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The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation
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. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them.
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. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.
Based 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 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.
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. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.
The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. 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.
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. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.
Based 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 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.
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. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.
The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. 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.
221 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2011
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August 5, 2012
I've read probably 150 sales books in my life.
I read this and thought "My Friend Is Here!". 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.
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.
It's been a long held belief that "relationship selling" is the way to go. And I build and love and am honored by the relationships in my network. However. However. However.
They don't make sales. I want sales, more than friends. I want speedy decisions, and great business, and adreniline. That's this book. Teach people, tailor solutions, take control.
All in a nice way, all in a way that's not "hey, that guy's an asshole," but "hey, that asshole really helped us."
My friend is here. This book validated my career-to-date, and gave me the nuanced voacabulary to play to my strengths.
{A word about my reviews: books are sacred. With few exceptions, I don't post reviews of bad books on here. I read a lot, and I just simply don't rate books I don't think are worth 3 or so stars. There are exceptions - books that are destructive to the reader will not be spared my ire}.
I read this and thought "My Friend Is Here!". 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.
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.
It's been a long held belief that "relationship selling" is the way to go. And I build and love and am honored by the relationships in my network. However. However. However.
They don't make sales. I want sales, more than friends. I want speedy decisions, and great business, and adreniline. That's this book. Teach people, tailor solutions, take control.
All in a nice way, all in a way that's not "hey, that guy's an asshole," but "hey, that asshole really helped us."
My friend is here. This book validated my career-to-date, and gave me the nuanced voacabulary to play to my strengths.
{A word about my reviews: books are sacred. With few exceptions, I don't post reviews of bad books on here. I read a lot, and I just simply don't rate books I don't think are worth 3 or so stars. There are exceptions - books that are destructive to the reader will not be spared my ire}.
March 25, 2021
The 5 Sales Rep Types:
1. The Hard Worker
2. The Relationship Builder
3. The Lone Wolf
4. The Reactive Problem Solver
(a customer service rep in sales rep clothing)
5. The Challenger
6 Characteristics of a Challenger Rep:
1. They offer customers a unique perspective
2. They have great 2-way communication skills
3. They know the customer's value drivers
4. They can identify economic drivers of the customer's business
5. The rep is comfortable discussing money
6. The rep can pressure the customer
A challenger sales rep can TEACH, TAILOR, AND TAKE CONTROL through constructive tension.
Challengers aren't necessarily world-class question askers, rather world-class teachers.
Only 38% of customer loyalty is a result of brand/product/service because your competition is great too (not much differentiation)
Only 9% of customer loyalty Is a result of price to value
Loyalty is found in the sales call. 53% of customer loyalty is attributed to the sales experience. Over half of customer loyalty is not WHAT you sell but HOW you sell it.
Sharing new insights (best) vs doing good discovery (good).
Commercial Teaching:
Teach customers about a problem they have that only you can solve!
customer: "Wow—how can I make that happen?"
Rep: "let me show you how we're the only one that can provide that"
It sounds counterintuitive but if your customer says "yes that's exactly what keeps me up at night" then you have failed because you have not taught them anything new. This is where relationship builders fail.
"Huh, I never thought about it that way before" is when you win.
If you are going to build an ROI Calculator, make sure you factor in the cost of the new framework you presented not just your product.
The 6 Steps of a World-class Teaching Pitch
1. The Warmer
Assessment of key challenges and building credibility by leading with hypothesis of their pain I.e., "we're seein thus in the industry, are you dealing with that too?" Vs "What keeps you up at night?"
2. The Reframe
Reframing their problem
3. Rational Drowning
#s driven poking the new pain
4. Emotional Inpact
Make sure they feel the pain by making is personal. Story telling of similar companies.
5. A New Way
Point by point solution (not about the specific supplier yet). Before the customer buys your solution they have to buy the solution.
6. Your Solution
Build a pitch that leads TO your solution, not WITH it.
Putting 1-6 together and you get:
"What's currently costing our customers more money than they realize that only we can help them fix?"
Coaching
1. Low performer
2. Core performer
3. Top performer
Coaching has much less impact on 1 & 3 and much more on 2. Think of a top tier golfer; they have a swing coach but it may it may only take 1 stroke off their average. A horrible golfer/athlete won't really improve even with the best coaching because they ...simply suck. Coaching will help a capable, middle of the road golfer the most.
The innovative manager does the following:
Investigate
Create
Share
1. The Hard Worker
2. The Relationship Builder
3. The Lone Wolf
4. The Reactive Problem Solver
(a customer service rep in sales rep clothing)
5. The Challenger
6 Characteristics of a Challenger Rep:
1. They offer customers a unique perspective
2. They have great 2-way communication skills
3. They know the customer's value drivers
4. They can identify economic drivers of the customer's business
5. The rep is comfortable discussing money
6. The rep can pressure the customer
A challenger sales rep can TEACH, TAILOR, AND TAKE CONTROL through constructive tension.
Challengers aren't necessarily world-class question askers, rather world-class teachers.
Only 38% of customer loyalty is a result of brand/product/service because your competition is great too (not much differentiation)
Only 9% of customer loyalty Is a result of price to value
Loyalty is found in the sales call. 53% of customer loyalty is attributed to the sales experience. Over half of customer loyalty is not WHAT you sell but HOW you sell it.
Sharing new insights (best) vs doing good discovery (good).
Commercial Teaching:
Teach customers about a problem they have that only you can solve!
customer: "Wow—how can I make that happen?"
Rep: "let me show you how we're the only one that can provide that"
It sounds counterintuitive but if your customer says "yes that's exactly what keeps me up at night" then you have failed because you have not taught them anything new. This is where relationship builders fail.
"Huh, I never thought about it that way before" is when you win.
If you are going to build an ROI Calculator, make sure you factor in the cost of the new framework you presented not just your product.
The 6 Steps of a World-class Teaching Pitch
1. The Warmer
Assessment of key challenges and building credibility by leading with hypothesis of their pain I.e., "we're seein thus in the industry, are you dealing with that too?" Vs "What keeps you up at night?"
2. The Reframe
Reframing their problem
3. Rational Drowning
#s driven poking the new pain
4. Emotional Inpact
Make sure they feel the pain by making is personal. Story telling of similar companies.
5. A New Way
Point by point solution (not about the specific supplier yet). Before the customer buys your solution they have to buy the solution.
6. Your Solution
Build a pitch that leads TO your solution, not WITH it.
Putting 1-6 together and you get:
"What's currently costing our customers more money than they realize that only we can help them fix?"
Coaching
1. Low performer
2. Core performer
3. Top performer
Coaching has much less impact on 1 & 3 and much more on 2. Think of a top tier golfer; they have a swing coach but it may it may only take 1 stroke off their average. A horrible golfer/athlete won't really improve even with the best coaching because they ...simply suck. Coaching will help a capable, middle of the road golfer the most.
The innovative manager does the following:
Investigate
Create
Share
July 23, 2016
*rereading this for work*
This is the Corporate Executive Board website about the Challenger Sale . Tons of Media about this book.
http://www.executiveboard.com/challen...
A 35 minute audio interview with the author:
http://thesalesblog.com/2011/12/the-c...
10 minute recap ( does not replace reading the book)
http://www.heinzmarketing.com/2013/01...
This is the Corporate Executive Board website about the Challenger Sale . Tons of Media about this book.
http://www.executiveboard.com/challen...
A 35 minute audio interview with the author:
http://thesalesblog.com/2011/12/the-c...
10 minute recap ( does not replace reading the book)
http://www.heinzmarketing.com/2013/01...
February 17, 2015
The Challenger Sale is not a bad book, especially when directed to the right audience, but that is where I had trouble with it. I picked it up as a general manager of a small business, and found that although some of the ideas were good, and the research interesting, it was not very applicable in my situation. It would be better directed toward sales managers in established organizations. The method it promotes is to control the sale by way challenging the customer, and I like that approach. However, so much of small business is about learning about the customer that I can't see where this would be a better overall approach. I can't have our sales team out challenging our customers all day, not because I fear they would be over bearing, but because I know we would miss opportunities to hear from the customer. In a small business, the sales function isn't just about sales. It is market research, product development and R&D all at once.
I got the most value from the general concept that the challenger persona is the real winner in sales, not the relationship builder. Their research was compelling, but even more importantly the examples resonated with my own experience. For those 20 pages I took notes, and took pictures of the graphs, and I think I can incorporate those insights into my business. And then there was the rest of the book.
The rest of the book is really a conglomerate of a few other known skillsets. Take the Crucial Conversations material and combine it with a good negotiation book, such as Getting Past No, and you well over 50% of the way there on this material. With that in mind, this would have been better as a 90 page pamphlet, outlining their research and what it discovered.
I got the most value from the general concept that the challenger persona is the real winner in sales, not the relationship builder. Their research was compelling, but even more importantly the examples resonated with my own experience. For those 20 pages I took notes, and took pictures of the graphs, and I think I can incorporate those insights into my business. And then there was the rest of the book.
The rest of the book is really a conglomerate of a few other known skillsets. Take the Crucial Conversations material and combine it with a good negotiation book, such as Getting Past No, and you well over 50% of the way there on this material. With that in mind, this would have been better as a 90 page pamphlet, outlining their research and what it discovered.
March 7, 2012
There's been so many books on selling and so many "systems" that it's hard to find something... anything... new and innovative. The Challenger Sale does, in fact, challenge some long held assumptions about selling success. Unlike your usual book of advice written by some self-proclaimed sales "guru," this book bases its guidance and conclusions on research... hard data research. Most salespeople who have been successful over a long period of time and through the ups and downs of economies intuitively knew why they were successful but perhaps couldn't quite articulate the reasons. The Challenger Sale does just that. In a very straightforward way, this book tells you what you need to change, why you need to change and doesn't lay all of this change solely at the feet of the salesperson. It holds senior leadership accountable as well.
After selling for twenty years and feeling as if so much sales training was boring, uninspiring and downright asinine, I found myself time and again pumping my fist in the air and saying, "YES! THEY GET IT!"
Highly recommended if you want to start your journey on the way to becoming the best of the best. Not recommended if you're a sales robot.
After selling for twenty years and feeling as if so much sales training was boring, uninspiring and downright asinine, I found myself time and again pumping my fist in the air and saying, "YES! THEY GET IT!"
Highly recommended if you want to start your journey on the way to becoming the best of the best. Not recommended if you're a sales robot.
February 3, 2014
I loved the premise of this book. Without any question I agree with the message that the authors present. Sales people must evolve into being consultants and teachers who challenge the customer and force a conversation about goals and insights.
I do think the book rambles on a little and is unnecessarily long. It would make for a great 1-2 hour seminar or sales training but I felt like I slowly stopped getting value as I read on.
I do think the book rambles on a little and is unnecessarily long. It would make for a great 1-2 hour seminar or sales training but I felt like I slowly stopped getting value as I read on.
December 6, 2016
I read this book because Taylor had to read it for work at UPS and mentioned it was good; unfortunately he mentioned it was good after reading only the first chapter or two and the message of this book, definitely could have been conveyed in one chapter instead of nine.
Basically, there are 5 types of salespeople:
-The Hard worker
-The Relationship builder
-The Lone wolf
-The Reactive problem solver
-The Challenger
Obviously (read the name of the book), the "Challenger" has been shown to be the most effective type of salesperson, both post-recession when this book was presumably written as well as for the foreseeable future. The challenger sale is a 3-pronged method:
1. Teach (provide your customer with new market insight or ideas they haven't thought about before)
2. Tailor (change your message depending on who you are talking to in the org [CEO vs. tech specialist])
3. Take control
A few more pointers on "building challengers" in your organization:
-Challengers are made not just born
-the combination of their skills is what matters most
-challenging is more about organizational capabilities than individual skills
-building challengers doesn't happen overnight
For organizations to win business, they should build the challenger model into their salespeople and company culture at an executive level.
Basically, there are 5 types of salespeople:
-The Hard worker
-The Relationship builder
-The Lone wolf
-The Reactive problem solver
-The Challenger
Obviously (read the name of the book), the "Challenger" has been shown to be the most effective type of salesperson, both post-recession when this book was presumably written as well as for the foreseeable future. The challenger sale is a 3-pronged method:
1. Teach (provide your customer with new market insight or ideas they haven't thought about before)
2. Tailor (change your message depending on who you are talking to in the org [CEO vs. tech specialist])
3. Take control
A few more pointers on "building challengers" in your organization:
-Challengers are made not just born
-the combination of their skills is what matters most
-challenging is more about organizational capabilities than individual skills
-building challengers doesn't happen overnight
For organizations to win business, they should build the challenger model into their salespeople and company culture at an executive level.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2016
I found the concept of “The Challenger Sale” to be very interesting. Like many business books, this one starts with “we’ve done a study”, this time on the types of salesmen that are successful. In this case, the findings are not that your typical “relationship is key” salesman is very successful. But neither is the “here’s our product info” salesman. The best kind of salesman in the current environment is one that is knowledgeable about his prospect’s business and can challenge them with a better way to operate. Having worked for a large company, I’ve seen this change occur in the field, with a different kind of training over the past few years, and reorganization of the sales function by industry, all to ease the learning of the prospect’s business. I appreciated that this book explains why those changes occurred and what they are supposed to accomplish, better than the explanation at work. For salesmen not familiar with this way of selling, it appears it can be more difficult, depending on your personality. You can come off as pushy and a know-it-all. But the results appear to make it worthwhile. Being a “challenger”, you have to be a know-it-all, and a real one, not a fake one. Be smarter, not suaver (if that's a word).
A nit on the audiobook version of this: The narrator does not pronounce the company “Nike” correctly. How can something like that happen and slip past the production guys? Very odd, and of course I obsessively thought about that for a few minutes while listening and had to repeat.
A nit on the audiobook version of this: The narrator does not pronounce the company “Nike” correctly. How can something like that happen and slip past the production guys? Very odd, and of course I obsessively thought about that for a few minutes while listening and had to repeat.
June 1, 2021
I'm having trouble rating this book.
Enough credible people have said that the Challenger Sale was a 'landmark publication', that 'they keep coming back to it', and that it's a 'must read' ... that I assume the problem is with me, not with the book itself. But I read this right after SPIN Selling, and SPIN was an order magnitude better — the thinking there was more rigorous, the argumentation crisper, and the techniques better presented. The irony, of course, is that SPIN's author, Neil Rackham, endorsed Challenger as the next major update to the SPIN Selling paradigm. He even wrote the foreword to this book.
I think my problem with the Challenger approach is that I do not have the background to appreciate it. Reader beware: the authors assume that you have a background in solution selling, and are looking for an upgrade that takes you from good to great. To be fair to them, they make it clear that the target audience for the book are those who are running fairly complex, high-value sales deals. If you're selling into smaller accounts, or if your product involves less stakeholders, it's probably worth it to stick to something like SPIN.
Enough credible people have said that the Challenger Sale was a 'landmark publication', that 'they keep coming back to it', and that it's a 'must read' ... that I assume the problem is with me, not with the book itself. But I read this right after SPIN Selling, and SPIN was an order magnitude better — the thinking there was more rigorous, the argumentation crisper, and the techniques better presented. The irony, of course, is that SPIN's author, Neil Rackham, endorsed Challenger as the next major update to the SPIN Selling paradigm. He even wrote the foreword to this book.
I think my problem with the Challenger approach is that I do not have the background to appreciate it. Reader beware: the authors assume that you have a background in solution selling, and are looking for an upgrade that takes you from good to great. To be fair to them, they make it clear that the target audience for the book are those who are running fairly complex, high-value sales deals. If you're selling into smaller accounts, or if your product involves less stakeholders, it's probably worth it to stick to something like SPIN.
December 28, 2020
It's damn difficult to find a good sales book that's not filled with fluff. This book also doesn't fully pass the test, but the concepts discussed are quite practical and applicable in any company.
As someone who is building out the sales function at a startup, this book entered orbit at the exact right time.
As someone who is building out the sales function at a startup, this book entered orbit at the exact right time.
October 12, 2020
This book presented so many fascinating concepts that I know are going to be so helpful in my sales job. This book challenges conventional wisdom on building successful relationships with clients, but it also acknowledges that every sales person is different. So many great takeaways that I can’t wait to implement!
March 9, 2024
me just trying to get better at sales 💁🏻♀️ super informative and great ideas but some of the examples were kinda long winded and lost me at times
August 17, 2023
A lot of colleagues recommended this to me, and I feel like there were some good takeaways buried in here, but overall this could have been a LinkedIn post. Very dry.
May 17, 2020
This book is to understand how to sell and what personality types might fit the best for your sales team. For me, it all reminds a lot about 🎣 :D
The major outcome of the book is, that the Challenger type of a salesperson applies to any other role there is, which is great news for anyone not in sales ;)
The major outcome of the book is, that the Challenger type of a salesperson applies to any other role there is, which is great news for anyone not in sales ;)
April 28, 2016
There are very few books that I would give 6 stars out of 5 - but this is one of them. I listened to this in audio, but will go purchase the book so I can add my notes and experiences in the margins. This book will change my professional perspective; and how I view my career.
October 17, 2012
Some interesting thoughts and tools, but it feels like they turned a simple white paper into a book. There is a lot of fluff to wade through.
December 9, 2017
very boring book, author tried to show this as scientific work, and overloaded it with graphs, tables, statistics. but this doesn't make book more interesting and information more trustful
March 29, 2018
Like most business books, could have been condensed into something shorter but just as impactful. Very good field guide for enterprise and service-style sales teams.
June 3, 2021
Americanised crap.
February 15, 2022
A book that does one thing, but does it well.
The authors take a simple truth - "being customer-centric enables higher sales" - and rebut it completely.
Customer-centric is not a smart goal. In fact, you almost want to do the opposite. To get sales, you have to be contrarian, and disagree with customers.
If the customer is always right, they won't see the value in having you there. You're better served by showing them (gently/confidently) where they're wrong, where you're smarter.
(It's very Loki in Avengers - "It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation." We're all subby brats, deep down!!)
The parallels to dating feel obvious. People want to date folks who are weird and specific and jarring and smart. The worst thing you can be is "nice." (This has been explained to death in dating, with The Game and PUA culture, and it's very barf but sadly it works.)
The reason this isn't 5 stars: It's a great book, and a great premise. It debunks what the reader thinks is a simple truth. But it didn't extend as far as it could - this applies to as much to sales as to fundraising, to social interactions, to hiring. Imo, there's a deep, obscure truth here about how humans think.
But instead of pursuing that line of inquiry, the authors talk about "managerial sales innovativeness" in detail. First of all, that's a made-up term, and second of all, it's so distant from the main point. Idk. Maybe I wanted theory more than practice.
Anyway, an absolutely worthwhile read for any bozo like me, who's forced to sell despite having no background in it. Would fully recommend.
The authors take a simple truth - "being customer-centric enables higher sales" - and rebut it completely.
Customer-centric is not a smart goal. In fact, you almost want to do the opposite. To get sales, you have to be contrarian, and disagree with customers.
If the customer is always right, they won't see the value in having you there. You're better served by showing them (gently/confidently) where they're wrong, where you're smarter.
(It's very Loki in Avengers - "It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation." We're all subby brats, deep down!!)
The parallels to dating feel obvious. People want to date folks who are weird and specific and jarring and smart. The worst thing you can be is "nice." (This has been explained to death in dating, with The Game and PUA culture, and it's very barf but sadly it works.)
The reason this isn't 5 stars: It's a great book, and a great premise. It debunks what the reader thinks is a simple truth. But it didn't extend as far as it could - this applies to as much to sales as to fundraising, to social interactions, to hiring. Imo, there's a deep, obscure truth here about how humans think.
But instead of pursuing that line of inquiry, the authors talk about "managerial sales innovativeness" in detail. First of all, that's a made-up term, and second of all, it's so distant from the main point. Idk. Maybe I wanted theory more than practice.
Anyway, an absolutely worthwhile read for any bozo like me, who's forced to sell despite having no background in it. Would fully recommend.
May 18, 2018
As far as sales books go, this is one of the better ones. The premise as the economy tanked in 2008, sales org. had to find a way to grow their business in a shrinking market. To do so, sales org. have to bring valuable insights to the clients. It's not just about gathering requirements and providing a solution. Rather, it's about knowing the customer's market, teaching them something they don't know, and tailoring a solution that helps THEM differentiate in the marketplace. The word customer centric is often misused by sales org. The true definition is not thinking about your company and leading with your strengths. It's more about starting with the customer's challenges and leading to your strengths that can help them overcome. The main concepts of the Challenger Sale are Teach, Tailor and Take Control of the conversation. The book is practical enough and provides ample examples. A must read for not just sales org., but the marketing dept's, and the engineering (solutions) teams!
February 8, 2023
Good book 📕
I always feel hesitant about dividing people into groups, whether it is 12 Zodiac signs, or 5 groups of different sales personalities. Each of us, sales, has a bit of everything.
With this though in mind, you can read the book with the mission to make your Challenger part the prevailing one, not just changing yourself completely.
The idea behind the Challenger person: teach tailor control is very straightforward but still essential in sales.
What’ll stay in my mind and help me - is getting this aha-moment via revealing the problems that the customer is not even aware yet that my solution can help resolve; but it’s hard to do this cause you’re sort of forcing these problems upon them at first and sometimes might be wrong with the suggestions.
To sum it up, I find the book great and insightful. Definitely, there’re a few chapters/ pages/ paragraphs that are irrelevant/ boring/ useless that could have been removed to save our time but the book is definitely above average and worth reading.
I always feel hesitant about dividing people into groups, whether it is 12 Zodiac signs, or 5 groups of different sales personalities. Each of us, sales, has a bit of everything.
With this though in mind, you can read the book with the mission to make your Challenger part the prevailing one, not just changing yourself completely.
The idea behind the Challenger person: teach tailor control is very straightforward but still essential in sales.
What’ll stay in my mind and help me - is getting this aha-moment via revealing the problems that the customer is not even aware yet that my solution can help resolve; but it’s hard to do this cause you’re sort of forcing these problems upon them at first and sometimes might be wrong with the suggestions.
To sum it up, I find the book great and insightful. Definitely, there’re a few chapters/ pages/ paragraphs that are irrelevant/ boring/ useless that could have been removed to save our time but the book is definitely above average and worth reading.
January 20, 2023
Interesting data-driven perspective on improving outcome in sales environments. Dixon and Adamson connected common knowledge on optimizing sales and delivered some new insights and established new paths to success. The most refreshing point was challenging that relationships are the leading driver to sales success. Instead of solely focusing on relationship building, confidently (and competently) representing the solution you offer and how it specifically relates to each customer was found to have the best outcomes.
July 10, 2023
Very dry read but brings up important concepts, such as taking control of the sale, acquiring insights beforehand & generally doing your homework. Key takeaway for me is to keep learning and don't think you need to be born with skills. Everyone can become a great seller with effort and time. Recommend this for anyone, not only in sales, but just in general for keeping in touch with the current times of how selling works in this digital era.
August 20, 2020
If you’re in B2B sales this sales philosophy is not only worth reading, but worthy of study and practice. I’ll be revisiting this book and in the mean time I’ll be implementing some of the key practices in the challenger sales philosophy to improve how I consult and help my clients make better decisions, faster.
January 25, 2024
The concepts discussed in this book are generally great best practices and good guidance. They were described well with valuable tips. I question if the book has aged as well as they predicted. I think the lessons are still good ones, but I challenge some of the details. Pay as you go purchasing models have reduced risk for customers and digital purchasing has increased the need for product-led growth over sellers. I also question some of the data analysis methods because the foundational insight is based on grouping characteristics into types of sellers, which reduces noise (pro) but also could generalize too much around something quite nuanced. I also questioned the research about sales managers because the surveys went out to their reports instead of also their superiors who could value and see different characteristics. Unfortunately this makes me trust the book less because I wonder if the authors applied some confirmation bias to promote their services rather than taking a truly scientific view.
June 13, 2017
This book came recommended by sales pros with a lot of experience and I can see why. It's *the* sales book I've been looking for to help understand complex selling in B2B environment. It offered a completely different take on the sales process and opened up my eyes to so many things! Should be a must read for anyone in business - not only sales.
May 18, 2017
For all my complex sales friends, if you've not read it it is defintely worth it.
October 13, 2022
The book explains a new type of sales approach that has been uncovered through years of research by the CEB institute. There were previously 4 wifely accepted types of sales people, each with varying degrees of success. The fifth, uncovered by the research, is titled the 'Challeneger'.
This type of sales person focuses on education and insight to change a customer's behaviour. The goal with their approach is to encourage customers to understand the cost of continuing with certain decisions or choosing not to act.
The challenger sales approach has the demonstrated ability to perform in all market conditions. A must read for any sales leader/sales person to stand out against the rest.
This type of sales person focuses on education and insight to change a customer's behaviour. The goal with their approach is to encourage customers to understand the cost of continuing with certain decisions or choosing not to act.
The challenger sales approach has the demonstrated ability to perform in all market conditions. A must read for any sales leader/sales person to stand out against the rest.
August 20, 2023
chapter 1 the evolving journey of a seller
- There are five types of sales reps
- The Hard Worker
- The Challenger
- The Relationship Builder
- The Lone Wolf
- The Reactive Problem Solver
- The shift to solution selling resulted in customers expecting you to solve a problem and not just deliver a reliable product. As sales teams have adjusted, customers have developed “solution fatigue” forcing supplies to think different if they want to succeeed.
- The rise of consensus based sales - comped solutions require buy in across the leadership team
- Increased risk aversion, sometimes it’s better to do nothing
- Greater demand for customization.
- The rise of third party consultants
- These new trends have widened the gap of which sellers succeed
Chapter 2 - “the Challenger” the new model for high performance.
- Challengers and Lone Wolfs Product the highest results in performance but lone Wolves are hard to manage and every manager would fire them if they could and replace with a different person who achieves similar results.
Chapter 3 “the challenger part 2”
Exporting the model to the core.
- It's the Combination of Skills That Matters: One of the key lessons from our work is that it's the combination of the Challenger attributes -the ability to teach, tailor, take control, and do it all while leveraging constructive tension that sets Challengers apart.
- Teaching for Differentiation: The thing that really sets Challenger reps apart is their ability to teach customers something new and valuable about how to compete in their market. Our research on customer loyalty, which we'll discuss in depth in the next chapter, shows that this is the exact behavior that wins customers for the long term.
- Tailoring for Resonance: While teaching is above all others the defining attribute of being a Challenger, the ability to tailor the teaching message to different types of customers--as well as to different individuals within the customer organization- is what makes the teaching pitch resonate and stick with the customer.
- Taking Control of the Sale: The final characteristic that sets Challenger reps apart is their ability to assert and maintain control over the sale. Now, before we go any further, it's important to note that being assertive does not mean being aggressive or, worse still, annoying or abusive. This is all about the reps willingness and ability to stand their ground when the customer pushes back.
Chapter 4 - Teaching for Differentiation
- The number one reason that customers remain loyal to a vendor is for the unique perspectives they provide on the market.
- The power of insights:
Chapter 5 - Teaching for Differentiation: How to Build Insight Led Conversations
- Step 1: the warmer - "Hypothesis-Based Selling Rather than leading with open-ended questions about customer's needs you lead which hypotheses of customers' needs, informed by your on experience and research. Ultimately, customers suffering from "solution fatigue love it not only because it makes the entire sale both faster and easier for them, but because it feels much more like a "get” than. "give". they get your informed perspective rather than having to edu cate you with information you should have been able to figure our on your own.
- Step 2: The Reframe - present a new unique insight that makes the customer say “I’ve never thought of it that way” rather than “I agree!”.
- Step 3: Rational Drowning - share metrics or evidence of the true, often hidden, cost of the problem
- Step 4: Emotional Impact - Emotional Impact isn't about the numbers; it's about the narrative. You've got to paint a picture of how other companies just like the customer's went down a similarly painful path by engaging in behavior that the customer will immediately recognize as typical of their own company.
- Step 5: A New Way - once you have convinced the customer there is a problem then you need to act on the problem. This is NOT where you pitch your solution. It’s about convincing the customer how much better their life would be if they acted differently.
- Step 6: Your Solution - present now your address the customer’s problems once you have gone through the entire teaching differentiation pitch. You have to open up their eyes to a new way of thinking first.
- "What's currently costing our customers more money than they realize, that only we can help them fix?" The answer to that question is the heart and soul of your Commercial Teaching pitch.
1. Identify your unique benefits.
2. Develop commercial insight that challenges customers thinking.
3. Package commercial insight in compelling messages that "lead to."
4. Equip reps to challenge customers.
marketing has the tools, the expertise, and the time to generate the insights necessary to challenge customers both scalably and repeatedly. As the head of marketing at a large telecommunications company put it, marketing must serve as the "insight generation machine" that keeps reps wellequipped with quality teaching materials that customers will find compelling. Sales, on the other hand, will have to ensure that reps have the knowledge, skills, and coaching necessary to go out and use that insight in a convincing manner to actually challenge customers. It's a symbiotic relationship around a core principle.
Chapter 6 - Tailoring for Resonance:
- Decision markers today (sr executives or procurement) tend to lean on consensus from their director to make decision.
- Wide spread support j’s the #1 reason Sr. Leaders make decisions on a product. They trust their directors to inform them on what product to purchase.
- Sr. Leaders buy from companies, not individuals. Influences buy from people not companies
- The #1 driving force in garnering widespread support is offering a unique valuable perspextice.
- Sales orgs typically over rotate on getting in from of the c suite when they really need to gain acceptance from every part of the business.
- Traditional sales Workflows include the stakeholders informing the rep who sells to the Sr. Leaders. Modern strategies involve the rep arming the stakeholders with the information to nudge the decision maker (Sr. Leader) towards the right decision.
-
- How does your sales team approach addressing your customers on a variance of different levels?
- Individual
- Role
- Company
- Industry
- Reps need some industry and company context in the sales pitch. What's going on in terms of industry trends and current events? Has a big competitor recently folded or has there been a meaningful merger? Is the customer rapidly gaining or losing share? What about regulatory changes? What do the company's recent press releases and earnings statements suggest about strategic priorities?
- Tailoring message case study
- Crest a battle card for reps that shows outcomes each industry and stakeholder cares about.
- Speak to customers in their own language on how to achieve better outcomes
- Include these outcomes in a project proposal and get each stakeholder to capture the agreed upon high level proposals.
- This information is determined through conversations and then captured using the tool. Though it's not required Solac's very best reps actually ask that stakeholder to sign off on the al umn indicating cheir agreement with the plan.
Chapter 7 - Taking Control of the Sale
- Misconception #1 - taking control Is negotiating.
- Taking control means you won’t put a lot of work into the sale (big meetings, responding to RFPs, long discovery) unless decision makers are involved.
- “We’re going to put out best people on this and it will cost us $x. We’re willing to do it but only if we see similar investment from your side.
- Misconception #2 reps take control regarding only matters of money
- Why is it important to take control around ideas? Because it's ex-temely unlikely that a customer- especially a seasoned executive, is going to roll over and accept the reframe that the Challenger delivers without a healthy does of skepticism. More likely, he'll push back. He'll ask why. He'll ask to see the supporting data. He'll say his company is different.
- The challenger needs to take
- Anatomy of negotiation:
- “What are you looking to achieve with a 20% price reduction?”
- Taking control Case Study - DuPont
- You have to have a plan in order to take control
- DuPont developed a “Negotiation Analysis & Action Plan” that highlights where you as the vendor have strengths and weaknesses going into the conversation, delta in pricing, info needed from the customer, difficult questions to expect, etc.
- Our research shows that one of the biggest differentiators of high-performing reps is the amount of time they spend planning--this is a prime example. Like a great chess player, high performers are focused not just on the current move, but on the scenarios that will play out several moves ahead.
Chapter 8: The manager and the Challenger Selling Model
- Attributes contributing to manager excellence fall into 3 categories: selling, coaching and owning.
- Selling (offering customers a unique perspective) and coaching (guiding reps to tailor their message, how and when to assert control) are both ~27% of managerial effectiveness
- Owning, which includes resource allocation and sales innovation accounts for 45% of effectiveness.
- Innovation is the most important part of the sales managers job - This is about creatively connecting the suppliers sing capabilities to each customer's unique environment and then panting those capabilities to the customer through the specific lens dichaever customer obstacle is keeping that deal from closing.
- Coaching has the smallest impact on the top and bottom performers but the greatest impact on the middle performers. great coaching can rise media. Performers from <100% to quota to >100% to quota.
- Good coaching also helps improve employee retention.
- Innovation is the far and away the manager attribute that matters most. Innovation allows managers to work with reps to find creative ways to get deals done when deals look dead from the start.
- Most suppliers have minimal information on how how their customers make decisions. This is partially because customers aren’t always sure themselves how the organization makes decisions.
- The second way innovative managers stand out is by crafting solutions. This might include repositioning the supplier's capabilities to better connect to the customer's challenges or shifting risk from the customer to the supplier in exchange for a longer-term contract or access to additional cross-sale opportunities. ie Don’t take no for an answer.
- Innovative managers also share their findings across the organization. This is how you get those ideas to scale.
- Narrow thinking vs closed thinking - Narrowing chinking is all about looking at a complex problem, weighing existing options, and producing a single solution. The alternative is "opening thinking" which is characterized by the generation and vetting of as many alternative options as possible.
- Managers like all humans possess biases which can hinder opening thinking. The six most common biases are:
- Practicality bias: Ideas that seem unrealistic should be discarded.
- Confirmation bias: Unexplainable customer behaviors can be ignored.
- Exportability bias: If it didn't work here, it won't work anywhere.
- Legacy bias: The way we've always done it must be best.
- First conclusion bias: The first explanation offered is usually the best or only choice.
- Personal bias: If I wouldn't buy it, the customer won't either.
- Counter your bias with good questions:
- If you were the customers CFO, how would you view this offering?
- What would we do differently If we had unlimited budget?
- What outside ideas could be adopted to this project?
- What else must be going on behind the scenes for this to be true.
Chapter 9: Implementing Lessons from Early Adopters
- Why should your customer buy from you and not anyone else?
- What does your key customer do and struggle with for ten hours every day?
- Avoid using these words in your pitch decks and sales messaging because everybody uses them and they look just like everybody else’s pitch (Leader, Leading, Best, Top, Unique, Great, Solution, Largest, Innovative, Innovator)
- There are five types of sales reps
- The Hard Worker
- The Challenger
- The Relationship Builder
- The Lone Wolf
- The Reactive Problem Solver
- The shift to solution selling resulted in customers expecting you to solve a problem and not just deliver a reliable product. As sales teams have adjusted, customers have developed “solution fatigue” forcing supplies to think different if they want to succeeed.
- The rise of consensus based sales - comped solutions require buy in across the leadership team
- Increased risk aversion, sometimes it’s better to do nothing
- Greater demand for customization.
- The rise of third party consultants
- These new trends have widened the gap of which sellers succeed
Chapter 2 - “the Challenger” the new model for high performance.
- Challengers and Lone Wolfs Product the highest results in performance but lone Wolves are hard to manage and every manager would fire them if they could and replace with a different person who achieves similar results.
Chapter 3 “the challenger part 2”
Exporting the model to the core.
- It's the Combination of Skills That Matters: One of the key lessons from our work is that it's the combination of the Challenger attributes -the ability to teach, tailor, take control, and do it all while leveraging constructive tension that sets Challengers apart.
- Teaching for Differentiation: The thing that really sets Challenger reps apart is their ability to teach customers something new and valuable about how to compete in their market. Our research on customer loyalty, which we'll discuss in depth in the next chapter, shows that this is the exact behavior that wins customers for the long term.
- Tailoring for Resonance: While teaching is above all others the defining attribute of being a Challenger, the ability to tailor the teaching message to different types of customers--as well as to different individuals within the customer organization- is what makes the teaching pitch resonate and stick with the customer.
- Taking Control of the Sale: The final characteristic that sets Challenger reps apart is their ability to assert and maintain control over the sale. Now, before we go any further, it's important to note that being assertive does not mean being aggressive or, worse still, annoying or abusive. This is all about the reps willingness and ability to stand their ground when the customer pushes back.
Chapter 4 - Teaching for Differentiation
- The number one reason that customers remain loyal to a vendor is for the unique perspectives they provide on the market.
- The power of insights:
Chapter 5 - Teaching for Differentiation: How to Build Insight Led Conversations
- Step 1: the warmer - "Hypothesis-Based Selling Rather than leading with open-ended questions about customer's needs you lead which hypotheses of customers' needs, informed by your on experience and research. Ultimately, customers suffering from "solution fatigue love it not only because it makes the entire sale both faster and easier for them, but because it feels much more like a "get” than. "give". they get your informed perspective rather than having to edu cate you with information you should have been able to figure our on your own.
- Step 2: The Reframe - present a new unique insight that makes the customer say “I’ve never thought of it that way” rather than “I agree!”.
- Step 3: Rational Drowning - share metrics or evidence of the true, often hidden, cost of the problem
- Step 4: Emotional Impact - Emotional Impact isn't about the numbers; it's about the narrative. You've got to paint a picture of how other companies just like the customer's went down a similarly painful path by engaging in behavior that the customer will immediately recognize as typical of their own company.
- Step 5: A New Way - once you have convinced the customer there is a problem then you need to act on the problem. This is NOT where you pitch your solution. It’s about convincing the customer how much better their life would be if they acted differently.
- Step 6: Your Solution - present now your address the customer’s problems once you have gone through the entire teaching differentiation pitch. You have to open up their eyes to a new way of thinking first.
- "What's currently costing our customers more money than they realize, that only we can help them fix?" The answer to that question is the heart and soul of your Commercial Teaching pitch.
1. Identify your unique benefits.
2. Develop commercial insight that challenges customers thinking.
3. Package commercial insight in compelling messages that "lead to."
4. Equip reps to challenge customers.
marketing has the tools, the expertise, and the time to generate the insights necessary to challenge customers both scalably and repeatedly. As the head of marketing at a large telecommunications company put it, marketing must serve as the "insight generation machine" that keeps reps wellequipped with quality teaching materials that customers will find compelling. Sales, on the other hand, will have to ensure that reps have the knowledge, skills, and coaching necessary to go out and use that insight in a convincing manner to actually challenge customers. It's a symbiotic relationship around a core principle.
Chapter 6 - Tailoring for Resonance:
- Decision markers today (sr executives or procurement) tend to lean on consensus from their director to make decision.
- Wide spread support j’s the #1 reason Sr. Leaders make decisions on a product. They trust their directors to inform them on what product to purchase.
- Sr. Leaders buy from companies, not individuals. Influences buy from people not companies
- The #1 driving force in garnering widespread support is offering a unique valuable perspextice.
- Sales orgs typically over rotate on getting in from of the c suite when they really need to gain acceptance from every part of the business.
- Traditional sales Workflows include the stakeholders informing the rep who sells to the Sr. Leaders. Modern strategies involve the rep arming the stakeholders with the information to nudge the decision maker (Sr. Leader) towards the right decision.
-
- How does your sales team approach addressing your customers on a variance of different levels?
- Individual
- Role
- Company
- Industry
- Reps need some industry and company context in the sales pitch. What's going on in terms of industry trends and current events? Has a big competitor recently folded or has there been a meaningful merger? Is the customer rapidly gaining or losing share? What about regulatory changes? What do the company's recent press releases and earnings statements suggest about strategic priorities?
- Tailoring message case study
- Crest a battle card for reps that shows outcomes each industry and stakeholder cares about.
- Speak to customers in their own language on how to achieve better outcomes
- Include these outcomes in a project proposal and get each stakeholder to capture the agreed upon high level proposals.
- This information is determined through conversations and then captured using the tool. Though it's not required Solac's very best reps actually ask that stakeholder to sign off on the al umn indicating cheir agreement with the plan.
Chapter 7 - Taking Control of the Sale
- Misconception #1 - taking control Is negotiating.
- Taking control means you won’t put a lot of work into the sale (big meetings, responding to RFPs, long discovery) unless decision makers are involved.
- “We’re going to put out best people on this and it will cost us $x. We’re willing to do it but only if we see similar investment from your side.
- Misconception #2 reps take control regarding only matters of money
- Why is it important to take control around ideas? Because it's ex-temely unlikely that a customer- especially a seasoned executive, is going to roll over and accept the reframe that the Challenger delivers without a healthy does of skepticism. More likely, he'll push back. He'll ask why. He'll ask to see the supporting data. He'll say his company is different.
- The challenger needs to take
- Anatomy of negotiation:
- “What are you looking to achieve with a 20% price reduction?”
- Taking control Case Study - DuPont
- You have to have a plan in order to take control
- DuPont developed a “Negotiation Analysis & Action Plan” that highlights where you as the vendor have strengths and weaknesses going into the conversation, delta in pricing, info needed from the customer, difficult questions to expect, etc.
- Our research shows that one of the biggest differentiators of high-performing reps is the amount of time they spend planning--this is a prime example. Like a great chess player, high performers are focused not just on the current move, but on the scenarios that will play out several moves ahead.
Chapter 8: The manager and the Challenger Selling Model
- Attributes contributing to manager excellence fall into 3 categories: selling, coaching and owning.
- Selling (offering customers a unique perspective) and coaching (guiding reps to tailor their message, how and when to assert control) are both ~27% of managerial effectiveness
- Owning, which includes resource allocation and sales innovation accounts for 45% of effectiveness.
- Innovation is the most important part of the sales managers job - This is about creatively connecting the suppliers sing capabilities to each customer's unique environment and then panting those capabilities to the customer through the specific lens dichaever customer obstacle is keeping that deal from closing.
- Coaching has the smallest impact on the top and bottom performers but the greatest impact on the middle performers. great coaching can rise media. Performers from <100% to quota to >100% to quota.
- Good coaching also helps improve employee retention.
- Innovation is the far and away the manager attribute that matters most. Innovation allows managers to work with reps to find creative ways to get deals done when deals look dead from the start.
- Most suppliers have minimal information on how how their customers make decisions. This is partially because customers aren’t always sure themselves how the organization makes decisions.
- The second way innovative managers stand out is by crafting solutions. This might include repositioning the supplier's capabilities to better connect to the customer's challenges or shifting risk from the customer to the supplier in exchange for a longer-term contract or access to additional cross-sale opportunities. ie Don’t take no for an answer.
- Innovative managers also share their findings across the organization. This is how you get those ideas to scale.
- Narrow thinking vs closed thinking - Narrowing chinking is all about looking at a complex problem, weighing existing options, and producing a single solution. The alternative is "opening thinking" which is characterized by the generation and vetting of as many alternative options as possible.
- Managers like all humans possess biases which can hinder opening thinking. The six most common biases are:
- Practicality bias: Ideas that seem unrealistic should be discarded.
- Confirmation bias: Unexplainable customer behaviors can be ignored.
- Exportability bias: If it didn't work here, it won't work anywhere.
- Legacy bias: The way we've always done it must be best.
- First conclusion bias: The first explanation offered is usually the best or only choice.
- Personal bias: If I wouldn't buy it, the customer won't either.
- Counter your bias with good questions:
- If you were the customers CFO, how would you view this offering?
- What would we do differently If we had unlimited budget?
- What outside ideas could be adopted to this project?
- What else must be going on behind the scenes for this to be true.
Chapter 9: Implementing Lessons from Early Adopters
- Why should your customer buy from you and not anyone else?
- What does your key customer do and struggle with for ten hours every day?
- Avoid using these words in your pitch decks and sales messaging because everybody uses them and they look just like everybody else’s pitch (Leader, Leading, Best, Top, Unique, Great, Solution, Largest, Innovative, Innovator)
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