You Either Win, Or You LOSE in Sales - Anthony Iannarino 'Eat Their Lunch' Chapters 7, 8 & 9

This book is about winning competitive business in a me too market and Iannarino refers to the 'red ocean' - when you're competing against someone whose product is similar to your own and where it's a zero some game i.e. they lose, you win.  Chapter 7: 'Building Consensus Horizontally and Vertically'.  This chapter talks about a sales pitch where you've got different decision makers involved in the process to get your product/solution signed off and the interrelationship between those people.  Chapter 8: 'Finding a Path to a Deal'  More often than not, most deals follow a path. Maybe not a grooved path that others have walked on, but they still follow a path.  Chapter 9: 'Creating a Preference'  This opens part 3 of the book and is one of my favourite bits of the book.  His opening line in each chapter is excellent and this one is no exception: 'We often forget that the act of selling is about creating a preference to work with us instead of our competitor' well said. I think a lot of people we interview forget that - you're in the business of persuade the customer to do something that they might not have done without you.