SDM supports all sales training models, especially the ones that predominately service small to mid-sized companies. There are literally hundreds of flavors, some with long, often cumbersome programs that span over weeks or months, some that deliver for 10 Sales Reps to 100’s, and some that focus only onone skill set. We think the Challenger™ Sale in concept is very effective but not necessary new (SDM authors used provocation style of selling over the last two decades). However, the Challenger Sale is well suited for today’s rapid-fire markets especially when selling high-tech including software.
In current markets, the majority of new hires in sales are required to learn “The Challenger™ Sale.”
It is an easy book to read and is very clear on how to adopt its founding principles. It is based on amajor study conducted on improving selling results.
One problem; when you’re learning a new way how to sell when you are a new hire with a monster quota right in front of you, it’s hard to find the time to read and comprehend something you have to use predominately on your own(free “gifts of Knowledge”).To help this along, we have laid out in a very easy to understand the Challenger™ Selling Approach.
Their research proved that practically any Business to Business sales rep was placed into five uniquecategories. These categories lay out the skills and traits Reps possess when working with prospects and customers. They point out a way of engaging where some are more effective and all are compared to the Challenger. Interesting enough, the Challenger™ Salesmethod approachseemed to perform better when used by consistently successful Reps. When used by typicalsales reps, it did not deliver any better than the other four groupings.
- The Hard Worker – self-motivated, tenacious, enjoys customer feedback.
- The Lone Wolf – follows its gut, confident, will deliver results but does not manage well.
- The Relationship Builder – typical consultative Rep, builds internal champions, and enjoys the relationship. The lowest performing category.
- The Problem Solver – detailed, reliable to all customer delegates, works to resolve the problems.
- The Challenger – sees the world differently, loves to debate and push the customer, deep understanding of the customers’ business. More than 50% of rock stars use Challenger.
Whichever sales discipline you use, there is a place for Challenger to help augment it. The tenets of challenging the customer is not new and sales rock stars even in the 70’s, 80, 90’s and beyond sold their deep expertise in their field challenged the thought process of the customer to see it with their viewpoint. They were, are, very successful and the Challenger™Sale is a great way for beginners to senior Reps to move into an enhanced way of winning the business.
What do you do next? Send us an email and we’ll arrange for you to speak with Ed to chat about how these learnings can help build more sales just for your business.
*The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation,
Nov. 10, 2011,by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson