The Power plan

This is an overview of an extract that follows from my book CEO-Led Sales.

For context I begin CEO-Led Sales by looking at the IT sales environment today, how it has evolved and continues to evolve. Then I describe how IT sales organisations are currently approaching this sales environment, as well as the immense challenges this throws up for CEOs today. I then propose a model that I’ve created called The Right Model, which I believe will help CEOs better align their sales organisations to the sales environment of today and into the future.

The extract highlights one component of The Right Model. The Right Model is a model I have developed to support my learnings throughout my career. It is an organisational culture underpinned by a process. It is a culture of inquisitiveness, of urgency, of gaining and sharing knowledge, of engagement, of teamwork. I like to describe it as a culture that brings people together to form a collective ‘battering ram’.

A battering ram will typically smash into a wall twice before breaking through the third time. By contrast, a sledgehammer might smash against a wall at least 20 times before breaking through, with most swings barely making a dint. The wall in this analogy is The Right Deal with The Right Client. The battering ram is The Right Team smashing through to win it. The sledgehammer is the approach taken by most organisations today: sending one salesperson in at a time to win the deal.