Politics: How power is exercised within an organization. It can make or break a deal.

When facing a political selling game, the first step is to understand how you are personally positioned within the customer's environment.

Player Map is a tool that can help you to identify if you are a "Pretender," "Producer," or a "Player." Your goal is to be a Player, and if you are not, move up at least one level and continue to elevate your position.

Your customer's perception of you determines where you fall in the pecking order.  It's critical that you identify what your customer values and how you measure up in terms of criteria important them, such as your title, experience, education, industry expertise and professional network.

By demonstrating a thorough understanding of what urgent problems your customer needs to solve and what results they highly value, it's more likely that you will be regarded as a Player.  When you can link your solution to helping them achieve their goals, they will want to partner with you.

Players like players
Players in your customer's organization will recognize you as a fellow Player who can make things happen in your both company as well as theirs.

When you are at the Player level, you can act as a trusted business advisor and create win/win scenarios to help achieve both your goals and the goals of the customer.

Players are masters of politics. They understand that political dynamics are the result of change and welcome the challenge of figuring out who has power and who exercises it.

What does it mean to be a Player?
As a Player, you have a clear idea of what needs to happen to get things done. You don't need to worry about keeping up with the competition because you are setting the pace.

Can you dictate the way the game is played? If you don't like the rules, why not change them?

"It's not who you know. It's who knows you." – Scott LeLand, Founder of Player Map.