Position Against Forces, Not Competitors
Use Five Forces to diagnose the commercial pressure behind a market move.
Do not mistake the logo in the bakeoff for the whole market. The five lenses Five Forces looks at rivalry, threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of suppliers. Each force can limit profit by raising costs, lowering prices, or making differentiation harder to defend. Why it works commercially A deal loss is usually narrated as a sales execution issue. Sometimes it is. But structural forces explain why a good pitch still struggles. If substitutes are strong, buyers compare you to doing nothing. If buyer power is high, procurement extracts concessions. If supplier…
Sign up free — one personalized lesson every day, matched to your role and goals.
Already have an account? Sign in