START WITH THE LIVE SYMPTOM
The better product does not win if the buyer cannot carry the argument upstairs.
You know where the competitor is weak. The buyer may even agree. But the deal still becomes a feature comparison, a safe choice or a pilot with no exit criteria.
WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING
A competitive loss is often not a product problem. It is a missing point of view, an unquantified consequence or a champion who was sent upstairs with encouragement instead of an argument.
THE WORK
Teach the problem in the buyer’s own words before connecting it to your product.
Set traps early, before the incumbent shapes the evaluation criteria.
Build a champion pack that makes the internal case defensible.
Decide whether the buyer needs a displacement motion, a de-risked change or a reason to stop standing still.
THE MOVE
Your differentiator matters only when it gives the buyer a better decision to make. A feature list does not do that work for them.
THE NEXT MOVE
Do not start with a programme. Start with the one live deal, account or operating problem that tells you where the motion is missing.
PRINCIPLES TO APPLY
The thinking behind the move.
07
Love the problem, not the product.
Most sellers fall in love with the product instead of the problem. Proof: they stop being curious the moment they find where their product fits.
Read in the manifesto09
Play the person, not your hand.
Someone will always be cheaper, bigger or first. The best player at the table wins with worse cards by reading what the person across from them needs, fears and has to defend upstairs.
Read in the manifesto10
Every complex deal has a next decision.
The sales job is not to generate activity. It is to identify the one decision that must happen now and choose the move that makes it more likely.
Read in the manifesto