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.