The Challenger Sale – An important technique that salespeople in this era must know and understand, especially being a salesperson amidst various changes and uncertainties, whether it is customer behavior that changes needs quickly or competition that is getting more and more intense every day.
In this era where the economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are competing more intensely, business is like a survival show where whoever is good, whoever is smart, whoever is quick-witted, or whoever is lucky, that person will survive. Therefore, if you have good business tips and tricks, it is like having expensive items to help you pass the levels in this game further. Of course, you may become number one in your game.
Are you looking for a guaranteed technique to boost your company’s sales? Or are you looking for the right materials to train your sales team? Or are you curious to know how your customers perceive your business?
The Challenger Sale is written by Matthew Dixon, Executive Director of The Corporate Executive Board Company, the world’s leading consulting firm. The book was co-written with Brent Adamson, the company’s Managing Director and Chief Storyteller. After its publication, the book became an instant hit, with talk of the town saying that it was the only textbook to teach you how to run a business with purpose and the sales strategies used by leading organizations around the world. If you want to be a successful salesperson, you’ve chosen the right book.
“In a world of rapidly changing customer buying behavior and rapidly varying selling capabilities, your sales approach must evolve or you will be left behind.”
Today’s economy changes as fast as the wind blows. Businesses that are still in the market need to have new techniques that are ready to adapt to the current situation at all times. In 2009, the world faced the Great Recession. Business operations in the market were full of chaos. Therefore, sales of all companies were undoubtedly down. But while many companies had sales down, there were still some companies that were able to sell more than ever. This prompted research.
“The star actors outperformed the main actors by almost 200%.”
This type of selling will clearly reveal the winners of the work. We will see who is the winning salesperson. Because in this type of work, we will see the results clearly. But the results become hard to believe when looking at the work process. From research, it is found that business from companies with excellent profiles do not make them winners. On the contrary, the winners in this market are just challengers or sometimes they may be new challengers in the market.
“Traditional sales techniques may no longer work.”
The world of sales is an evolving business model. Data suggests that a specific skill set is needed for sales reps to increase sales. Traditionally focused on selling individual products, sales are now focused on consultative selling of a range of products and services. This approach has proven successful because it addresses a broad range of customer needs that competitors cannot easily replicate. Consultative selling is also in high demand because customers often buy products to solve complex real-world problems. They don’t just want the product, they want how to use it to solve their problems.
“Sales reps have a wide range of skills. You need to combine them effectively to succeed in your business.”
Not all sales reps work in the same way or system, so it’s hard to find a star sales rep and a main performer sales rep. What you need to do is try to recognize their diverse skills and bring them all to the same level of excellence.
A survey of the attitudes and activities of thousands of front-line sales managers at 90 companies around the world revealed the following key findings:
Analysis of various factors from the data found that there were 5 types of sales representatives:
- Hard workers (21% of the sample) are dedicated to their work and try their best to achieve their goals.
- Challengers (27% of sample) They have a deep understanding of their clients’ businesses and are not afraid to share their ideas. They are assertive and push their clients to try new things.
- Lone wolves (18% of the sample) are very self-confident and disdainful of rules, always acting on instinct.
- Relationship builders (21% of the sample) They are all busy building strong personal, professional relationships and meeting client needs.
- Problem solvers (14% of the sample) were highly reliable and attentive to detail.
While many sales reps don’t have just one of these five skill types – some may be creative, encourage customers to try new things, while others love to build rapport with the people around them – these five types are defined by the skills they possess most.
One clear winner and one clear loser : These two findings show that when these behaviors were compared to actual sales performance, Challengers outperformed everyone else and Relationship Builders lagged far behind. Challengers can be taught, tweaked and controlled. This sets them apart from the other four types. Challengers are focused on getting the customer out of the box and looking for new, more creative avenues.
Challengers are problem-solving sales reps, not just recession reps: In complex sales, challengers dominate the other categories. In addition, more than 50% of all sales reps, the only group that comes closest to being a challenger, are lone wolves.
“If you’re trying to create a more value-based or solution-focused approach, you need sales reps who not only challenge customers to be better, but also understand what success means to everyone.”
The “Challenger” Sales Principle
- There is not just one challenger, any sales rep can be trained to become a challenger, all you need is the right training materials for them.
- The challenge is about organizational capabilities, not just agent skills. Changing the sales model of the challenger is not just about developing individual agent skills, but also about developing the working style and capabilities of the organization.
- Building a challenger sales team is a long-term journey, not an overnight one. A challenger model requires changes in organizational capabilities, individual rep behaviors and skills, and can take years of hard work.
By teaching customers new things that set them apart from the competition, customizing the teaching message and maintaining control during the sale, customers will be more likely to buy in faster, enabling them to be more successful.
“Did you know that 87% of sales training content is forgotten within thirty days?”
The information you need is a set of common customer needs. To win customers, you need to teach them new things and to be a successful salesperson, you need to meet the following criteria.
4 steps to winning over customers
- Find Your Strengths To be a profitable coach, you need to make sure you can solve your clients’ problems and that you have the skills to do so.
- You have to challenge your customers’ needs. When you have to teach or solve a problem for your customers, you have to challenge their preconceptions and access their world in a way they have never thought of or fully appreciated before. When you meet their needs, you will succeed in this sale.
- It needs to inspire action. Changing the way people think is not enough – you need to get them to take action. But before they buy anything, they need to understand why it will solve their problem. You can do this by helping them calculate the cost or the benefit they will get. They will abandon their principles and bend to your will.
- You need to adapt to your customers. You need a small set of powerful insights that apply to the broadest possible audience so that you have a solid customer base. So you need to know how to adapt to them and find the best way or method for them.
A successful presentation isn’t just about technical knowledge, it’s also about the emotional component. You need to tell a story with a little bit of suspense and surprise. Here are 6 steps to a world-class presentation that works.
6 steps to presenting your work to the world
- After the initial opening, assess the customer’s problem yourself instead of asking them to, and then solve the problem directly. Doing this will build your credibility.
- It offers a new perspective that connects those challenges to bigger problems they haven’t even thought about yet.
- Present data that demonstrates how you can increase their return on investment and why your proposed solution can save them from further losses or bad investments.
- Make sure you relate your solution to their problem, and don’t forget to connect emotionally with each customer through your storytelling skills.
- Convince them of the solution you are proposing and convince them that it is the best way forward.
- Explain how you will bring the solution to life? The steps involved and what you need to do.
“Every customer is unique, and you have to understand this to be able to cater to them all.”
Your customers will reward you with loyalty when you teach them something they value, not just sell them something they need. You should always remember that it is not just the products or services you sell, but the information or methods that are valuable to them and combined with the presentation as part of the sales interaction. Smart sales reps will have a way to tailor their sales message to delight their customers and ultimately win their hearts.
“The big idea is that we’re asking our companies and our customers to take big risks in implementing our ideas.”
Challengers often control the sale from start to finish. They are confident because they believe in the value they are offering their customers. While we can’t really change people’s behavior, we can give them practical tools to make sure they don’t give up prematurely. Challengers are comfortable talking about money and the value of what they are offering and are able to pull customers out of their comfort zones.
There is also a 4-step framework designed to reduce sales reps’ tendency to over-provide customers, as follows:
- Acknowledge and defer: In response to a customer’s protest about the price of an item, you can say, “I understand that the price still doesn’t seem right, but before we do that, I’d like to take a moment to make sure I truly understand your needs.”
- Go deeper and broader: Uncover your customers’ basic needs. For example, “What would you want if you got 30% off?”
- Explore and compare: This method compares and evaluates additional needs identified during the conversation. For example, “What if we added a more acceptable guarantee?”
- Stick to the plan: Sales reps need to be taught the importance of clarity of direction in closing sales quickly, and how to create real value within the sales process. Together, these skills will help them take control of the negotiation.
Conclusion
What your customers want more than anything is for the company they choose to give them insights, new ideas on how to save money and make money that they never thought of before. For your business to thrive, you need to carefully find your niche and offer value to your customers. Be a challenger, teach, customize solutions, and take control of every situation.
It’s hard to predict what skills will be popular at large companies in the next five or ten years. A lot of things can go wrong, but with the skills you hone each day, you can anticipate them and bring them into an ever-changing world. You need to be the person who doesn’t back down from a complex situation, the sales rep who goes above and beyond, the challenger.
“Always change the conversation from price to value. Your customers will pay for the value they believe in, no matter the price.”
