C H A P T E R 25

Don’t Believe the Hype About Strategy

THERE I SAT at yet another board meeting, listening to the chief executive drone on about sales strategy and product strategy as he pointed to slick slideware filled with analyses of potential markets and buzzwords about our competitive positioning in the design visualization software market. Then it dawned on me—almost no one in the room, including the person talking, had actually visited a customer or, for that matter, even used the company’s product in their own work. Unable to contain myself, I blurted out, “How about this for a sales strategy? Instead of sitting around talking about customers, why not call on some? Why not try to sell to them and, at the same time, find out what they ...

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