One Core Thing Sales Campaigns & Military Battlefields Have In Common

"Topography is one of the greatest determinants of conflict"
― Michael Livingston

Insight I read from an historian. As part of his thesis that what I learned in school as the One Hundred Years War period of English and French medieval fighting could and claims should be relabelled as 200 years.

His quote matter is a constant theme in the re-telling of battles of consequence.

Perhaps the most famous example being Waterloo 1812. I myself have stood in that field and seen the terrain Wellington diligently secured as most favourable. Vital to ultimately defeat someone unaccustomed to losing in Napoleon.

Military commanders are students of land. If it appears not advantageous to them, they are inclined to decline contact.

In my B-School days I noted how many Strategy tenets were of military birth. Indeed the notion of a sales campaign also builds on vocabulary of war. Over the three decades-plus since, thankfully contributions - and new flanks, if you will - have emerged from other realms.

Yet this topography pillar I believe remains central.

Why ever bid when it is not on our terms?

Surely to do so simply sets yourself up for failure.

How do you recognise when a campaign is indeed on terms best suited to our best light?

This must be a formulised part of your Yes/No bid decision making.

I've used and seen plenty of qualification rubrics throughout my Enterprise years. Yet more often than not, they are the exception.

My first, incidentally, considered more an ongoing sanity check tool, being a version of 'SCOTSMAN', deliciously deepened, wittily redrawn as 'WELSHMAN'.

It is undeniable that the best solution salespeople are stringent qualifiers in this way. Their first thought always to why they ought qualify out, rather than in.

When it comes to initial commitment, know your best-fitting topography, and only engage on such.