I’ve just finished reading and can recommend a new book by Matthew Dixon and Brent Addington entitled “The Challenger Sale” and I enjoyed the quality of the writing and the research underpinning the work.
The challenger sales type has been identified as the most effective in complex B2B selling and was the only sales cohort from the extensive research conducted by the Sales Executive Council to achieve success during the downturn. Figuring out what Challengers are doing differently, cloning that behavior and recruiting and training more challenger types is a priority recommendation in this book.
The 5 Sales Profiles
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The Challenger |
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Lone Wolf |
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Hard Worker |
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Reactive Problem Solver |
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Relationship Builder |
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The Challenger Sale is an essential read for sales managers and sales professionals looking to improve sales performance.
A Widening Talent Gap
In transactional selling, the star performers outperform the core by 59%. In complex B2B selling environments, the research indicates that the star performers outperformed the core performers by almost 200%.
Challenger Attributes
What is it that Challengers do differently that sets them apart from other sales people? From the 44 attributes in the survey, six of them were statistically significant in defining the Challenger rep:
- Offers the customer unique perspective
- Strong 2 way communication skills
- Knows customer value drivers
- Can identify economic drivers of customers business
- Is comfortable discussing money
- Can pressure the customer
Disrupt Status Quo with an Informed Opinion
The book talks about teaching the buyer about a problem they did not know they had as a winning attribute of the Challenger. The idea of the salesperson disrupting the status quo with an informed opinion or reframe about how the buyer could improve an aspect of their business is not new.
What is new is the research and analysis of how effective the Challenger sales type is vs. the other sales profiles and the core performers in the organization.
Challenger Selling Whiteboard Conversations
We have adapted our Whiteboardselling methodology over the past year to integrate the Killer Products method of early buyer engagement and the initiation of the value captured or value created buying process, by :
- leading with an informed opinion backed by in depth research;
- educating the buyer on new opportunities central to their success,
- bringing internal and external issues into focus that the buyer may not have been aware of and.
- making the buyer aware of the risks in the journey.
We ran a Whiteboardselling training session last week for a major system integration company and the whiteboard story we created used subtle positioning against a balanced field of competitors and made insightful and clear distinctions between the value captured in our approach and risks associated with alternate approaches and offered a road-map to begin the journey.
Whiteboard Storytelling a key tool for enabling the challenger sale.
The Whiteboard storytelling method is the ideal mechanism to capture the Challenger Sale positioning and value creation story into a visual story that salespeople will quickly internalize and that customers will engage in, can easily understand and that they will remember.
Capturing your Challenger story in a whiteboard and varying it slightly for your audience is a core best practice of Whiteboardselling. Proof points will change, value emphasis will change based on the buyer, but the core ideas and value creation message will remain constant.
Links to Resources.
Recent blogs
http://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/78707/Are-Your-Salespeople-Challenging-Their-Prospects-to-Do-Better
http://saleschallenger.exbdblogs.com/2011/08/30/5-lessons-on-developing-challenger-reps/
