The Challnger Sale Study Guide

Sells in US for

$28.95

The gap in trasactional sales between average and stars

59% (200% in solutions selling)

Dupont has demystified the process of helping reps take control in the conversation by boiling it down to a four-step framework based on Bay Group International's methodology.(This is a road map for maintaining constructive tension within a negotiation)

1. Acknowledge and Defer 2. Deepen and Broaden 3. Explore and Compare 4. Concede According to Plan

4 principles that underlie the challenger model

1. Challengers are made, not just born 2. It's the combination of skills that matters 3. Challenging is about organizational capability, not just rep skills 4. Building the Challenger Sales Force is a journey, not an overnight trip

3 sales brekathroughs

1. Hunter-farmer model (producers sold and collectors collected premiums) 2. July 1925 E.K. Strong wrote "The Psychology of Selling" and taught selling could be learned.Introduced selling sales techniques such as benefits, features, objection handling, closing and questioning. Gave rise to sales training industry. 3. 1970s SPIN Selling "Consultative Selling Era". Larger complex sales were different than smaller sales. Rackham. 4. The Challenger Sale?

4 steps of commercial teaching choreography

1. Identify your unique benefits 2. Develop commercial insight that challenges customer's thinking 3. Package commercial insight in compelling messages that "lead to" 4. Equip reps to challenge customers

Commercial teaching has 4 key rules

1. Lead to your unique strengths 2. Challenge customer's assumptions 3. Catalyze action 4. Scale across customers

Three Misconceptions about taking control

1. Taking control is synonymous with negotiation They take control from the start 2. Reps take control regarding only matters of money 3. Reps will become too aggressive if we tell them to "take control"

4 trends in customer buying behavior

1. The rise of the consensus-based sale 2. Increased risk aversion (Supplier success measured by performance of customer's business and not suplier's product) 3. Greater demand for Customization 4. The Rise of Third Party Consultants

3 key findings from 6,000 person survey

1. There are 5 types of sales reps and certain characteristics clump together. Evenly distributed across sample population 2. One clear winner and one clear loser 3. Challengers are the solutions selling rep, not just the down economy rep.

The wideing gaps lead us to 3 conclusions

1. bear hug the stars 2. Moving from good to great helps 100% improvement 3. You must evolve or you will be left behind

In Taking Control of the Sale, a challenger's assertiveness takes two forms:

1. challengers are able to assert control over the discussion of pricing and money more generally 2. challengers are able to challenge customers thinking and pressure the customer's decision-making cycle

6 steps of a world-class teaching pitch

1.The Warmer "I understand your world and I'm not trying to waste your time" 2.The Reframe "boot camp theory" Shock customer 3. Rational Drowning Data and Charts time 4. Emotional Impact - Storytelling gets them part of problem 5. A New Way - what would a solution need to offer? 6. Your Solution - Why our product is the best pick

When was Challenger published?

2011

What percent of customer loyalty is attributed to outperforming competition on brand, product and service?

38% (customer satisfaction goes up, but does not differentiate brand as unique)

When it comes to customer loyalty, what percentage does the Sales Experience play? And what are some of its defining attributes?

53%, offers unique and valuable perspectives, helps me navigate alternatives, provides ongoing advice or consultation, helps me avoid potential landmines, educates me on new issues and outcomes, supplier is easy to buy from, and supplier has widespread support across my organization

What percent of star performers were relationship builders? Challengers?

7, 40

What percentage aspires to be solutions providers?

75%

How many companies participated in the Challenger research? How many years?

90 (About 6,000 people), 4 years

What was used to determine groupings?

An exploratory statistical technique called Factor Analysis

CEB stands for

Corporate Executive Board Company (aquired by Gartner. Human Resources strategic consulting)

Written by

Matthew Dixon (executive director) and Brent Adamson (managing director)

Intro written by

Neil Rackham (of SPIN selling)

Are the types mutually exclusive?

No, but there is a primary approach

The 4th breakthrough in sales

Nothing changed since 1970s for selling, but purchasing has changed. Ex: Supply Chain and strategic sourcing

6 attributes statistically significant in Challengers

Offers the customer unique perspectives Has strong two-way communication skills Knows the individual customer's value drivers Can identify economic drivers of the customer's business Is comfortable discussing money Can pressure the customer

Always has a different view of the world, understands the customer's business, loves to debate, pushes the customer

The Challenger (27%)

Question to build a pitch

What's currently costing our customers more money than they realize that only we can help fix?

What are those 5 buckets, or, selling styles?

The Hard Worker The Challenger The Relationship Builder The Lone Wolf The Reactive Problem Solver

Always willing to go the extra mile. doesnt give up easily and is interested in feedback and developemnt

The Hard Worker (21%)

Follows own instinct, self-assured, difficult to control

The Lone Wolf (18%) (Second most successful profile)

Reliably responds to internal and external stakeholder. ensures that all problems are solved, detail-oriented. Focus on post-sale follow up "A customer service rep in sales rep clothing"

The Reactive Problem Solver (14%)

Builds strong advocates in customer organization, Generous in giving time to help others, gets along with everyone

The Relationship Builder (21%)

What is the hardest part of commercial teaching?

Understanding and agreeing on what it is that your company does better than anyone else

Safe BOLD framework

a tool to ensure teaching pitches don't lose their edge. Must do 4 things: must be big, innovative, risky, and difficult

1100 customers said relationships is the result and not because of successful selling. The relationship and the purchasing decision have become

decoupled

All of the 44 attributes in the study focused on

demonstrated behaviors. (Not personality traits, but advice you can do with existing reps)

The world of solution selling is almost definitionally about a

disruptive sale

3 key insights highlighted in introduction

every b2b sales rep falls into one of five distinct profiles. There is a very clear winner and very clear loser. Sales leaders have placed their biggest bet on the one least likely to win. These reps winning are winning in any economy, because they've mastered a complex sale.

featured in The Warmer, rather than leading with open-ended questions about customer's needs, you lead with hypothesis of customer's needs, informed by your own experience and research

hypothesis-based selling

The ability to take control comes from two factors

more comfortable talking about money and they are able to push the customer along

Look over Figure 2.4

okay

Look over figure 5.1

okay

2 major burdens of solution selling

on the customer (time) and on the rep (Understand problems and needs. Expected to solves a problem) leading to solutions fatigue

2 concerns Rackham had with the Challenger Sale book

putting salespeople into five buckets (behavioral clusters) and the high-versus low performer trap (instead they compared with core/average performers)

SSN template stands for

situational sales negotiation

Complex sales model that places a huge burden on both reps and customers to think and behave differently

solution selling or solutions approach (the migration from transactional sales to a focus on broad-based consultative sales of bundles of products and services)

Tailoring is half individual, half organizational. The only component of the challenger model that can be truly a largely individual skill is

taking control

The central moment of the commercial teaching pitch

the reframe (it's the headline to catch your customer off guard with an unexpected viewpoint)

T or F: An effective salesforce is a more sustainable competitive advantage than a great product stream

true