Oct
Research shows that the most effective sales reps have more than a good relationship with their clients. They actually challenge them to think broadly about how to solve their business problems. These “Challenger Sale” reps teach the client something new, tailor a solution to uniquely fit the client’s need, and control the sales conversation, unafraid to talk about features and price.
“We have a handful of Challengers in our company, and almost all of them seem to have a standing time slot on our (Chief Strategy Officer’s) calendar to discuss what they’re seeing and hearing in the market. The CSO loves it. They’re constantly bringing fresh insight to the table that forces him to constantly check his strategy against reality.”
- keep buying from this particular supplier;
- buy even more from this supplier going forward;
- advocate on this supplier’s behalf across your organization?
Challenger sales people get deeper into their clients’ business. They start by understanding the issues rocking the client, its industry, and its decision-makers. What gives them a competitive edge? What blunts their edge? What is happening on the leading edge of its industry?
“While the Challenger is focused on customer value, the Relationship Builder is more concerned with customer convenience. The Challenger rep wins by maintaining a certain amount of constructive tension across the sale.”
“The act of delivering a teaching pitch is a skill, to be sure, but the content of a teaching pitch—the business issues you teach customers to value, the idea around which you reframe how the customer thinks about their business—must be scalable and repeatable, and as such, must be created by the organization (in most organizations, this is the job of marketing) … Organizations can leverage business intelligence and research assets to help developing Challengers better tailor their messages to each customer’s industry and company context. The organization also bears the responsibility for identifying which teaching messages will resonate with which stakeholders.”

- Tagged: business, communication, content, dialogue, marketing, organization, PR, research
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