Power Base Implications for Sellers
,Stage IV Customer Advisors focus on people with influence—the Fox and Power Base members—for two main reasons:
Working with Foxes and Power Bases not only helps you win more deals but saves you time and money in terms of shorter sales cycles and reduced cost of sales.
To elaborate on this point, let’s return to the example of the seller working on the account in the section titled Mapping the Power Base. The seller would make a huge error if he took direction from the West Regional Director, no matter how strong their relationship is. Even if the West Regional Director happened to be a formal decision maker on some matter, the real decision will be influenced by the East and Central Directors.
Imagine what could take place. Although well intentioned, the West Regional Director could provide inaccurate information; or worse, he could ask for future work that will not have a positive sales consequence. For example, the West Regional Director may inform the seller that he wants to see a demonstration of the product’s ability to integrate with an existing product that they are using. In response, the seller spends time researching the integration request, coordinating with technical support personnel, and preparing to conduct the demonstration at the customer’s facility. On top of that, the seller and support people may need to fly to the customer location, which will only add more time and expense.
Of course, all this could be very appropriate for the right deal. However, suppose that the Fox feels that integration with the existing product is not necessary. Perhaps there are other important considerations of which the West Regional Director is not aware since he’s not in the Power Base. Sales time and costs go up, while win potential goes down. Selling to someone outside of the Power Base is like driving in a heavy fog without knowing it. Things seem to look okay. You’re moving ahead and you know that the sales campaign is progressing, but in what direction? Like a pilot who has lost the horizon, this is a dangerous situation for a seller.
Avoiding the fog of selling and achieving Political Advantage requires that sellers quickly find people in the Power Base who are not always easy to find. The good news, however, is that when you discover a member of this political network that we call a Power Base, he or she can lead you to the Fox. Yet, this requires that you know what to look for, along with when and how to look for it. This is precisely why finding the Fox’s Bat Cave is the subject of the next chapter.