Sharing new insights (best) vs doing good discovery (good). Over half of customer loyalty is not WHAT you sell but HOW you sell it.
53% of customer loyalty is attributed to the sales experience. Only 9% of customer loyalty Is a result of price to value Only 38% of customer loyalty is a result of brand/product/service because your competition is great too (not much differentiation) The rep is comfortable discussing moneyĪ challenger sales rep can TEACH, TAILOR, AND TAKE CONTROL through constructive tension.Ĭhallengers aren't necessarily world-class question askers, rather world-class teachers.
They can identify economic drivers of the customer's businessĥ. They have great 2-way communication skillsģ.
They offer customers a unique perspectiveĢ. (a customer service rep in sales rep clothing)ġ. This book validated my career-to-date, and gave me the nuanced voacabulary to play to my strengths. Teach people, tailor solutions, take control.Īll in a nice way, all in a way that's not "hey, that guy's an asshole," but "hey, that asshole really helped us."
I want speedy decisions, and great business, and adreniline. And I build and love and am honored by the relationships in my network. It's been a long held belief that "relationship selling" is the way to go. This book is for the misfits - not the lone wolf salespeople, but the ones that are fearless, ready to handle hot potatoes and play poker, and teach, and take control of selling situations. Then I called our new friends at Penguin, arranged for the intro to the authors, and used their techniques on them to get a contract to produce the book trailer. I read this and thought "My Friend Is Here!". I've read probably 150 sales books in my life. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.
Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money.
The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.īased on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong.