Here’s why a middle school teacher can outperform your best sales rep
Did you know that 57% of a customer’s purchase decision is already complete before the call to the first supplier is made. This means that the traditional role of a sales rep — that of selling a solution to solve a problem is no longer relevant, since customers are already aware of the solution.
To keep up with the increasing levels of awareness among customers, sales reps will have to learn to sell their insight and their ability to educate the customer in order to hook a sale.
The rapidly advancing technological landscape of today brings with it the life cycle of birth and demise of cutting edge technology. This race to advance human civilization, to create things bigger, better and smarter than ever before is great but what’s equally amazing is how widely this data is being disseminated across continents at the snap of a finger. We are constantly bombarded with data, communications and are therefore always aware of the latest and greatest. This writing aims to highlight this rather mundane fact and apply this piece of common knowledge to the sales process.
From a traditional sales perspective, sales reps are expected to present to potential customers what the nature of their product is, how it solves the customer’s problems and of course how it’s better than the competition. Sales reps sell the customer a solution and earn a commission on the sale. Nailed it right?
Wrong.
Today’s customers bring with them an enormous amount of information before they even engage with a sales rep. The status quo that sales reps once enjoyed — solving the customers problems because the customers were unable to solve problems themselves no longer holds true. The customer of today is fully aware of solutions to their problems.
It has been reported that “57% of the purchase decision is complete before the customer even calls the supplier.” Therefore the customer is coming into the interaction with preconceived ideas of the product or how much he/she is willing to spend. Therefore if a sale is to be made, the experience that is provided by the sales rep should go above and beyond to transcend product details and features. “The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson provides a compelling solution to the highlighted problem.
Having been recently introduced to “The Challenger Sale” by a friend, I was pleasantly surprised how well the book covered the issue in question. The highlighted issue can be solved by elaborating on ideas from the book and personal input from sales experience.
The book is based on one of the largest sales studies ever conducted. A shocking finding was that 53% of all sales can be attributed to the sales experience and not the brand, price or even product. Sales are being driven purely by the customer’s interaction with the sales rep. This interaction is framed by the conduct of the sales rep and according to the book, every B2B rep falls within five different profiles that define the skills and behaviors they use to interact with customers.
- Hard worker
- Relationship builder
- Problem solver
- Lone wolf
- Challenger
Even though the core sales performance across all profiles is quite similar, the real measure of performance is in the actual sales and this is where the challenger profile really stands out. On average, 40% of all star performers possess the challenger sales profile. Further, in complex sales situations that number rose to 54%.
In contrast to the challenger profile, the relationship builder is the most prevalent of profiles. The characteristics of a relationship builder — generous in giving time to others, avoids any conflict with the customer and aims to please the customer’s demands are traits that resonate most with sales leadership. However, the relationship builder profile has the lowest proportion of star performers at just 7% — the worst of any profile.
This is quite a disruptive finding given the fact that most sales training and processes are oriented towards creating and nurturing the relationship sales profile, which is the least effective among all sales profiles. We’re clearly doing something wrong here.
Though the “profile” refers to the sales rep’s natural mode of interaction with a prospect and is not mutually exclusive, there is still a stark difference in the performance of the sales reps with the challenger profile.
So what is it that makes the challenger profile so successful?
Challenger reps use their understanding of the customer’s business and knowledge of the market to orient the customer in the direction of their strengths. Challenger reps do not aim to avoid conflict or please the customer but instead bring a constructive tension to the customer through new ideas and innovative approaches. A good challenger rep should invoke curiosity and leave the customer thinking… “I haven’t thought of using this approach to solve the problem or reduce costs”.
The insights provided by the sales rep should challenge the customer’s preconceived ideas and plans. The challenger rep can use this newfound adviser status to lead the customer towards the product’s strengths. This process of educating, teaching and leading a customer by the hand has a huge impact on the loyalty of the customer. The challenger rep should strive towards providing greater value to the customer such that the customer decisions are influenced by consultation from the sales rep.
To be able to fulfill this role as an adviser to customers, a challenger sales rep should have an in depth knowledge of the customer’s mode of operation, the customer’s pain points and fears, a thorough understanding of the solution that is being offered, a strong value proposition to the customer — using the sales rep’s insight and ways for the customer to not only gain monetary benefits but also reduce costs.
Training Challenger reps
- The most important skill for any challenger rep to possess is the ability to offer the customer well scripted insights — Teach your customers
- Every sales rep should have the ability to ask a small set of diagnostic questions and point the customer in the right direction — Question your customers
- The sales rep should have the ability, not only to gather precise customer requirements but use the customer’s requirements as baseline for developing the customer’s solution road-map — Understand your customers
- The sales rep should learn not to segment by customer geographies but instead segment by customer needs, profiles, behaviors, pains and fears — Learn to serve and not please your customer
Coincidentally, these critical skills are something that middles school teachers are adept at! Perhaps you should ditch that fancy resort for your next company sales meeting and head over to your local middle school to tap into the best undiscovered sales talent.
Summary and conclusion
The customers of today bring with them an enormous amount of knowledge. Customers no longer derive satisfaction from being offered a simple solution — something that is already known to them. A sale to the customer is made based on the sales rep’s ability to offer a great sales experience and challenge the customer’s ideas by offering valuable insight to the customer to address their pain, needs and fears.
By no means does this imply that the challenger sales profile is the answer to all your sales woes but it will certainly help adapt the sales techniques of your organization to remain relevant in the rapidly evolving market. The relationship builder sales profile is still required for farming accounts or large relationship heavy accounts. But if you’re in the business of selling solutions it’s time to make the move to the challenger approach and start serving instead of pleasing.
