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chapter one give customers a lasting solution to their problems to ensure continued patronage in 2009 the world faced a massive economic decline it was chaos as businesses couldn't seem to make any progress as it was difficult putting together a sales team but even with the decline a few people were selling even more than ever this spurred the sales executive council to begin research for years multiple companies and a thousand sales people later there were glaring reasons why these people who managed to make sales even in decline stood out in companies with solution selling models star performers outperform core performers by almost 200 percent matthew dixon and brent adamson every b2b business to business sales rep in the world falls into one of five categories each category describes a particular set of skills that define their interaction with customers three categories reveal a clear winner as well as a clear loser when the results are compared but the results are hard to believe because the winning profile is least expected to win more research showed that the winning profile wasn't raking in more sales because of the bad economy but it did so irrespective of it these winning sales reps were called challengers how do they win every time keep reading to find out chapter 2 sales wraps are a representation of your business train them ingly the sales reps that made the most sales during the decline in the economy were not the most trained to survive in that situation they were the ones who were able to succeed in a model that placed a burden on both sales reps and customers to think and behave differently this model is often referred to as solution selling and has dominated the sales and marketing world traditional sales techniques no longer work because customers now seek more complex solutions the evolving world of solution selling indicates that a specific set of sales rep skills is necessary to make more sales solution selling generally describes the migration from a focus on transactional sales of individual products to a focus on consultative sales of a bundle of different products and services this method has been successful so far because it meets customers needs in a broader way that competitors cannot easily replicate as good as solution selling is it places a burden on both customer and sales rep this is because it often requires that the sales reps solve complex real-life problems and not just offer a product this leads to a lot of steps and a lot of questions asked back and forth in addition to this the customers are not willing to take risks so they demand that the sales reps share an equal amount of uncertainty as them they will also require that a sales rep get the agreement of all the members of their team and even bring in a third party to seek approval all these steps hamper a smooth path for solution selling sales reps put in a lot to make sure that a sale is successful many times considering the customer's needs out of theirs as a service provider you are saddled with the responsibility of adequately appreciating and training your sales reps so they can perform optimally chapter three sales reps have varying skills and you need to effectively combine them for your business success all sales reps do not perform at the same level your ability to recognize the star performers and the core performers and bring them all to the same level of excellence is a necessary skill the likelihood that relationship builders will achieve star status when selling complex solutions falls to nearly zero matthew dixon and brent adamson a survey of the attitudes and activities of thousands of frontline sales managers across 90 companies around the world showed three key information one there are five types of sales reps factor analysis done on the data showed that there are five types of sales reps the hard worker 21 of the sample they are dedicated to the job go the extra mile to see that they accomplish their goals the challenger 27 of the sample they have a deep understanding of the customer's business and are not afraid to share their ideas they are assertive and push customers to try new things the lone wolf 18 of the sample they are very confident in themselves and flout the rules to follow their instincts they get the job done the relationship builder 21 of the sample they're all about building strong personal and professional relationships and meeting the customer's needs the reactive problem solver 14 of the sample they are highly reliable and pay attention to details even though every sales rep at some point or the other does a few things from the different categories listed above they often fall into one major category to prevent bankruptcy your sales reps need to perform well enough to ensure customer satisfaction number two one clear winner and one clear loser this second finding shows that when these five profiles are compared to actual sales performance the challenger performed higher than the others and the relationship builder fell dramatically behind challengers can teach tailor and take control and this sets them apart from the other four profiles the challenger is focused on taking the customer out of their comfort zone while the relationship builder gets swept into it number three challengers are the solution selling rep not just the down economy rep in complex sales challengers dominate also more than 50 of all star performers fall into this category the only group that comes close are the lone wolves if you're trying to build a more value-based or solution-oriented approach you need a sales rep who not only challenges customers to be better but also understands what success means to everyone although you don't always need a challenger in your team for it to be successful with the right training a hard worker or even a lone wolf can do the job of getting more sales did you know that 75 of sales reps believe that procurement officers have more power while 75 of procurement officers believe that sales reps have more power chapter 4 the challenger takes control of the customer interaction he is the star player of every sales team the challenger selling model is based on the fact that with the right training coaching and sales tools most sales reps can learn how to take control of the customer conversation like the challenger it has been used in several industries and turned out to be a successful way of increasing profit being assertive does not mean being aggressive or abusive principles of the challenger selling model challengers are made not just born every sales rep can be trained to be a challenger all you need are the right training materials it is the combination of skills that matter it's the combination of the challenger attributes that sets challengers apart teaching without tailoring may come off as irrelevant and tailoring without teaching makes you sound like other suppliers challenging is about organizational capability not just rep skills the migration to the challenger selling model is not just about improving individual rep skills for the model to work the organizational capabilities have to develop as well building the challenger sales force is a journey not an overnight trip the challenger model demands changes both to organizational capabilities and individual rep behaviors and skills and this can take years of hard work with the way challengers teach customers new things that differentiate them from the competition tailor the teaching message and maintain control during a sale the customer is convinced more quickly this makes this model the most successful one did you know 87 of sales training content is forgotten by reps within 30 days chapter 5 your customers rely on you to save their time by giving them the necessary solutions it is not uncommon to find many sales reps asking a lot of probing questions in a bid to discover the client's needs but sometimes the client does not even know what they need rather than asking them what they need the better sales technique is to tell customers what they need this is what challengers do they win not just by understanding their customers world but by knowing their customers world better than the customers know it themselves research shows that customer loyalty isn't won in product development centers in advertisements or on toll-free helplines instead it is won during the sales call it is the result of the conversation sales reps are having with customers every single day over half of customers loyalty depends on how you sell and not what you sell the common denominator for insight is a common set of needs to win a customer over you need to teach them new things but for your teaching efforts to lead to more business for you they have to meet the following criteria it must lead to your unique strengths for your teaching to generate profit you have to ensure that you can solve your customers problems and also that you possess the necessary skills too it must challenge a customer's assumptions whatever you teach your customers has to teach them something it has to challenge their assumptions and speak directly to their world in ways they haven't thought of or fully appreciated before it must catalyze action it is not enough to change the way customers think you have to get them to act but before they buy anything customers first need to understand what's in it for them to fix their problem you do this by helping customers calculate the costs they're incurring or the returns they're forgoing by failing to act on the opportunity you've just taught them it must scale across customers you need a small number of powerful insights that are applicable across the broadest possible set of customers insight is all about teaching customers new ways of thinking pushing them to rethink their current perspectives and approaches and that's exactly what challengers do they teach customers new perspectives in a compelling and assertive enough manner to ensure that the message drives action chapter 6 if you can appeal to your customers emotions then you can convince them to use your services a winning teaching pitch not only contains the technical knowledge that you offer the client but it also has an emotional component you need to tell a story that has a bit of suspense and surprises the best companies don't win through the quality of the products they sell but through the quality of the insight they deliver as part of the sale itself matthew dixon and brent adamson your customers don't want to see the charts and tables alone they also want you to convince them that they are not wasting their money here are six steps to giving a world-class teaching pitch after initial formalities assess your customers problems yourself rather than asking them then address the problem directly doing this builds your credibility introduce a new perspective that connects those challenges to bigger problems they haven't thought about present data that shows how you can increase their returns on investment and why the solution you're offering is going to save them from other losses or bad investments ensure you connect your solutions to their skills connect emotionally to each customer through your storytelling skills it's all about the solution and not you the supplier convince them of the solution that you offer and make sure they're convinced that it is the best describe how you will bring the solution to life the steps involved and the necessary things you will have to do it is essential that you thoroughly review any materials you provide any company with this is an important step that you need to teach all your challenger reps a well-researched solution always trumps a hurriedly made one chapter 7 every customer is unique and you need to understand this to be able to satisfy them all from a customer loyalty survey it was found that decision makers people who sign the agreement think of themselves as buying from organizations not from individuals this means that decision makers care about sales reps that are easily accessible and willing to collaborate with other suppliers when necessary it also means that customers will repay you with loyalty when you teach them something they value not just sell them something they need you should always remember that it's not just the products and services you sell it's the insight you deliver as part of the sales interaction itself one of the biggest obstacles that core reps struggle with when it comes to dealing with more than one board member is how to tailor the sales message to the satisfaction of these different stakeholders an organization designed to generate insights is a customer-centered organization an excellent way to think about how to tailor messages is to start at the broadest level the customers industry and to work your way down to the person's company the person's role and finally to that person there are some significant benefits to approaching a customer's needs in this way first customers outcomes are predictable especially in terms of a customer's role second these outcomes remain fairly stable across time and people lastly the approach is scalable once you've learned it you can apply the same concept again across a company's organizational chart chapter 8 a challenger always controls the sale from the beginning to the end challenger reps are naturally more comfortable talking about money and they're able to move the customer away from their comfort zone they are confident because they trust the value that they offer the customer while you can't really change human behavior you can give reps some practical tools for making sure that they don't prematurely give in when it comes to intense value discussions this is where the dupont practice comes in big ideas mean that we are asking our own companies and our customers to take a big risk in adopting our idea neil rackham dupont provides a wide range of innovative products and services sold across many industries the key to the dupont practice of equipping sales reps to take control of a sale is to encourage them to have a plan they do this by providing reps with a simple template for pre-negotiation planning based on bay group international situational sales negotiation ssn methodology this tool is all about ensuring that reps have the skills and tools to negotiate effectively rather than give in when the customer asks for concessions the idea is to record all of the areas in which they have relative strengths with the customer and all the ways that they have relative weaknesses the next step is to find out what difficult questions and objections the rep is likely to get from the customer and how they plan to respond it is always better to prepare answers in advance rather than be forced to come up with a response this step is followed by an examination of the specific things the supplier is looking for in the deal finally the ssn template requires sales reps to analyze possible concessions to offer to the customer and concessions to request from the customer always shift the discussion from price to value your customer will pay for the value they believe in no matter how much it costs there's also the four-step framework that is tailored to reduce the sales ceo's tendency to give in too soon to the customer the steps are acknowledge and defer in response to a customer's protest about the price of an item you could say i understand that price is something that we need to address but before we do i'd like to take a moment to make sure i completely understand your needs so we can make sure we're doing everything we can to make this deal as valuable as possible for you is that all right deepen and broaden this uncovers the client's underlying needs for instance what are you looking to achieve with a 30 reduction in price explore and compare this tactic compares and evaluates the additional needs identified during the conversation for instance what if we increase the warranty would the price be more acceptable concede ing to an already made plan sales reps need to be taught the importance of clarity of direction over quick closure and how to create value within the sales process when combined these skills can help them take control of any negotiation chapter 9 managers are an indispensable connection between the sales reps and the other parts of the business if you don't get frontline sales managers on board it becomes difficult for your business to succeed the frontline sales manager in any sales organization is the fundamental link between strategy and execution great sales reps don't necessarily make great managers this is because you not only need to be good at sales to be a great sales manager you also need to excel at management but then a sales rep does not have to be a manager you can hire different people to take on these roles managers have to be able to encourage challengers and not stand in their way research shows that the attributes contributing to manager excellence fall into three high level categories selling coaching and owning the challenger selling model is a commercial transformation getting it right requires significant changes to the way sales and marketing interact to the kind of tools you arm your reps with the sort of wraps you recruit the kind of training you deliver to them and the ways managers interact with them companies shouldn't shoot for 100 adoption the best companies shoot for 80 adoption of any change whether a new skill tool processor system matthew dixon and brent adamson it's easy for executives to slip into the trap of assuming that all their high performers are by definition challengers there are lots of things that all high performers do but only some of them get there by teaching tailoring and taking control also not every challenger is a top performer they could be inactive it makes sense for companies to start recruiting challengers to replace any reps who naturally turn over within the organization or to fill new positions made available as the organization grows conclusion what customers want more than anything else is for their suppliers to deliver insight to them new ideas for saving money and making money that they had not previously considered for your business to thrive you need to carefully find your niche and offer value to your clients choose to be a challenger teaching tailoring solutions and taking control of every situation it's hard to predict what skills will be in vogue in five or ten years in large companies but we would argue that it's unlikely that business customers will lower the bar anytime soon matthew dixon and brent adamson many things can go wrong but with your skills that you've honed each day you can anticipate these things and nip them in the bud in this ever changing world you need to be someone who doesn't back down from a complex situation be the sales rep who goes the extra mile be a challenger try this incorporate a series of training sessions into your business plans also encourage a relationship between your managers and sales reps