Last week, I shared my thoughts on why a win/lose strategy is no longer the best business strategy. I believe that that binary approach now needs to give way to a much wider spectrum approach which values collaboration over rivalry and in which we multiple stakeholders can achieve the win simultaneously.

Look at Mastercard’s approach:

In a recent podcast appearance, Ajay Banga, CEO of MasterCard, shared two really valuable insights which have helped Mastercard to secure wins for themselves and multiple stakeholders in two different business scenarios. These scenarios highlight the value and importance of collaboration and why a wide spectrum approach can deliver dividends.

1. When he first came into MasterCard, 10 years ago, Ajay realised that everybody was obsessed with beating Visa - their rivals. That obsession was the company’s win/lose strategy. He took a different approach, seeing their biggest competitor as cash.

At the time, most of the world economies were 80-90% cash focused. He saw cash as the real opportunity and told his employees that it was the big prize, rather than the smaller prize of just taking their competitors lunch.

In this way, Ajay has identified multiple markets in which he wants to see Mastercard’s technology - card or no card.

2. The development of a Kenyan initiative called ‘Jaza Duka’ that has been so successful that it is being rolled out into other markets. Jaza Duka means ‘fill up your store’ and was created to deal with a very specific ‘problem’ - a lot of the micro merchants in Kenya, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa only deal in cash.

These merchants were buying multiple products from FMCG businesses like Unilever but could only afford small quantities of each product. The merchants were therefore missing out on the lower unit price available when bulk purchasing.

A large proportion of the merchants were women who couldn't own a house to offer as collateral, so had no access to credit.

MasterCard offered to use their history of sales as a proxy for collateral and to offer affordable, appropriate loans to the merchants. The merchants were then able to purchase in greater bulk, at lower unit prices and offer more to their own customers.

This programme created four lots of wins:

● The micro merchant was able to purchase more and therefore sell more.

● Unilever saw more than a 20% increase in their sales.

● Kenyan Commercial Bank were able to increase their loans securely.

● MasterCard transacted more.

How can this approach benefit you in Enterprise Sales?

1. The Jaza Duka initiative was built on multiple layers of reciprocity. Building those layers and creating multiple wins means that people are more likely to do more for you.

2. Both of these approaches are scalable - they can, and have, been taken into other markets.

3. These approaches are also repeatable.

We're always looking for repeatable success in Enterprise Sales Club.

My challenge for you is to embrace ‘FOMO’. We all have the ‘fear of missing out’. Get comfortable in interrogating what that means for you. What are you missing out on by only being focused on your direct competitors? How could you adopt a wide spectrum approach in a bigger marketplace that is moving forward?

Enterprise Sales Club is now live at: www.enterprisesalesclub.com - we would love your feedback so please head over and take a look.

If you’re ready to get your career flying into 2021, contact me at [email protected]