The customer is currently at state C and faces a dominant problem that is causing them to lose a benefit or opportunity. They have issued a request for proposal (RFP) in hopes of moving to a desired state D. An elite salesperson's skill is to participate in developing the RFP, help the customer define the dominant problem and question, position their product/service as the answer, and draw a clear picture of how deliverables will lead to the desired state and business benefit.

2. Your customer stands at C (current state).
- He has a certain strategic direction (expansion, cost cutting, merger, adding
new service to his portfolio, working on compliance with a certain regulation,
etc...)
- A triggering event caused your customer to suffer from a dominant problem
; lose a certain benefit; lose money, lose reputation, misses an opportunity to
open a new market or add a new service, ..)
- Your customer issues an RFP (hopefully you were part of developing it with
him).
- Now let us see if your customer and yourself know:
1. what is " the dominant question" which is a question that defines the
dominant problem that causes lack of benefit.
2. What is the desired result of this RFP.
3. What benefit will the customer get from this result.
4. If this result materializes, will the customer move to D state(desired state) ?

3. In summary, your customer is at a C "current" state, have a dominant
problem that causes him to lose benefit, he wants to move to a desired
state where he will gain/not lose benefits. The benefit is the
accumulation of small deliverables that will add up to form the business
benefit.
Your skill as an elite sales person is to :
- Participate in forming the RFP from day one.
- Help your customer define the dominant problem and formulate the
dominant question.
- position your product/service as the answer to the dominant question
- draw a clear and vivid picture of how your product/service will lead your
customer to the desired state through a series of deliverables that will
add up to form the business benefit.
This is and more is taught is Quota B2B Sales Training course using a lot of
exercises
Ashraf Osman