Publication · Commercial Strategy

140 Strategies That Drive Buying Decisions

A practical system for understanding what changes a customer’s decision — and turning that leverage point into commercial strategy.

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September 2026

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7 min read

A purchase takes shape long before checkout — through risk assessment, comparison, and the gradual formation of trust. Kate Kolody’s new book systematizes the mechanisms behind that process and introduces a model for applying them at the level of business strategy.

The same products, budgets, and markets can produce very different commercial outcomes. The cause is rarely traffic or price alone. It lies in the architecture of the decision: where the customer hesitates and what ultimately tips the choice one way or another. Analytics captures the moment a customer drops off; this book examines the architecture behind that moment.

At the core of the method is contradiction: the customer wants an outcome and simultaneously sees a reason to say no; the business needs to grow within constraints; and a strength in one part of a solution often creates weakness elsewhere. Defining that conflict precisely opens the space for strategy — the clearer the contradiction, the more ways there are to change the outcome.

How the Book Is Structured

The book is intentionally nonlinear. It opens as a library of solutions — more than 140 strategies and stratagems. As the structure repeats, the common principles behind individual moves begin to emerge. Only then does the larger system appear, connecting tactical choices to business strategy.

Exhibit 1 — four levels of mastery

Ready-Made Solutions

140+ strategies and stratagems for different commercial problems. The range of possible moves expands; a single problem can be solved in multiple ways.

Mechanism Recognition

Recurring principles emerge across individual strategies: attention, risk, trust, timing, comparison, and resources.

Solution Design

Mechanisms are assembled into a system. Strategies are selected for the problem, combined, and sequenced into action.

Building Your Own Strategy

Constraints, resources, and leverage points become raw material for a solution the book does not provide.

From Tactics to Strategy

Each chapter follows the same structure and leads to the same sequence: define the problem, identify the leverage point, choose a strategy, adapt it to available resources, and integrate it into the broader business strategy.

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Exhibit 2 — the method in one line

define the problem→identify the leverage point→choose a strategy→adapt to available resources→integrate into strategy

Examples from the Book

Below are two of the 140+ strategies in the book, shown in full — from mechanism to practical application.

Strategy 1 - Skip the Choice

Strategy

An unresolved question does not have to remain a question. It can be reframed as a settled condition, moving attention immediately to the next level — to consequences, options, and decisions that only matter once the original choice has effectively been made.

Application

Rather than asking, “Do you need this product?” a personalized skincare brand begins by asking about skin goals. From there, the customer moves into a care strategy, personalized formula, and routine. The purchase itself is no longer the central question; the customer is already making decisions within a future-use scenario.

Leverage point

The level at which the decision is framed

Strategy 15 - Virtual Competitor

Strategy

Direct comparison with real competitors does not always work in a brand’s favor — it can prompt customers to search for alternatives. This strategy replaces a real competitor with a deliberately chosen generalized opponent against which the brand has a structural advantage.

Application

A wearable-tech brand rarely compares itself directly with competitors. The real opponent becomes living “blind” — without understanding the signals from your own body. The competitors still exist, but they no longer define the conversation.

Leverage point

Who is defined as the competitor

Who This Book Is For

The real product of this book is not 140 strategies. It is the ability to create the 141st yourself.

From the author’s preface

The primary audience is founders, executives, and directors responsible for revenue, product, marketing, and growth — readers who already know the standard playbooks and have reached their limits. Among the questions the book addresses:

01How to make an offer the more obvious choice without lowering the price

02How to reduce perceived purchase risk without diminishing product value

03How to change the basis on which customers compare you with alternatives

04How to build trust before customers have firsthand experience with the product

05How to sustain a decision through a long or complex buying cycle

06How to turn limited awareness, resources, or time into a commercial advantage

Positioning

Most books on behavior explain why people act the way they do — through bias, friction, and cognitive tendencies. Most strategy books explain how a company chooses direction — through positioning, objectives, and market structure. Most growth books offer repeatable playbooks for acquisition, conversion, and scale.

140 Strategies addresses the question those categories leave open: given this customer decision, this competitive position, and these constraints, what move should the business make now — and how should that move connect to the broader strategy?

About the Author

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Kate Kolody is an entrepreneur, product and business strategist, designer, author, and host. She is the founder of VESNA©, a commercial transformation agency, and Elix Fióra, a premium lifestyle platform, and the host of The White Room. She has worked across product, design, and business since 2007; clients include XEROX, Barilla, Pepsi, and Cadillac.

At VESNA©, she develops DEXI® — the Digital Experience Excellence Index, a methodology for analyzing the factors that shape buying decisions. The book grew out of the same question that runs through her work: what, exactly, makes someone say “yes”?

Waitlist Open

Get the Book at Launch

Coming Fall 2026. Waitlist subscribers receive the book ahead of the public release, plus a personalized DEXI® analysis of one decision point in their buying funnel.

The book’s real product is not the library of ready-made solutions itself, but the ability to apply its method to problems the book does not cover.

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