“The New Power Base Selling provides salespeople, sales leaders, and chief executives with the knowledge to make the right investment decisions regarding sales opportunities. The methodologies described in this book take the guesswork out of assessing the quality of your sales pipeline and ultimately enable executives to lead a more intelligent sales engine. Intergraph has long been recognized as a leader in protecting lives and property through its software. After implementing the Holden method, sales excellence also became a core competency of Intergraph in just 24 months.”
—Bill Campbell
Senior Vice President, Americas, Intergraph Corporation
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“Holden and Kubacki have elevated sales to a scientific process that enables sellers to provide exceptional value to their customers. In my 31 years of selling, this is the first defi nitive work on how to leverage the intangibles of politics, value, and strategy to boost win rates. It’s a master’s program in sales superiority!”
—Lou Ebling
Global Account Executive, Oracle
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“It’s time to retire the ‘Glengarry leads’ mentality of sales effectiveness and take an objective, academic look at the science of selling. Holden and Kubacki deliver a provocative and thoughtful message that up-levels the sales profession to its rightful place in the corporate value chain.”
—Peter Ostrow
Vice President & Research Group Director, Customer Management,
Sales Effectiveness, Aberdeen Group
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“The New Power Base Selling presents sales as a management science, analogous to the principles of military special operations and counterterrorism, for developing repeatable strategies to defeat competition. In this latest book from the Fox people, Holden and Kubacki identify the doctrine and practices for leveraging political insight, creating unexpected client value, and formulating highly effectivestrategies to quickly achieve relative superiority and obtain a decisive advantage in any sales environment. They have successfully brought Sun Tzu into the twenty-first century!”
—Kevin Nowak
Senior Adviser under contract to the US Department of Energy,
Office of Security and Cyber Evaluations
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“I’ve been a Holden disciple for a number of years, having found the processes and insights invaluable in helping me to understand how to win in an increasingly complex and crowded marketplace.
“In their book The New Power Base Selling, Jim Holden and Ryan Kubacki build upon their time-tested and revolutionary classic, turning the art of selling into a science. Jim and Ryan demonstrate a repeatable, scalable process that will enable any sales force to increase the value of what they sell by establishing sales superiority. Their book details how to leverage the new dynamics of social media and globalization, as well as how to diff erentiate in the current economic environment.
“Holden and Kubacki’s understanding of sales strategies, along with the proper balance between customer and competitive positioning, provide a must read and a must implement for any sales professional.
“The New Power Base Selling demystifies the selling environment, helping a salesperson to understand how to balance product, political, cultural, and business concerns to provide Unexpected Value to their clients.”
—Woody Sessoms
Senior Vice President Global Enterprise Theatre, Cisco Systems
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“This is a book that I couldn’t put down. I was spellbound by the new ideas presented and the concepts of Political Advantage, Value Creation, and Compete Strategy. Sellers must advance from information providers to Customer Advisors, and Holden and Kubacki tell us exactly how to do it using language and examples that are both engaging and compelling. Every organization needs to read The New Power Base Selling if they want to outfox the competition. It is beautifully written and information-packed.”
—Rosemarie Mitchell
CEO, ABS Associates, Inc.
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“Holden and Kubacki unveil the science of selling. They show how sophisticated business development can itself create Unexpected Value for clients, drive loyalty, and produce competitive market share.”
—Clark Dean
Corporate real estate consultant
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“The New Power Base Selling is an invaluable tool for anyone looking to achieve the ultimate competitive advantage. The visible and invisible sales tools drilled down on in this book apply to any industry—politics included—and for any individual facing a competitive battle. The book’s insights guided my successful and hugely underdog 2010 campaign for US Congress and continue to assist me in the competitive world of Washington, DC.”
—Joe Walsh
Congressman, 8th District of Illinois in the
US House of Representatives
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“A must-read for selling in today’s economy and hypercompetitive marketplace. The New Power Base Selling will help ensure value-driven sales rather than pricedriven lower-quality business. Jim and Ryan have created an MBA program for selling where all sales professionals can advance to Stage IV Customer Advisors, providing Unexpected Value to customers while driving up win rates.”
—Garth Carter
Vice President—State and Local Government/Education,
CIBER, Inc.
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“This update to the original thinking of Power Base Selling is required reading for every sales professional, whether early in their careers or experienced executives. The key today is relevance and success in an increasingly competitive and complex selling environment. The transition from a product and relationship orientation to a model of political alignment, Value Creation, and Competitive Diff erentiation yields more wins, trusted advisor status with customers, and larger commission payouts.”
—Geoff Nyheim Vice President Cloud Services Sales, Microsoft
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“Holden and Kubacki masterfully defi ne the many infl uence factors that drive sales in today’s complex organizations. They know what separates super-salespeople from mere account reps, and after reading this book, so will you.”
—Paul Gillin Author of The New Influencers, Secrets of Social Media Marketing,
and Social Marketing to the Business Customer
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“In 1999, when I was running sales for Sprint, we deployed Holden Power Base Selling and we proceeded to win 13 strategic accounts over the next 13 months. My next opportunity to deploy Holden principles came 10 years later at International Game Technology, and we are back again as a dominant force in the marketplace. Jim Holden and Ryan Kubacki, in The New Power Base Selling, have captured the essence of selling strategically and describe how to eff ectively navigate in our complex and competitive environments. We will continue to add to their accumulating 50,000 deals . . . and counting!”
—Eric Tom
Executive Vice President North American Sales and Global Service,
International Game Technology
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“The New Power Base Selling is a must-read for anyone looking to create a Customer Advisor sales organization whereby you are looking to increase your deal size, provide value diff erentiation, and help your customers solve their business problems. The result is a win-win for your company and your customer—that is true value.”
—Dave Furtado
Global Vice President of Sales, Ascom Network Testing
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“Although the approach to maximizing selling skills is changing dramatically based on advancements and opportunities in technology, the fundamentals of Power Base Selling introduced by Jim Holden more than 20 years ago are still exceedingly relevant. Along with Ryan Kubacki, Jim has updated, modernized, and refreshed the application of understanding politics, creating value, and defeating the competition for this generation of sellers and many to follow. How we access the Fox may be changing, but the dynamics of why sales are made can be enhanced by driving the Power Base Selling model across the enterprise.”
—Jill Billhorn
Vice President Small Business, CDW Corporation
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“A comprehensive A–Z book showing simple, yet powerful, concepts on how selling has changed in today’s fast-moving environment. Great not only for salespeople but also for executives to better understand their own sales team and those of competitors.”
—Doug Lee
CFO, Peerless Networks
“In my experience, the best salespeople will embrace the ideas, practices, and methodologies outlined in The New Power Base Selling. The content of this book is fundamental to the success of the modern sales professional.”
—Chris Michalak
Client and Accounts Leader, Aon Hewitt
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“This book enables salespeople to develop a Fox-inspired strategy to create a path through the minefi elds of corporate politics, up the slippery slopes of infl uence, and into the gilded halls of power. It will help business-to-business (B2B) salespeople outfox their competition and rake in millions of dollars in new sales.”
—Gerhard Gschwandtner
Owner, Selling Power
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“As an executive coach and trainer for more than 30 years, I see this book as the holy grail of real selling. It outlines what everyone in a Power Base knows and understands. If you face any politics in sales (who doesn’t?), you must read this book.”
—Bailey Allard
President, Allard Associates, Inc.
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“I found The New Power Base Selling to be a great enhancement to the previous selling concepts discussed in the original Power Base Selling (PBS) version . . . kind of an Advanced PBS or PBS 201 structure. Many of the concepts discuss selling from a customer’s point of view, along with the mandate to off er not only product but diff erentiated and unexpected value to your customer. This is essential in today’s environment. The continual focus on all aspects of your customer’s business—politics, competition, value chain, business environment—are crucial for success. I also love the introduction of using social media as an eff ective sales tool in the selling process. This is a playbook that I would recommend to any sales organization struggling to compete in today’s competitive environment.”
—Greg Baur
Director of Sales, Intel Americas
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“As an investor in the venture capital/private equity space who focuses on investing in high-growth founder-owned businesses, I spend a signifi cant amount of my time in the process of selling: selling the value-add of our fi rm to founders when we are trying to win the deal, helping our portfolio companies sell themselves to potential hires, and helping portfolio companies close complicated enterprise sales. Yet business schools typically spend very little time on the topic of selling strategy. With The New Power Base Selling, Holden and Kubacki provide an advanced MBA of selling to drive significant enterprise value.”
—Brian Shortsleeve
General Catalyst Partners
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“For the sales that matter—and every targeted sale matters—this approach provides the safety net to allow you to answer the question ‘Have I done everything I can to prepare for this close?’ with a resounding ‘Yes!’ So many companies have focused on cutting costs for so many years that they have forgotten the skills necessary to create value for customers.”
—Jim Dyke
Corporate Vice President, Sales and Marketing,
Psychemedics Corporation
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“I meet hundreds of entrepreneurs each year, and only a tiny fraction recognizes sales as a science. The start-ups that understand how to sell have a huge advantage when it comes to building a new and successful business.”
—Chris Yeh
Angel investor
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“I have leveraged this approach across multiple companies and have found that the principles hold true for seasoned sellers, as well as those just starting out. But, independent of experience, the only way for sellers to remain relevant with customers and partners is to demonstrate that they understand their business and politics while providing Unexpected Value. This book provides the road map to succeed across all of these areas.”
—Nancy Stickney
Vice President of Sales, Hyland Software
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“Whether lawyers are involved in developing business, negotiating settlements, arguing a case in court, or simply explaining their billable rates, we are always selling. Before any lawyer signs up for another continuing legal education (CLE) course, before any law student graduates from law school, and before any partner talks to another client, they should read this book!”
—Jim McCarthy
Partner, McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert and Berghoff , LLP
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“In making a deal, we can easily misunderstand what our customers truly value—at the cost of the contract. Holden International has made a business out of teaching others how not to make that error. The New Power Base Selling explains how we can learn the key human elements to deal-making. I found this book understandable and engaging and know that the principles put forth can lead to success.”
—Rear Admiral David R. Oliver Jr. (Ret.)
Strategic Advisor, EADS North America, and author of
Lead On and Making It in Washington