Must-Read Book: The Challenger Sale

Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

In this book, you learn

• What the Challenger Selling Model is
• Why it proves to be the best approach for business-to-business (B2B) sales
• How to increase your sales with the Challenger Selling Model

The Five B2B Salespeople Profiles

CEB (now Gartner) researched the impact of the 2009 economic meltdown on B2B salespeople. They wanted to understand how some salespeople still managed to not just hit their sales targets but to exceed them. In order to demystify their skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes, they classified the B2B salespeople into five categories:

• Hard Workers put in more effort, see more prospects, and send out more proposals than other salespeople.
• Relationship Builders work to meet customer needs. To them, strong relationships mean everything.
• Lone Wolves are self-confident and do things their way.
• Reactive Problem Solvers focus on post-sales follow-up. Nothing matters more to them than keeping their customers happy.
• Challengers learn everything they can about their customers’ businesses and industries, and they use these insights to guide customers to operate more effectively and become more profitable.

“Customers want to talk about their business, not your solution.”

The Challenger

• Challengers can use the value of their insight to teach customers new and valuable information about the marketplace because they possess detailed knowledge, offer unique perspective, and do well in constructive dialogue and debate.
• Challengers can tailor for resonance because they understand the values that matter the most to their customers, from the individual to the industry. They know what their customers want to achieve.
• Challengers can take control of the sale because they are not afraid to challenge their customers. They are comfortable talking about money because they are confident in the value and the knowledge they bring to the customer.

Managing Your Salespeople to Build Challengers

Challengers can be built. Salespeople are often excited to play this role with their customers. Nevertheless, not all top performers will be comfortable assuming the Challenger’s role.

The Challenger approach is applicable throughout the entire organization and not just in the sales department. Always be sure your team can answer the question: “Why should our customers buy from us over anyone else?”

Take-Aways

• Because of product complexity and offer variety, B2B selling is harder than ever.
• Contrary to common wisdom, Challengers, who give customers insights about how they can compete more effectively, get better sales results than Relationship Builders.
• Relationship Builders relieve tension. Challengers use constructive tension to teach customers about a problem they didn’t even know they had.

About the Authors

Matthew Dixon is an American author and speaker. Previously an executive director at CEB (now Gartner), he is currently the Global Head of Sales Effectiveness Solutions at Korn Ferry Hay Group. Brent Adamson, co-author of The Challenger Sale, is an American researcher, speaker, and trainer. He is currently the Principal Executive Advisor for the Sales and Marketing Practice at CEB.