For over a hundred years, an island appeared on the charts.
It was called Sandy Island.
According to the nautical charts, it lay in the Coral Sea, between Australia and New Caledonia.
Cartographers drew it in. Charts were updated. New maps were printed.
Generation after generation, the island was passed on.
There was just one problem.
Sandy Island did not exist.
In 2012, an Australian research vessel sailed to the spot where the island was supposed to be.
They found no land.
Only open sea.
More than 1,300 metres deep.
What is striking is not that someone made a mistake over a hundred years ago.
What is striking is that so many afterwards kept trusting the map.
No one questioned it.
Everyone assumed someone before them already had.
Many B2B markets work the same way.
“Customers only care about price.”
“Procurement decides.”
“We have to be in the tender to stand a chance.”
Claims repeated so many times that they feel like truths.
Not because anyone proved them.
But because no one remembers where they came from any more.
That is why so many sales organisations keep navigating by a map they never checked themselves.
They adjust the price. Refine the proposal. Sharpen the arguments.
But very few ask the question that changes everything:
Are we sure the island is even there?
That is the difference between selling downstream and upstream.
Downstream is about giving better answers.
Upstream begins by questioning the map.
Upstream is not a point in time.
It is a choice.
Where does your sales organisation sit on the map?
Most assume they are further upstream than they actually are.
Find out where you stand.
The Upstream Selling analysis takes five minutes, requires no registration, and your answers are anonymous.
