Book Review: The Challenger Sale

The foreword explains three historical breakthroughs that changed the sales profession. The book, The Challenger Sale by authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, delivers a convincing case for why its “norm challenging” concepts should be considered the fourth breakthrough. With considerable and credible research, this book proves beyond a doubt why the Challenger profile is the most effective of the five salespeople profiles rather than the Relationship Builders, which sales managers and trainers have extolled for decades. Published in 2011, this book still continues to flip conventional sales techniques upside down.

Why are we reading this book?

Businesses of every kind, for profit, nonprofit and even research, utilize some form of sales to achieve their success goals. The Challenger Sale is the story of “solution selling” that has come to dominate sales and marketing strategies for the past 20 years to achieve higher loyalty and greater growth. This book sold us on how the Challenger salesperson takes control of the sale and consistently delivers higher performance by focusing on customer needs and outcomes instead of explaining facts and features spelling business success.

Backstory:

It was early 2009 when the authors’ Corporate Executive Board (CEB) wanted to learn how companies could “sell their way through the worst economy in decades.” At that time, the typical sales professional’s approach was to ask plenty of time-consuming questions that caused “customer solutions fatigue.” When customers expected real problem-solving in place of buying reliable products, top-performing salespeople began using solution sales techniques. As deals became more complex and expensive, risk aversion increased and customers questioned if they’d see a return on their investment, average salespeople didn’t perform well.

Challenge:

The world of sales was rapidly changing. The pre-recession recipe was not going to work post-recession. Of the five sales profile types, four were struggling. In the toughest of economic times, companies were filing bankruptcy and the reliable sales techniques were producing minimal results at best. Except for one. CEB research found that even in the depths of the downturn, some sales reps still managed not to just hit their goals, but to exceed them. What were they doing differently? Could what they were doing be replicated? Which skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes mattered most for high performance?

Solution Steps:

The Challenger Selling Model consists of four principles. The authors claim that the Combination of Skills principle is what distinguishes the Challenger from the other four types of salespeople with the ability to:

Teach—offer customers unique perspectives on their business and communicate those perspectives with passion and precision to help customers compete more effectively.
Tailor—customize the message for different customers and different individuals within customer’s organization to deliver a teaching pitch that resonates and sticks with customer.
Take control—move customers out of their comfort zones by showing them their world in a different light with control, diplomacy, and empathy.

Summary:

Innovative sales techniques are often referred to as the latest “flavor of the month” sales pitch. The Challenger Sale goes beyond the mechanics of the techniques with a detailed roadmap for designing the strategic effort that leads to real, long-term change. It’s a business model, not just a sales concept, that can be effectively employed universally from IT to HR to finance, legal, and marketing strategies. Take the time to read this well-written content, that if applied, will have a bottom-line impact in more ways than you can imagine.