits" to the individual Buying Influence. Huge emphasis is put on the establishment of credibility.

Surprisingly, very little attention is given to Competitive issues though a special chapter is now dedicated to competition in the revised version. The explanation for this is that exagerated attention to competitors can easily detract the focus away from studying the needs of the customer, which is basic to the Miller Heiman strategy.

However, the sales professional is urged to constantly review and adapt his strategy in the light of ever increasing rates of change in the corporate environment.

Finally, some attention is given to the organisation of the daily sales activities based on the Sales Funnel principle and the prioritisation and allocation of the different types of sales activities. This is both aimed at optimising the use of the available time and the creation of a reliable and predictable flow of constant sales revenues.

Typical in this book is also the large number of "Personal Workshops" in which the sales methodology is applied on a concrete sales objective using charts and tables. Sometimes this takes the form of a drilling exercise, endlessly repeating the main principles of the methodology. But this is exactly what is aimed at : the 6 Key Elements have to become second nature to every sales professional!

The New Strategic Selling basically turns the sales profession into a marketing function, though it is marketing done on the micro level of the account. If anything, it shows that sales at the highest levels now requires a large number of skills way beyond the traditional tips & tricks taught by traditional sales trainers.