Political Sales Strategy

A large part of selling strategy today is based around what sales
technique and approach you use. From the very popular SPIN selling
model to the newer challenger sales model, techniques on how you
should sell are all over the place.

The premise of most of these schools of thought is simple. Learn the
technique, practice it and apply it for more successful sales. If you
stick to their principles you're going to be successful at achieving
your goals.

One issues that I found really disturbing about this approach is the
total disregard for influences that will not react to any of these
techniques. And the main influence here is the POLITICAL one. Politics
in commerce and how to overcome this very powerful issue is something
that very few selling technique in the world can solve or even deal
with.

What do you do for example if you've followed every rule in the book
and there is a very defined and immediate need for your product or
service but a deal between two large corporates or countries includes
an agenda that excludes your company from the running?
What do you do when a deal is struck between two partners in a company
that prefer favoring their personal relationship over a professional
one not with standing you having presented a fantastic sales approach.

Refusing to acknowledge that sales goes beyond just using a bi
relationship model of communication like many of these techniques base
themselves on is setting yourself up for failure. Further
investigation on what constitutes the best approach given factors that
may be beyond your control is becoming increasingly important.

So where can we learn how to adopt a more holistic approach to sales?
What kind of insight and forward thinking can we equip ourselves with
before engaging a particular sales vertical.

Some tips that I've found can help you be better positioned and
prepared include setting up partnerships with companies that augment
your particular product or service so you both compliment each other.
I call this complimentary paring.

For more tips keep your eyes peeled, fellow sales associates and
hackers to the sequel in my series of how to deal with the political
sale.

In addition feel free to send me your input and experience on the subject.

All the best,

Jonathan