Book details

  • Genre:business & economics
  • Sub-genre:Sales & Selling / General
  • Language:English
  • Series Title:Raise The Bar. Step Up.
  • Series Number:1
  • Pages:300
  • eBook ISBN:9798995778417
  • Paperback ISBN:9798995778400

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Raise The Bar. Step Up.

The Habits of Great Sales Athletes

Overview

Your pipeline is full. Your forecast is fiction. Something is missing. 69% of account executives missed quota last year. That number comes from Ken Powell’s own measurement inside client sales organizations over the last 15 years. Not because they lacked technology. Because they were never taught the disciplines that close deals. Raise the Bar. Step Up. teaches seven foundational disciplines that separate the top 1 percent of B2B sales professionals from the vast middle: the Why4 Framework, Modern BANT, Call Planning, Strategic Pursuit Planning, the Joint Execution Plan, the Why4 Stress Test, and Pipeline Management. Each discipline includes scored assessments, Health Check diagnostics, and immediately usable templates. This book is not another methodology. These are the disciplines that become habits, built across four decades of selling, leading, and scaling revenue at Oracle, Apple, SAP, Honeywell, and Halliburton. Whether you are a CRO transforming a B2B sales organization, a VP building a team, or an individual seller raising your own bar, this book gives you the frameworks to close the gap between the tools you have and the habits you need.

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Description

Your pipeline is full. Your forecast is fiction. Something is missing.

The modern B2B sales profession is not failing because sellers lack tools. It is failing because sellers lack habits. Two decades of investment in CRM systems, enablement platforms, and AI tools have left most B2B sales organizations over-tooled and under-skilled, while the fundamental disciplines of elite selling atrophied.

Raise the Bar. Step Up. is the return to those disciplines, updated for a world where the buyer has changed but human decision-making has not.

Seven disciplines across eight chapters:

  • The Why4 Framework. The strategic foundation: why customers actually buy.
  • Modern BANT. The discovery and qualification engine that drives everything else.
  • Call Planning. The preparation discipline that wins complex deals.
  • Strategic Pursuit Planning. The one-page attack plan for every significant opportunity.
  • The Joint Execution Plan. The operating system of the deal, built in partnership with your customer.
  • The Why4 Stress Test. Pressure-test your deal strategy before the market does it for you.
  • Pipeline Management. Where every discipline becomes visible and accountable.

Every chapter teaches the same way: why it matters, how to do it, what to execute. Scored assessments and Health Check diagnostics tell you exactly where you stand and what to work on next. Read a chapter on Monday morning and use it on your Tuesday call.

These disciplines were built across four decades of selling, leading, and scaling revenue at Oracle, Apple, SAP, Honeywell, and Halliburton, and at four SaaS companies where Ken Powell served as CEO and President. They have been run by thousands of enterprise sellers.

Whether you are a CRO transforming a sales organization, a VP building a team, or a seller raising your own bar: the gap between the tools you have and the habits you need closes here.

Book 1 of the Raise the Bar. Step Up. series. Downloadable tools, templates, and assessments at salesmethod.com/book.

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About The Author

Ken Powell has spent more than four decades in the arena of complex B2B sales. He has carried a bag at Oracle and Apple, led enterprise and key account sales teams at SAP, Oracle, and McAfee, and run global sales organizations at Halliburton, Oracle, and Honeywell. He has served as CEO and President of four SaaS companies ranging from $5 million to $100 million in revenue. He has hired, coached, and led thousands of sales professionals across every major industry, geography, and deal size. Throughout that career, Ken observed a pattern that became impossible to ignore: the sales profession was investing heavily in technology while the fundamental disciplines of elite selling were eroding. CRM systems, enablement platforms, and AI tools were multiplying, but win rates, forecast accuracy, and deal velocity were not improving. The gap was not technological. It was human. Sellers had more tools than ever and fewer habits than ever. Ken founded Sales Method to close that gap. Through his work with Fortune 100 companies, PE portfolio companies, and global enterprises across manufacturing, technology, energy, and professional services, he has developed and refined the seven disciplines taught in Raise the Bar. Step Up. His approach is rooted in a simple conviction: world-class selling is not a talent. It is a set of habits that can be taught, trained, coached, and measured. Ken is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and is based in Texas. He can be reached at www.salesmethod.com.
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