The Invisible Game

Part IIIPlaying Offence and the Powers of Influence

Sales outperformers don't win only because they play the Invisible Game well. They win because they determine how the Invisible Game will be played. They establish and enforce frames in a sales situation by defining the decision criteria, the range of outcomes, the degrees of freedom, and how risks are shared. It's the difference between being the dealer and accepting the hand you are dealt.

In that spirit, Part III shifts the emphasis from defence to offence. It will show salespeople how to establish and preserve a home-field advantage rather than always playing defence in the purchaser's home park with their ground rules and all the other measures of control they can impose. Who can claim home-field advantage often depends on the balance of power in the sales relationship. In Part III, we view that balance as a function of personal and paper power.

At the same time, let's remember that buyers, like sellers and everyone else, are also cavepeople in designer clothes. They have their own pronounced biases that affect how they view their suppliers, how they make decisions, how they perceive gains and losses, and how they respond to price changes. The second half of Part III describes powerful approaches that salespeople can use to frame the negotiation – and the options the buyers have – in ways that work to the seller's advantage.

That is the essence of playing offence in the Invisible Game.