Red Flags and Leverage from Strength
Make every problem visible and exploit every asset—before the competitor does
Red Flags are any pieces of missing information, uncovered bases, negative perceptions, or structural vulnerabilities in a sales situation. Crucially, Red Flags are not problems—they are signals that enable proactive strategy. Finding Red Flags before a call is a strength; failing to find them is the real danger. Every unknown creates the possibility of an unpleasant surprise; every known weakness can be managed.
Strengths are any assets in the current sales position that can be actively exploited—strong relationships, relevant wins, unique capabilities, internal coaches, competitive advantages. The fundamental principle is Leverage from Strength: every strategic action should either capitalize on an existing Strength or eliminate a Red Flag, and ideally both at once.
The Red Flags framework establishes a systematic list of automatic Red Flags—structural vulnerabilities that are present in any sale regardless of how well-known the account. These include: any buying influence who has not been personally contacted, any buying influence whose Win-Results are unknown, any buying influence in Even Keel or Overconfident mode, any deal where the competition is unidentified, and any deal where your position was suddenly changed by an unexpected 'no' after a period of apparent positive progress.
- A Red Flag that is visible and acknowledged is manageable; a Red Flag that is denied or ignored is a threat that controls the sale rather than the salesperson.
- Leverage from Strength means every action you take should build on what you already have working—not compensate for weaknesses through harder work.
- Missing information is always an automatic Red Flag; if you don't know something critical, that uncertainty must be addressed before the next call.
- Even a well-covered sale has Red Flags; complacency about Red Flags is itself a Red Flag.
- Strategic actions that simultaneously leverage a Strength and reduce a Red Flag are always superior to actions that only do one.
- Conduct a Red Flag AuditBefore every significant sales call, systematically check for automatic Red Flags: uncovered buying influences, unknown Win-Results, buyers in non-receptive modes, unidentified competition, organizational changes since last contact, recent unexplained changes in buyer attitude. Mark each as an explicit Red Flag rather than a vague concern.Pro tipMaintaining an Alternate Positions list—a running document of potential actions—makes this audit faster as you accumulate experience with an account.
- Inventory Your StrengthsSeparately list what is working in your current position: which buying influences are covered and receptive, which Win-Results you know and can address, what competitive advantages you have, what organizational relationships provide access. A Strength only creates value if it is actively exploited in your strategy.WarningPast Strengths can become liabilities if not maintained. A strong relationship with an Economic Buyer who has since become Even Keel is no longer a Strength in the same way it was.
- Draft Alternate PositionsFor each Red Flag, identify one or more specific actions that will either eliminate it or reduce its impact. For each Strength, identify how to actively leverage it in the upcoming call. An Alternate Position is a concrete, scheduled action—not a general intention. It names who will do what, when, where, and what specific information it is designed to secure.Pro tipThe best Alternate Positions leverage a Strength to address a Red Flag simultaneously—for example, using a Coach relationship (Strength) to get intelligence on an uncovered Technical Buyer (Red Flag).
- Prioritize Actions by ImpactNot all Red Flags are equally dangerous, and not all Strengths are equally valuable. Prioritize actions by the combination of risk severity and feasibility. Address structural gaps—uncovered Economic Buyers, unknown Wins for key contacts—before tactical gaps like unconfirmed meeting details.WarningThe Euphoria-Panic Continuum warns that excessive anxiety about Red Flags can be as damaging as ignoring them—a paralyzed salesperson is as ineffective as an oblivious one. Use the Red Flag inventory to plan, not to catastrophize.
The book describes salespeople who respond to sudden bad news on a deal by panicking—calling everyone at once, offering discounts, sending follow-up emails indiscriminately. This Trouble-mode response is driven by being over-reliant on a small number of apparent Strengths without maintaining awareness of underlying Red Flags.
In the sample account, Technical Buyer Steinberg had an unidentified problem with the proposal—a classic Red Flag of a negative reaction without a known cause. The salesperson used Coach Sandy Kelly, who shared Steinberg's Trouble perception, to arrange a departmental tour. This action simultaneously leveraged the Coach relationship (Strength) to address the Technical Buyer resistance (Red Flag).
The Red Flags and Strengths concept emerged from Miller Heiman's observation that salespeople consistently made the same structural error: they focused their analysis on the positive aspects of a deal—the strong relationships and clear fit—while treating uncertainties as temporary gaps that would resolve themselves. The framework was designed to reverse this instinct by making uncertainty systematically visible and treating it as actionable intelligence rather than an uncomfortable unknown.