Uitgeverij De Vuurmaker · two books · Part I free
On decisions, behaviour and the commercial organisation of tomorrow.
People do not start moving because you argue better. They start moving when the conditions for their decision are in place.
These books work out how that happens — from The Fire Triangle, which describes how a decision comes about, to Diagnostic Selling, which carries that same principle through an entire sales organisation.
Part I of each book is free. If it does nothing for you, do not read the rest.
The work
The first book explains how a decision comes about. The second shows what that means for the way you sell — and for the organisation standing behind it.
the Greg Trinidad Method
The method behind a sales organisation that does not begin by persuading but by establishing. Twenty-eight chapters on the diagnosis, the deciding unit, the disappearing proposal, and the commercial chain from demand generation to aftersales.
How a decision really comes about
Why people actually start moving. Nineteen chapters about the conversation that went well and the silence that followed — and about the three conditions that precede every decision: stake, trust and urgency.
After these come the field books: the same way of looking, applied to leadership, sustainability, negotiation and HR. They appear separately, here.
What this work rests on
For twenty years I thought my trade was about what lay on the table. The policy. The quote. The payback period. The report.
I was not selling a pension.
I was not selling a subsidy.
I was not selling advice.
I was selling a decision.
And a decision is the one thing you cannot take yourself. You cannot force it either — I spent twenty years trying. All you can do is design the circumstances in which someone takes it.
That is what these books are about. Not about persuading. About designing.
The proposition
What fuel, oxygen and heat do for fire, stake, trust and urgency do for a decision.
Three conditions make it possible. Only an event makes it real. With wood that event is called a spark; with people, a moment of decision.
The model
A decision comes about only when three conditions are present at the same time. Exactly like fire. This model sits underneath both books.
Nothing happens.
From the books
A fire never goes out because the match was not good enough.
The Fire Triangle · Chapter 3
When something does not work, most people add something. Almost no one looks at what is missing.
The Fire Triangle · Chapter 6
Decisions do not arise. They are designed.
The Fire Triangle · Chapter 8
Diagnostic Selling is not a sales trick. It is the design principle for a new sales organisation.
Diagnostic Selling · Chapter 19
Selling is no longer about the salesperson. That is finished.
Diagnostic Selling · Foreword
Pressure comes from you. Urgency sits in the situation.
The Fire Triangle · Chapter 14
The author
Greg Trinidad started behind a gaming table in a casino and became a financial adviser. Then mobile banking in Addis Ababa, a call centre in Manila, international sales, sustainability in mid-sized business, and now AI on websites.
The same picture everywhere: the solution was already on the table and nothing was decided. Only when I stopped persuading and started looking at the assumption underneath did things start to move. That pattern is what these books are about.
Talk to Henk
Henk knows both books cover to cover. Ask him what the Fire Triangle is, how the diagnosis works, or which book to start with.
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Start the conversationQuestions
A model by Greg Trinidad, set out in his book of the same name. What fuel, oxygen and heat do for fire, stake, trust and urgency do for a decision. Three conditions make it possible; only an event makes it real. With wood that event is called a spark, with people a moment of decision. If one of the three is missing, nothing happens — however good the argument.
A sales method and sales-organization model in which the seller does not begin with persuasion, presentation or proposal, but first systematically diagnoses which of three conditions for a responsible decision is missing: stake, trust or urgency. The diagnosis then determines the smallest justified next step — including waiting, stopping, or not selling at all. The full definition is on the Diagnostic Selling page.
The Fire Triangle first, though it is not required. Diagnostic Selling stands on its own and repeats the model in its first part, so you can begin there without having read the first book.
Because a book is not a product but a way of looking. Anyone who reads it and can do nothing with it should not have bought the rest either. And anyone who can, comes back.
Both books were written in Dutch and both are complete in Dutch as De Vuurdriehoek and Diagnostisch verkopen. Everything is on the Dutch side of this site.
In closing
After these books you no longer ask why something is not working. You automatically ask what is missing. And that is exactly where change begins.
FIRE INSIGHT
Waiting is the safest decision there is.The Fire Triangle · Chapter 14
