The New Power Base Selling

Jim Holden and Ryan Kubacki revise Power Base Selling, the book that gave sellers a language for gaining political advantage inside customer accounts. Its central idea is to align with the individuals who hold power in a customer organization, whom the authors call Foxes. The authors treat competitive selling as a matter of politics, strategy and customer value as much as management science, and they draw on a large sales training survey and more than 50,000 deal reviews. Topics include creating and servicing demand, using situational power bases to raise win rates, tying value to a customer's critical initiatives, and selling through Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. It is meant for salespeople who want to outfox competitors and exceed quota.

Patrick Nicolet, chief executive of Infrastructure Services, endorsed it, calling Power Base Selling the most pragmatic guide of his professional services career and singling out the new idea of Unexpected Value. Rosemarie Mitchell of ABS Associates said she could not put it down.