Skip to content
Menu
Lucky's Bookshelf
  • Browse
  • About
Lucky's Bookshelf

Book Review: Hope is Not a Strategy by Rick Page

Posted on June 26, 2022June 26, 2022
Topics: Business / Finance, Nonfiction

Rating: 7.9/10.

Hope Is Not a Strategy: The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale by Rick Page

Guide to how to make complex sales to businesses, this is challenging because of multiple stakeholders involved on the client side, and the complex decision making process. The salesperson needs to have good understanding of the client’s business and needs so you can present your product in a way that looks better than your competitors. The lowest level salespeople focus on their own product’s features, but by doing this, you become viewed as a commodity and must compete on price.

Aim to understand the underlying business problem the client is trying to solve, and link your solutions to their pain points. Moreover, you must sell to individuals for whom the problem is painful, not just treat the organization as a monolithic entity. This requires knowing about the organization of the client’s company and its internal politics, as well as people’s hidden personal agendas that they would not reveal publicly.

Understand the client’s decision making process, such as which people have decision making power; if it’s a vote, whose vote are you missing? Then these people need to be presented with the pain and an urgent need to buy. It’s easier to sell to people with power, although this is not necessarily their position on the organizational chart: many forms of soft power and influence that are not obvious. Executives have the most power, but you’d need to sell them on strategic advantages, don’t talk about technical features.

Your sales strategy will depend on your product relative to your competition: if you are likely to lose in a direct comparison then you can’t afford to take them head-on. Instead, look for ways to influence their decision making process to refocus around your strengths, offer creative win-win deal terms, etc. Once you’ve decided on the strategy, the whole sales team needs to be on board with it so they don’t accidentally sabotage each other.

This was an interesting overview of high-level considerations when doing enterprise sales. For me, someone who’s never worked on sales before, it was hard to personally relate to the advice and examples; I guess it was not written for an absolute beginner.

See more reviews on Amazon.com

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter

Most similar books:

Digital Marketing Strategy by Simon Kingsnorth Die With Zero by Bill Perkins Bargaining for Advantage by G. Richard Shell Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Enjoying these books?

Join our mailing list to receive weekly book reviews!

No spam, unsubscribe at any time

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Subjects

  • Meta (2)
  • Topics (227)
    • Arts and Music (12)
    • Business / Finance (25)
    • Canada (11)
    • China (17)
    • Current Events (8)
    • Data Science / ML (8)
    • Economics (11)
    • History (27)
    • Indigenous (9)
    • Linguistics (17)
    • Mathematics (5)
    • Medicine / Health (14)
    • Natural Sciences (20)
    • Philosophy (15)
    • Self-Help / Career (12)
    • Social Sciences (12)
    • Software Engineering (3)
    • Startups (12)
    • World (22)
  • Type (244)
    • Classics (18)
    • Nonfiction (162)
    • Novels / Fiction (29)
    • Textbooks (36)

Lucky’s Bookshelf is a participant of the Amazon Affiliates Program.

©2023 Lucky's Bookshelf | Powered by SuperbThemes & WordPress