In the 1950s, the whole shipping industry was trying to solve the same problem: How do we load ships faster?
They built better cranes. Streamlined processes. Trained dockworkers. Measured, improved, optimized.
Everyone got a little better. But everyone was still solving the problem the same way.
Then came a trucking entrepreneur named Malcom McLean.
He didn’t ask: “How do we load faster?”
He asked a different question: “Why are we moving cargo piece by piece in the first place?”
Instead of loading every box, sack and barrel on its own, he started moving entire containers between truck, ship and rail without repacking the contents.
Suddenly the competition wasn’t about who loaded best. It was about an entirely new way of thinking.
McLean’s containers cut loading costs from nearly 6 dollars per ton to around 16 cents. Almost the entire cost of loading disappeared.
But he didn’t win by competing the price down. He changed the question everyone was competing on.
That’s exactly where many sales organizations get stuck. They get a brief and start competing.
A slightly better proposal. Slightly faster responses. A slightly sharper presentation. A slightly lower price. Slightly better at replying.
But someone else has already defined the question. The need is already shaped and the requirements set. The RFP is already written.
And once the playing field is drawn and finished, what usually remains is competing on price, features and margins.
Successful salespeople work differently.
They don’t wait for the customer to fully articulate the need. They help the customer understand problems and opportunities before the solution is ever discussed.
They help decide which criteria the customer even evaluates suppliers on, long before any proposal is on the table.
They don’t just respond to the deal. They help shape it.
That’s the difference between winning more RFPs and creating deals competitors never even get the chance to bid on.
How much of your sales is about answering an already defined question, and how much is about shaping the question from the start?
Most sales teams don’t know for sure where they land.
So we built a simple diagnostic that shows the position you actually hold with your customers today.
No registration. No data stored. Takes five minutes.
