Have you ever lost a deal due to the customer's political environment?
 
Ninety Five 5's Player Map helps us with political selling.  

The term "politics" has taken on a lot of negative connotations over the years.  In sales, we need to understand how power is exercised in an organization to be in a better position to help our client succeed.
 
Player Map is a visual sales plan that can help us win more business faster by helping us focus on having dialogues with the right individuals about what they truly value.  
 
We have seen that organizations using the Player Map quickly get better at managing sales activities by:

• Recognizing the key players and understanding the issues they face.
• Understanding and communicating what is known and what needs to be known about the politics that drive a sales pursuit.
• Identifying and developing champions who will work to ensure the success of a project.

 
As more salespeople in an organization use the Player Map as a communication tool to identify who the players are and what they want, a common language makes communication among team members more effective.

For example, when preparing for a meeting, teams can focus on the players who will attend, since players are the key people who will influence the final decision.
 
As we progress in a sales cycle, using Player Map helps us understand where we are, where we need to go and how we can get there. Sort of like your car's GPS, which helps you get to a specific location.
 
In Ninety Five 5's "Plan" module, Player Map helps us develop more strategic approaches to initiating new opportunities by helping us focus on right targets.

After we "move off our own solution," we create a Value Proposition Hypothesis, a concise summary of the client's situation and reasons why adopting our solution might make sense. We use the Player Map to identify who we want to contact and understand where we need to build bridges to get a referral to the Players.

• In Fill, we test our value proposition with the client and understand if the assumptions we have made are valid or not.  If the answer to the question "Is this something we should pursue together?" is "yes", then we should use the Player Map to decide the best way to continue talking. We need to make sure that we are properly "laddered" so that we have visibility and influence at different levels of the organization.
• In Flow, we develop the value proposition and make the Player Map as complete as possible. The foundational principle of "No Guessing!" comes into play here.  We should win before we present so we can present to win.
• In Win, we want to prove our value proposition and use the insight we've gained from the Player Map to focus on what the Players value.

As you start to use the Player Map, it becomes clear how you are positioned and what would help you to be better positioned.
 
Any experiences around politics affecting a sale you would like to share?

By Bill Rust. A Ninety Five 5 sales guide (and certified project management professional), Bill has proven expertise in overseeing initiatives involving multiple departments, business units and vendors worldwide for global corporations and governmental agencies. Connect with him on Twitter and here in the community.