ENEMY IS SUCH AN UGLY WORD, right? There are lots of ugly words
that we learn to live with because they are appropriate and accurate. These include exterminated, deformed, racist, infected—among just a few. We want to use softer words for “enemy” because we do not see competitors, peers with similar aspirations but different approaches or important prospects as being an enemy. Hunting and competing are very similar in business. Terminology should not distract from strategy and tactics. That is what this section is about: some of the things that are not taught, but are necessary to win when you are fighting an enemy. The reason you are fighting is because you are seeking to gain an advantage or win a defined outcome. I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding. I did not learn many of these points in advance. I learned most of them by making mistakes, reading and watching the best, and asking the question, “What could I/ we do next time to win?” Here are some of my collected thoughts. It’s not an exhaustive list, but these will serve you. 1. WHO IS AN ENEMY?
I trust everyone to do what is in their best interest. –Tim Searcy The most dangerous enemies are the ones you don’t recognize as enemies.
Competitors, people looking to be promoted to a job you want, maybe people who work for you—those enemies and some like them are easy to pick out. Enemies who are situationally working against you because they think it is the right thing are more dangerous. Self-righteous commitment is a dangerous enemy, regardless of who is carrying the flag against you. Paranoia will make you crazy and unproductive. I believe in pattern recognition and awareness. These are better than paranoia for sensing the enemy that is not immediately apparent. 2. “IF IT WERE ME…” IS A STATEMENT MADE BY PEOPLE WHO PLAY WITH THEMSELVES.
The enemy of strategy, outplaying other competitors and winning difficult challenges, is not thinking about how you think about things, but how they think about things. Beating an enemy requires analyzing their approaches based upon their motivations, access points, what they are willing to lose in order to win, and many other elements of strategy. Thinking through the lens of “If it were me…” is not helpful in accomplishing insight. 3. INFORMATION IS THE COIN OF THE REALM.
He or she with the most information usually wins. I am always surprised at the number of sales professionals who have done little preparation in advance of a presentation. Data is everywhere. The more you have, the better informed your strategy and tactics are. I was working with an enormous company on a $25 billion deal. That’s right, billion. The sales team could not tell me the background on any of the buyers inside of a simple 8-question background analysis (Harvey Mackay uses 66). They knew nothing about their competition’s approach or people. The salespeople for the company I was preparing felt that they had a great relationship with some of the key people. So much so, that we did not do any more work with them, because they felt they had it all locked up. Our last question was simple, “Who does your competitor have special
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relationships with inside of the company you are selling?” When the $25 billion contract was awarded, it went to the competitor. The competitor had more information. 4. NEVER FIGHT A FIGHT THAT TIME, THE ISSUE ITSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL FIGHT FOR YOU
Recently, we had a client who hired a key sales leader into their company to manage us as a part of his responsibilities. Our contract was signed for the year, so we were not immediately concerned, but we knew that someone coming into his role would try to get his own consultants in. He was an enemy. We also knew that because of his style and our quiet influence, he would implode. We could have fought through his boss or the boss above that. We could have fought through his subordinates. We could have taken him on over the next year and fought him at every point. We decided to stalk him and gently provide a positive sounding board to others who were frustrated. By the end of the period, he had been moved out, we were not considered a reason, and the next contract was signed. 5. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU DECIDE IS AN ENEMY. IT IS BETTER TO CONVERT THAN FIGHT A SPY.
If you are owned by an international company, they do not always feel comfortable unless they have a spy. The same can be said about multi-divisional companies or even paranoid owners of companies. Expect spies. The question should not be, “Do we have a spy?” It should be “How do we shape the information that we provide the spy?” In the last large company I ran, we had several spies, but the most powerful one was the CFO of the parent company. We turned him. How? He needed to be valued and respected for his contribution. He wanted to be in the heat of the battle. Because we gave him everything and asked for his help on everything, he saw that our team was the team he wanted to be on. Once we figured that out, that’s where we put him. In a short period, he was advising us how to better represent Beat i ng En emi es
our numbers, presentations and our requests to win when dealing with the parent company. He was on our side. 6. SUN-TZU WAS RIGHT: THE GREATEST GENERALS WIN BATTLES WITHOUT FIGHTING.
I cannot say it too often. Win without fighting. Fighting shows bad strategy and a lack of creativity. It also exposes you as a fighter which means that other opponents may more easily see you coming. I like options as one of the strategies for winning without fighting. In a battle against an opponent, I like to create opportunities that are more appealing to him or her than my goal, and let them go for it. I was running a division of a company and was competing against the other division leader to run all of operations. My performance numbers were better by far, my experience in the company was longer, and I had relationships that were solid with all the leaders. Experience told me that I was not going to win. The other competitor was creating doubts about my youth, emotional style and leadership experience. These could potentially sway the decision, because I was the youngest leader they had ever had at my level, let alone at the next level up. My approach was to discuss with the leaders and my boss how our company really needed someone to handle acquisition strategy from an operations experience perspective. I didn’t really have that in my tool kit, but my competitor really did. I did the same thing with my competitor. He loved it—sounded sexy, high profile, and would put him where the action was. Soon, it was all he talked about. He told his peers his thinking, he laid out plans with his boss, he drew up a strategy, and he talked about it with all of the leaders. The leaders talked about it, considered it, but decided against it. In the end, they chose me to run all of operations because I was a proven player and I was so clearly focused, not chasing other opportunities. I had supported my competitor all of the time. I told him that I still thought it was a good idea. He agreed and was frustrated that the company had
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not gone in that direction. He left several months later for a new job. Me? Well, I was now in charge of all of operations. 7. BET ON THE PATIENT OPPONENT OVER THE CLEVER OPPONENT.
When you are a fast mover or change agent, you create a decent number of waves. You get good results, you draw people to you by your natural leadership skills, but you make enemies. You are not going to outplay them by being clever. Your performance requires mistakes and risks. Those who want you to fail don’t have to be smart or strategic; they just have to be patient. A new hired sales leader we were working with fired almost a quarter of the sales force around the company because their performance merited it. He installed performance requirements and stringent training and coaching. Necessary moves that made a difference. The culture was not performance driven as much as it was culture driven. This is odd for me because I see performance as a component of a growth culture, but this isn’t my story. Meanwhile, Human Resources hated this guy. He was stirring the pot, making people mad, having them interview and hire more people. In short, he was an HR nightmare. HR just sat back and added up the complaints. People who get fired don’t say nice things in exit interviews. It took a year for the patient HR team to get the rock star sales performance leader fired. He thought sales performance would outplay all other measurements and his clever techniques would win out. Patience won out. Patient players do not have to fight; they just wait for clever players to make enough mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, and patient players just wait. 8. TELLING THE TRUTH IS A GREAT APPROACH.
I don’t advocate lying. As a matter of fact, I am against it completely. It’s not just because of the moral issues involved. It’s because it doesn’t work. When you tell the truth, you create credibility and trust and lots of other Beat i ng En emi es
good things. I like to tell the truths that other competitors are not willing to tell. I believe that it is very effective to be overly honest. That happens when you say, “Let me tell you how our industry really works and how we make our money.” It gives you the power to say to the prospect, “If someone comes in and offers lower pricing, they have to pull it from somewhere. Will it be their people, quality, technology, materials? It won’t be from their profits, because there are only so many profits to be had. You have to decide what you are willing to give up. We can have that debate right now, and I can tell you what all of your possible vendors should be bidding. Then all you have to decide is who you trust and like, not what they should pay.” By setting the rules of the game, you have put your enemies in a game that you now control. Truth is not about gossip. You have to tell the truths that do not put you at risk (you will learn more about this in #10). Focus on the betterment of the organization or company. Possibly concentrate on weaknesses to exploit by your company in the market or direct your efforts at a competitor. These truths are idea-based and also favor the resources of your area. 9. IF YOU ARE HUNTING SOMEONE, KNOW THAT SOMEONE ELSE IS HUNTING YOU.
When you are doing strategy work sessions, writing responses, building presentations, so is your enemy. You have to plan all sides of the conflict— yours, theirs, your responses, their responses to yours, and so on. I have been in countless meetings for large sales proposals and presentations in which the approach was to do our best and see what happens. What? That’s like playing only one half of the basketball court for the entire game. You may do well for the first half, but you will be crushed in the second half. You are playing against enemies, not just for an audience. Remember from earlier: the wrong question is “If it were me….” The question is about your enemy. What has he or she done in the past, how have they done it, and what are they willing to lose? As I have told my children many times, in any competition, you are playing against three competitors: the opponent, the referee, and yourself.
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10. NEVER LEAVE FINGERPRINTS ON THE BLADE
Taking an enemy out of the game by getting them disqualified, fired, or even investigated for regulation violations is a defensive move, not an attack move. As an attack move, you would show too much firepower, which then gives future opponents insights into your toolkit of strategy. There is an old saying about political coups: “The best coups are those in which the people do not know whether the military took the seat or the leader jumped.” Most recently, we helped a prospect shift the lens of what their primary concern should be in how to select a provider. There were twenty original c