What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders you'd say it's
fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build
relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing
reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon Brent
Adamson and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills behaviors
knowledge and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be
the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. Based on an exhaustive study of
thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies The Challenger Sale argues
that classic relationship building is a losing approach especially when it comes to selling
complex large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales
rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles and while all of these types of reps
can deliver average sales performance only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high
performance. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their
company and products Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can
save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and
objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection they are
assertive pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. The things that make
Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand
how to identify the Challengers in your organization you can model their approach and embed it
throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep once
equipped with the right tools can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a
distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and ultimately
greater growth.
