One Last Point about the Containment Strategy

We have said many times that strategy is the intellectual sword of your sales campaign, because strategy is a confrontation of competing minds driven by situational awareness and wisdom. It might be two opposing generals, sellers, politicians, employees, or any other two people engaged in a zero-sum conflict. For this reason, Stage III and IV sellers think through how they will win early in a sales campaign—particularly when they need an asymmetric advantage. If things don’t work out, they keep thinking, perhaps utilizing the Containment strategy. But there is one last important nuance to make tangible—and that is emotion. We turn to an example from history to show this point.

In April 1612 on an island in Japan, two famous swordsmen and undefeated masters named Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro were to fight to the death.1 These men were very much opposites. Kojiro had social position, power, wealth, and a strong following, whereas Musashi had no interest in such things. Kojiro depended on fighting technique and his weapon for success, while Musashi focused more on his powers of observation and intuition. He considered technique and weapons to be important, but he counted on the intangible to win—specifically, the power of his mind. Kojiro also had an advantage. His sword was unusually long and extremely well made; he was thus able to overpower other swordsmen who used the more traditional shorter sword. When the time to compete came, Kojiro had been in place and ready for some time. However, Musashi was not there.

After a long and frustrating wait, Musashi’s boat finally arrived. When he climbed out, he was carrying a wooden sword that he had fashioned out of one of the boat’s oars. Kojiro was outraged and lost control of his emotions for the first time. Arriving late and using a wooden sword was an unacceptable insult. However, this was all part of Musashi’s plan. Kojiro’s brilliant technique diminished as his anger grew, enabling Musashi to defeat him with nothing more than his wooden sword.

All odds were against Musashi, just as it is with a seller who is behind in the 11th hour of a peaking sales situation. But with time and strategy, Musashi influenced and leveraged his opponent’s emotions. Such is the case in a peaking sales opportunity where there is no room for mistakes and emotions run high. Many sellers become predictable at these times and deal poorly with adversity. It is because of this emotional environment that you can reverse purchase decisions if you prepare and move strategically, with “careful hurry.” The Containment approach exists for this purpose.